By Celeste Mitchell – The Australian
May 05, 2023

Nestled between Bateman’s Bay and Narooma, this small NSW town is fast becoming a must visit.

It would be easy to miss Mossy Point on the NSW south coast. Blink and you could zip right by the sliver of a town as you cruise George Bass Drive on the way south from Batemans Bay. Cradled by the Tomaga River to the north and Candlagan Creek to the south, the hamlet sits along a coastline that has remained largely under the radar – unless you’re from Canberra.Its secret status might also be due to Google Maps’ failure to register some of its newer roads, as I realise on my drive to The Oaks Ranch. I end up on a gravel route, which quickly turns to dirt and ends with a locked gate. Mercifully, all is well after a call to reception and a shared moment with a kangaroo, watching as I lock the gate behind me.

I’ve come in on the old road, I’m told. “Wait until you see the main entrance,” the bubbly Jess tells me over the phone. I roll down the grand, tree-lined driveway, donkeys in a paddock to my right and golfers returning to their buggies on my left, as the Spanish Mission-style guesthouse comes into view.

“My boyfriend grew up in Moruya and used to come here for class trips and horse riding,” Jess tells me, pressing a welcome drink tinged with rosemary and lime into my hand. “It used to have purple walls and colourful bed sheets.”

Owners Lisa and Martin Cork saw the potential through the purple haze and worked with interior architects Partridge Daniels during the contemporary upgrade of 14 existing suites, reopening in September 2022. With its white stucco exterior, archways and cactuses-filled gardens, there’s more than a hint of Palm Springs retro. Zellige handmade tiles, relaxed furnishings and Cultiver linen and robes set a luxurious tone in the guestrooms, but it’s the warmth of the place that has me from the
turn of my heavy room key.

My pre-dinner coffee negroni, sipped by the magnesium pool, also helps to cinch the deal. I can see why general manager Josh Tyler, who grew up in nearby Malua Bay, is happy to be home. A Sliding Doors moment during Covid lockdowns saw him fly back from Bali, where he’d been executive chef at The Ungasan in Uluwatu. These days, he slips between the kitchen and tables of guests and
locals at the onsite restaurant, Arlo.

“There’s been such a great response from locals. I think there was room for something different,” he says, before recommending the Clyde River oysters, from just up the road. They are the highlight of a meal that stars tempura prawns atop nasturtium leaves from the kitchen garden, and soul-warming pumpkin agnolotti loaded with native pepper and chilli. With a masterplan that Tyler says is only about 10 per cent realised, the Corks are hoping to draw even more visitors to their Eurobodalla passion project.

There’s an upgrade to the Greg Norman- designed golf course on the way, along with more guestrooms and self-contained villas. But Mossy Point’s future is blossoming beyond the boundary of the 120ha property.

“It’s a black hole after Ulladulla – it’s like uncharted waters,” says staffer Meg the next morning in between making my coffee with local Guerrilla Roasters beans and drawing me a mud map of her favourite beaches. Having never been further south than Gerringong, I’m venturing into the great unknown.

A drizzly day stretches ahead as I pull up at the Mossy Point boat ramp, watching two kayakers paddle peacefully through the grey. A cute little boatshed sits on the water’s edge where Region X keeps locals caffeinated and loans kayaks to visitors keen to spot stingrays in the shallows.

A few hundred metres away, in the heritage-listed Old Mossy Point Shop, is something of an institution. Mossy On Pacific, known affectionately as “the Mossy”, is part cafe, part social hub. It’s slightly ramshackle and overwhelmingly homely, filled with books, magazines and works by local female artists. As Mossy Point has made it on to the map, owner Belinda Dorsett has embraced the
attention, expanding with two sister venues in recent years; one in Broulee, the other within the Eurobodalla Regional Botanic Garden in nearby Mogo.

I slowly loop the town’s handful of streets and cross the Candlagan Creek bridge. Staff at Broulee Brewhouse are setting up for the afternoon. The boutique brewery opened last year but already feels an integral part of the town’s fabric. I start to get the sense that although nature is the headliner here, these up-and-coming support acts are nipping at its heels, creating an irresistible show.

“This area is very much up and coming,” says Yanna Dascarolis, when I pop in to check out The Isla, a motel she and a group of friends have revived 15 minutes north in Batehaven. “There’s a lot of action happening down south in Narooma with (Merivale boss) Justin Hemmes buying up everything, and being in between the Mollymook-Ulladulla vibe and Narooma, it’s fun to be part of it.”

On my return, I spy an impressive structure taking shape on a property in Mogo. When it opens in October, Foxdog Distillery will not only offer its own gin and whisky in a purpose-built shed, but a cafe, tours and blend-your-own-gin classes. It’s a family venture that’s been in the works for the past four years, born out of brainstorming sessions about what the region was missing.

“There was just such a shortage of options for tourists to do. We wanted an experience for them that wasn’t just going to the beach and the wildlife park,” co owner Kellie Plenty tells me.

It’s not just about bringing people in, but keeping more of their own around. Having moved away for boarding school and work opportunities as a youngster, Kellie is excited about the growth in the region, which includes 155km of mountain bike trails being built in Mogo State Forest this year. “The more amazing businesses and growth we get in this town, hopefully it means we can keep our youth here,” the mother-of-three says. “It’s such a beautiful, beautiful place. We’re so lucky.”

Back at The Oaks Ranch, sitting beside one of the fire pits while kangaroos nibble the grass nearby, I couldn’t agree more.

Celeste Mitchell was a guest of The Oaks Ranch.

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By Winnie Stubbs 

A Spanish Mission-style, Palm Springs-inspired boutique hotel on a kangaroo-studded golf course in a quiet coastal corner of New South Wales isn’t an often-seen concept, but if The Oaks Ranch is anything to go by, it’s an idea that could catch on.

Down an (appropriately) oak tree-lined driveway in the quaint coastal village of Mossy Point, the recently renovated hotel is a new – and distinctly unique – addition to the south coast’s burgeoning hospitality landscape. While the trend of the renovated roadside motel is a welcome one, there’s something special about waking up to the sound of birdsong, walking barefoot to dinner across the lawn, and watching a family of kangaroos waking up to the day as you pull the curtains on far reaching views of uninterrupted green. This – along with the magnesium swimming pool, excellent on-site restaurant, and across-the-board attention to detail – is what sets The Oaks Ranch apart. 

While the fourteen-room establishment now has all of the designer hallmarks of a boutique hotel, its name derives from its former function: a working ranch and base for the stock people who tended the surrounding estate. Now, the resident animals on the property are more limited, with just a few horses and two rescue donkeys calling The Oaks Ranch home. Nods to its origins are also seen through the Spanish Mission style architecture which has been retained: whitewashed archways, exposed timber beams and a thick, stucco-clad exterior.

We visited for a one-night stay, and though it was short-lived, it left us feeling the way you’d hope to feel after a holiday: well-slept and well-fed and completely detached from reality.

It was late afternoon by the time we arrived, the sun already casting its buttery glow across the paddocks and bushland that form the views beyond the restaurant and pool deck. The pull of the view distracted us from checking in, and by the time we got back to the reception desk, two glasses were waiting for us: ice cold with a house-made lime infusion and garnished with rosemary picked from the garden. 

After dropping our bags in our room – one of fourteen, masterfully designed by interior architects Partridge Daniels, complete with a double-showered bathroom, king-size bed and floor-to-ceiling windows occupying one wall – we made our way to the pool area for a swim and sunset cocktail. 

The decision to use magnesium rather than chlorine in the pool is a reflection of the team’s thoughtful approach, which is also made abundantly clear through everything from their genuinely warm hospitality to the immaculate presentation of the space: pillows perfectly plumped, magnesium-enriched towels folded neatly on the sun loungers. As always, it’s the little things: the Leif bath products filled to the top, the Cultiver bathrobes, the Maison Balzac glassware and the complimentary minibar stocked with fair trade chocolate (Tony’s Chocolonely’s finest). But there’s also an undeniable energy to the place: an established dynamic that’s often absent from new hotels.

“I think it’s because the owners care so much: they live in Palm Beach, but they’re here all the time, and it’s an idea they’ve been working on for years,” Josh Tyler, the hotel’s General Manager, tells us over breakfast.

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August 02, 2023 by Pippa Duffy

After extensive renovations, completed just last year by architects and interior designers, Partridge Daniels, The Oaks Ranch has reopened with attention to every detail, and an instant sense of escape. From the impeccable grounds, to the private cabanas by the pool and exclusive fire pits lining the hillside, there’s a Desert Modernism aesthetic about the place as you travel down the 400-metre long tree-lined, dirt-gravel drive, spying cacti in multiple forms before reaching the arched entry of the main building. The only thing giving away the Australian location? Kangaroos lolling in paddocks by the dozen, the south coast at your doorstep and the warm welcome as the door is opened for you on arrival.

Originally a dairy farm before the current building was constructed and the property became an equestrian centre circa 1969, The Oaks Ranch is situated above the valley in Mossy Point and mere minutes from the coastline of the Pacific Ocean on the NSW South Coast. Spanning 120 hectares, The Oaks Ranch runs from the Tomaga River in Tomakin to Candlagan Creek on the northside. A four-and-half hour drive from Sydney or just over two hours from Canberra if you’re keen on a road trip. Otherwise it’s a quick 40-minute flight to Moruya airport (10 minutes away), from Sydney.

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