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Faraway Domes in rural NSW adds new accommodation

This remote regional gem in northwest NSW has increased its allure for roadtrippers.

Plunge pool at Faraway Domes in rural northern NSW.
Plunge pool at Faraway Domes in rural northern NSW.

In the absence of hassle-free overseas travel, Australians have embraced the long road trip with newfound enthusiasm. Tapping into high demand for regional accommodation are the Munsie family, who run a 3600ha mixed farming operation in NSW’s Warialda region, about 400km southwest of Brisbane.

In 2018, during the crippling drought, Jaime and Belinda Munsie launched Faraway Domes, installing a geodesic structure for two on their property as a way of future-proofing the business. With occupancy at 86 per cent, they’ve now built a second airconditioned dome replete with fire pit, king-size bed, ensuite, kitchenette, private plunge pool (pictured) and al fresco tub offering wide outback vistas with every bubble bath.

When not stargazing, relaxing on the deck or enjoying an in-dome massage or beauty treatment, guests can explore the region. Nearby activities include swimming at Macintyre Falls in Kwiambal National Park, fossicking for opalised and petrified wood, exploring Cranky Rock Nature Reserve with its natural waterhole and native birds, and learning about Goondiwindi’s renowned cotton industry.

From $485 a night, twin-share.

PENNY HUNTER

Inside one of the Faraway Domes in the NSW region of Warialda.
Inside one of the Faraway Domes in the NSW region of Warialda.

Snap decisions

All aboard for dream rides

Retro riding is just so, well, old school cool, this summer. Latest option to hit the customised hire car scene is journalist, blogger and “vintage lifestyle” specialist Katrina Holden’s That Pink Merc.

Sydney-based Holden has launched a chauffeured service aboard an immaculately restored 1975 “baby pink” Mercedes-Benz, complete with original interiors. The wheels and driver can be hired by the hour or on tailored half-day or day-long itineraries and there’s a range of flexible options that could include a picnic, sunset viewing, flowers, event or wedding ribbons, and personalised monogramming on the Merc’s rear window.

 In Melbourne, John Frostell’s D’luxe Classic Car Tours offers half or full day tours out of the Victorian capital, either on a prepared itinerary or bespoke basis, or as transport to special occasions such as weddings, aboard a 1956 or 1957 Chevrolet coupe.

His two retro steeds are both American Chevrolet Bel Air deluxe models. There’s a 1956 four-door, two-tone green sports sedan named Lois or a two-door 1957 model with racy lines known as Lucille.

Frostell says it’s all about nostalgia. “… the colours, the chrome, the ride, the visibility, the space, the white-wall tyres, and the gentle beat of those old-school V8 motors … moving you along the highways, laneways, avenues and streets of dreams”.

If Bollywood moves and grooves are more your speed, Sydney’s Bollywood Cars has a black and yellow 1954 Hindustan Ambassador, a squat vehicle model widely used as taxis across India, available for spins, including a joyous song and dance soundtrack, ornamented interior, stops for photo ops and ride-and-dine options with the popular Masala Theory restaurant in Surry Hills, where a seven-course menu rounds out the experience.

Across Australia, Dream Rides is a booking platform for chauffeured options aboard the likes of a 1966 Mustang convertible, a pimped-up Kombi or a classic Holden, and retro car owners are also invited to apply to join. Oh, happy days. Let’s go.

SUSAN KUROSAWA

That Pink Merc car hire.
That Pink Merc car hire.

Book club

A CARNIVAL OF SNACKERY

David Sedaris

Yay, 2022’s browsing is done and dusted. Here we have the literary equivalent of a box of assorted chocolates in the form of 556 pages to be dipped into, slowly savoured or greedily gorged. Your choice.

US humorist David Sedaris writes in short diary entries (hence the “snackery” reference) about life and what irks and engages him, but mainly the former, which is enormously appealing. This new compilation covers 2003-2020 so the temptation (to which I have briefly succumbed) is to go backwards and see how he handled the onset of Covid in NYC, including hearing that people had shunned Corona beer, afraid that “it’s somehow connected to the virus”. He and partner Hugh are holed up in their apartment but Sedaris does go out to clean the oven of his writer and actor sister Amy, which is the perfect gift “when you can’t think what to get someone”.

Then back to the beginning, detouring between England, Europe and tracts of his homeland (he and Hugh are men of many abodes), and being assailed by life’s inconsistencies and cultural differences and just the daft behaviour of many, if not most, people, and being addressed as Mr Sid Harris while inquiring about volunteering for a “befriending position” for the elderly. “Sid” declines “sensitivity training” and doesn’t get the job. Sedaris does score a lot of gigs speaking on stage, of course.

A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris.
A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris.

In Houston, Texas, a show host has problems reading his notes and announces in his introduction that Sedaris got his career start with the National Public Rodeo. That would be “radio”. In Munich, a reporter tells Sedaris about a German labour union pressing for new reforms about stores playing more than eight Christmas carols in a row. Apparently such music can “lead to mental health problems”. Nuggets of incidental information abound amid his dissertations on the macabre, the mundane and the profane, many of which are mildly shocking. Sedaris, in his early 60s, shows no sign of mellowing. He’s a civic-minded flaneur strolling about, assiduously picking up litter, but also swearing at annoying neighbours, acutely observing and talking to taxi drivers, and acquiring stories. Between book signings and fairs, he stays at a succession of “dismal Marriotts on the highway with a mini-fridge and a window overlooking a Hooters billboard”.

Funny, depressing, skewered with anxiety but somehow madly wonderful, just like the ups and downs of life itself.

SUSAN KUROSAWA

Eden to Atlantis catering company, Byron Bay.
Eden to Atlantis catering company, Byron Bay.

Spend it

A new provisioning service in Byron Shire on the NSW north coast comes with an irresistible lure for guests to arrive to a freshly stocked fridge “full of food, champagne and wine”.

Byron Bay local Suzanne Tobin has set up Eden to Atlantis so holidaymakers can start their stays without the hassles of shopping, traffic snarls, parking issues and last-minute decision-making. Tobin’s menu has options such as The Full Fridge and The Lot, covering everything from pre-prepared, homemade meals or grazing plates, all drinks and dietary requirements, to grocery deliveries and even beach equipment. She can arrange babysitters, restaurant bookings, guest chefs, catered picnics and airport transfers as part of an informal concierge service.

Eden to Atlantis works with property managers of holiday rentals and Airbnb hosts to gain prior access so orders are in place for guests on day one. Tobin likens the offering to the standard practice of provisioning international superyachts. A cruisy, carefree launch into summer.

SUSAN KUROSAWA

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/travel/faraway-domes-in-rural-nsw-adds-new-accommodation/news-story/4792bc4bd78f3746d4292283ba3d6ea7