Mount Jukes Eco Resort offers new glamping experience in Mackay
A yoga aficionado has developed a Balinese-inspired retreat with glamping tents and a half-moon shaped house that faces a ‘healing’ mountain. See the 70+ pictures.
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If you are feeling run down or want to experience the joys of the bush in style, a new retreat in the Mackay’s hinterland promises healing power through the presence of a giant rock.
Yoga aficionado David Deakin, who built The Mount Jukes Eco Resort from scratch, said the “energy” of the property — which holds glamping tents and a half-moon shaped house that face Mt Jukes — had to be experienced to be understood.
“I came here to grow my own food and live off the grid and now this whole place is unfolding,” he said.
“This amazing rock that is in front of me, it has this amazing energy.
“You can only experience it, you can’t explain it.
“You can only explain it by feeling it.
“People who have been here know.”
The tents are 10m by 5m and each is air-conditioned with an ensuite, kitchenette, front patio and cast-iron outdoor bath, which can be screened off.
Each tent cost about $75,000 to establish.
“Mackay has definitely not seen anything like it,” Mr Deakin said.
“It is going to be like staying at the Hilton in the bush.
“People want to come and have the bush experience but they want to do that in style.”
The property is off-the-grid for food, water and power.
A creek runs through the property and Mr Deakin said because it was a spring there was always water.
“The water is beautiful, amazing,” he said.
Mr Deakin said the tents would likely be ready in early 2023.
Along with the tents, Mr Deakin’s own house is open to visitors.
The house, made almost entirely out of cypress pine, holds five rooms that connect to a central “gathering place”, which holds the kitchen, lounge and laundry.
“It’s a way you can have privacy with your own individual room but at the same time still have a common area,” he said.
The five rooms are named for the “five elements” of nature – earth, water, air, ether and fire.
Mr Deakin designed the house himself and had it built on the Sunshine Coast before trucking it up to Mackay.
The property was a bare block of land when Mr Deakin bought it and he has spent four years transforming it.
“That’s all I have done for four years, this property,” he said.
Mr Deakin said Bali served as an inspiration for the retreat and Balinese touches inform the interior decoration, including door handles and stone basins sourced directly from the Hindu island.
“It is just a place that you will never understand until you stay here,” he said.
Mr Deakin said he was aiming for late September to open up the house to visitors.
“You will not want to leave,” he said.
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