Please note there are currently bushfires along the whole Eastern Coast of NSW in Australia including bushfires around Sydney.
Billabong Retreat is situated in the greater metropolitan area of Sydney called Hillshire near to a town called Rouse Hill. We are in a small pocket of bush only thirty metres to farmland and only eight hundred metres to large urban areas. At time of writing there are currently no bushfires in this part of Sydney and the nearest main fire is over sixty kilometres away near Mangrove Mountain. We have been told by the RFS that there is no risk to the area. If that were to change we would close the retreat and notify guests.
The whole of Eastern Australia is experiencing poor air quality due to the bushfires including the greater Sydney region. This changes day by day, hour by hour. It is sometimes better than Sydney CBD and sometimes worse. You can monitor this Air Quality Index (AQI) on the government website below – we are closest to the Rouse Hill monitoring station.
https://www.dpie.nsw.gov.au/air-quality/current-air-quality
The NSW government recommend certain actions depending on the AQI. There are no outdoor activities in the program at Billabong Retreat and all yoga takes place in an air conditioned room so your wellness program will not be affected. If the AQI level is hazardous we suggest guests stay inside as much as possible in one of our many air conditioned spaces.
It is up to each individual to determine their air quality requirements. We offer overnight guests the ability to reschedule with no penalty with fourteen days notice and for under fourteen days we offer the option for us to try and resell a room and if successful guests are offered an unlimited credit voucher. If we don’t manage to sell a room then a guest does not lose their deposit but gets offered a future stay with booking only available as standby / last minute.
Day retreat guests can reschedule with 72 hours notice with no penalty.
We recommend to all guests to take out travel insurance to cover in cases of unexpected eventualities and illness and will support any claim you need to make from your travel insurance company.