There will come a moment, an hour or so into your stay at Pebbly Beach Escape, that you’ll begin planning how and when you can return. It might come when you’re in the ocean; diving beneath diamond-like waves, looking back at the bowl of the valley that holds the grounds in a quiet, almost motionless haze, or when you’re sitting on the deck with a glass of wine, watching kangaroos graze lazily on the lawns. It’s safe to assume that this was the same thought that occurred to Ursula Schwallbach, who founded the retreat back in the 1940s.
We were told Ursulas’s story by Colin Ballie, the manager of Pebbly Beach Escape whose love for the site and its story shines through immediately. She’d stumbled upon what was then the site of an abandoned timber yard, and fell in love at once – securing a one hundred year lease on the land the moment she returned to Sydney. Ursula and her entourage built the first cabin on the grounds back in 1946, and set up tents throughout the grounds. What they offered was akin to what we now know as glamping: hosting guests in canvas tents and feeding them with fresh fish cooked over open flames.
“They set up tents to see if people from Sydney would come, and they did,” Colin explains.
And – almost eighty years on – they still do.
We arrived on Friday afternoon, and were greeted by Colin and the current owner of Pebbly Beach, who may just be the most bright-eyed, joyful man I have ever met.
Adam bought the property in 2018, refurbishing the five heritage-listed cabins to a ridiculously beautiful (but not overdone) standard, and restructuring the grounds to remove all (but one) non native plants. The result is a perfectly tasteful, unpretentious haven: everything you’d want from a luxury hotel (stylishly minimalist rooms fitted out with designer toiletries, coffee machines, fluffy towels and expensive glassware) in a space that feels almost accidentally beautiful. The lawns are tended but not manicured, the cabins are chic but not excessive, and centre stage is given to the Australiana landscape that plays out through the windows.
Though he usually lives in Amsterdam, Adam and his family spent lockdown in the cabin we were calling home for the weekend. They worked their way through the cookbooks that line the kitchen shelves, and relics of their 2020 existence form a shell-studded whale sculpture that hangs above one of the beds. As a self-titled “unconventional” welcome gift, Adam arrived at our door with a plate of cheese and crackers – like everything at Pebbly Beach, unpretentious and perfect.
Hidden between towering gum trees in a remote corner of the Murramarang National Park, the three acre property folds down onto what is regarded as one of the most secluded beaches in NSW; accessible only via the coast path, or from the property itself.
With this as your base, you can explore all the hikes, beaches, wineries and provincial towns that call Shoalhaven home. Or you can pull into the driveway and never leave.
