Chiltern Lodge, Old Bar

We arrived on the Saturday evening and did not leave again until Monday afternoon. That is the first thing worth knowing about Chiltern Lodge: in two nights nobody got back in a car. Taree Airport, the nearest official weather station, recorded a maximum of 37.7°C on the Saturday we drove up, 36.6°C on the Sunday and 33.4°C on the Monday — January 2019 went on to be Australia’s hottest month on record. Two families, seven people, two of the four cabins.

What we did with those two days was sit in the pool. The photographs are unambiguous about it. In the water not long after the first walk around the grounds, still in it three hours later, and back in it at a quarter to nine the next morning before anyone had eaten. There is a second pool beside the main one, very shallow and meant for small children, and the adults ended up sitting in that too.

On the Sunday morning a lace monitor came up a tree beside the outdoor kitchen. Head-up on the trunk, banded tail hanging straight down, claws splayed into the bark, entirely unbothered by the people underneath it. Lace monitors (Varanus varius) are the big goannas of this coast, second only to the perentie in size, and they hang about camp kitchens and picnic areas for the obvious reason. It is the one thing from the weekend that nobody had to organise.

The best building on the property is the outdoor kitchen, and we hardly used it. It is open to the bush on every side, with long timber tables and bench seats under one roof, built for a group to eat together. At 37 degrees it was the last place anyone wanted to stand. So the evening went the other way instead — everyone in one cabin, cooking and talking, with the good room standing empty fifty metres away. That is the honest shape of the trip, and it is worth saying because the building is not the problem; the week we picked was.

There is more there than a pool. A games room with a pool table and table tennis, a lounge with a piano and long dining tables, pedal karts left out on the grass, an old dinghy set into the ground and planted out as a garden bed, a picnic shelter under the gums. A kangaroo came through the grounds on the Monday morning and stayed about thirteen seconds. All of it sits in dry open eucalypt forest that runs right to the edge of the mown clearing.

Would we go back? The lodge has been sold, so the question is academic — but the answer is the useful part. We would go back with four families rather than two, book all four cottages, and cook in that outdoor kitchen. The place was built for a bigger group than the one we brought, and we spent the weekend in the water partly because the weather gave us no choice and partly because there were only seven of us to fill it.

What is not here. The practical detail — what it slept, what it cost, what you had to bring — we did not write down at the time, and with the lodge sold there is nobody left to check it with. So this is the account of one weekend rather than a guide to a place you can book.

• Old Bar Beach and the surf clubFive minutes from where the lodge was.The Taree Old Bar club patrols the beach on weekends and public holidays only, to Monday 26 April 2027. An Australia Day weekend falls inside that; a midweek visit in term time will not have flags.The beach backs onto Manning Entrance State Park and is a known surfing and kiteboarding beach.MidCoast Council issues 4WD beach permits, though we could not verify the cost.Patrol seasons and hours change — Surf Life Saving Australia’s Beachsafe has the current position for every Australian beach.Free
• Saltwater National Park and the Saltwater Aboriginal PlaceTen to fifteen minutes south.The picnic area is the practical destination: free gas barbecues, sheltered tables, flat grass under rainforest right beside the beach, and no drinking water on site.This is a living Aboriginal cultural landscape — a seasonal camping place for Biripi and Worimi people, jointly managed since a 2008 agreement between National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the Saltwater Tribal Council.The Five Islands track passes scarred trees, middens and fish traps.That track is flat but NPWS grades it hard, so with young children the picnic area and beach are the better bet.Free
• Khappinghat National ParkThe bush the lodge backed onto.A small park, just over two thousand hectares, gazetted in 2016 and deliberately undeveloped — no visitor centre, no formed picnic ground, no campground.The draw is Khappinghat Creek, a naturally opening and closing estuary you can paddle a canoe through mangroves and wetland on, reached from the Saltwater side.Check the alerts before going: feral animal control and culvert works have both closed sections during 2026.Free
• Wingham Brush and the flying-foxesAbout thirty minutes inland, and the unusual one.A remnant of subtropical lowland rainforest on the Manning holding the only continuously occupied maternity roost of the vulnerable grey-headed flying-fox between Bellingen and the Hunter — over two hundred thousand animals in the warmer months.Go at sunset, when the colony leaves to feed and skims the river to drink.Sections of the boardwalk have been closed for repairs since the May 2025 flood destroyed footings, so check the alerts page first.The Wingham Farmers Market runs the first Saturday of the month from 8.Free
• Black Head Ocean Baths and beachAbout twenty-five to thirty minutes south.A built 30 m ocean pool with a separate children’s area — one of only two ocean baths on the whole Barrington Coast — in a headland reserve with Norfolk Island pines, picnic areas and barbecues.The beach is patrolled through the season, October to April, with paid lifeguards in school holidays and volunteers at weekends.Above the surf club there is a four-metre whale watching platform reached through littoral rainforest.Patrol seasons and hours change — Surf Life Saving Australia’s Beachsafe has the current position for every Australian beach.Free
• Taree — Queen Elizabeth Park and the poolAbout twenty minutes.Queen Elizabeth Park on River Street has a fully fenced playground, picnic shelters, barbecues, public jetties and pontoons, and a riverside stage that hosts free live music.Five minutes away, the Manning Aquatic Leisure Centre has indoor and outdoor pools, a water playground, spa and steam room.One caveat: the playground was flood-damaged and replacement funding was announced — the council page still lists it, but we could not confirm the current build.Park free · pool adult $8.70, child $7, family $27
• The Artisan Farmer, NabiacAbout thirty-five to forty minutes south on the highway.A working farm with a cafe, bakery and deli selling its own wagyu beef and honey, open daily 7 to 4, with a playground and outdoor seating.Card only, no cash.One thing to set expectations: despite being a farm there are no animals to pat.No entry fee
• Crowdy Bay National ParkThe southern end at Crowdy Head is about forty-five minutes via Harrington; Diamond Head itself is closer to an hour and a quarter and is a day trip rather than an outing.Diamond Head Beach, Kylies Beach, the Diamond Head Loop and Mermaid Lookout, koalas, and the historic Kylies Hut.NPWS advises reaching Diamond Head from the northern entry via Dunbogan and Crowdy Gap from the southern entry via Harrington.Fire pits have been removed from Crowdy Gap campground — bring a portable brazier.$8 per vehicle per day
• Ellenborough FallsBe honest about the drive — it is about an hour and a quarter from Old Bar, not forty-five minutes, and the last stretch is hinterland road.At two hundred metres it is the tallest single-drop waterfall in NSW.Two lookouts, one beside the car park and one a short easy walk closer to the edge, plus a kiosk, barbecue, picnic area and toilet.The 641-step staircase to the base is the well-known feature, and no primary source confirms it is open today — ring 1800 802 692 first.With young children the top lookouts are the sensible choice regardless.Free

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