Lisa McDonough and a friend were travelling through outback Queensland when they saw a sign in Julia Creek for artesian baths.
The baths were booked a fortnight in advance but, by chance, there had been a cancellation so she and her friend grabbed the slot, enjoying a relaxing soak as the sun set.
Ms McDonough’s thoughts turned to home in Kin Kin and the spring water that filters through the rolling hills of the area.
“I said, I’m going to do this at Kin Kin,” she said.
Four years later, she has.
Kin Kin Spring Bathhouses, set on 40 hectares of hillside grazing land, opened on Tuesday.
The latest addition to Kin Kin’s quietly growing visitor offering comprises two bathhouses, each with twin, handmade concrete baths, opening on to a vista of paddocks and sky.
The baths are fed by natural spring water, pumped by a solar pump 600m uphill to the bathhouses, where it is heated with a gas hot water system as needed.
Guests will be driven in an all-terrain buggy to the bathhouses where their baths will be drawn for them.
They will be able to choose to bathe in the natural spring water or to have Epsom salts or aromatic oils added to their baths.
Baths will be offered in five sessions a day, starting with early morning and finishing at sunset.
A two-hour bath, with a complementary drink of water, sparkling water or coconut water, costs $129 but Ms McDonough emphasised that it was not just a bath but an experience.
“They get a bit of a look around the farm on the ride up. They can look out at the animals,” she said.
“At night, you can turn off the lights and just have a couple of little candles and look out at the stars and it’s like they’re coming in.”
The rustic bathhouses were built by Ms McDonough’s builder husband using offcuts and recycled materials.
“This is all recycled, timber taken back. I didn’t want new materials. That wasn’t the look I was after,” Ms McDonough said.
The baths were made by a Kin Kin local.
“I just told him what I wanted and he made them. They hold the water temperature really well,” she said.
Ms McDonough said getting the baths to the bathhouses had not been easy.
“We had an excavator pick them up and holding each side to balance,” she said.
Ms McDonough said the bathhouses had been well received, with 30 to 40 bookings already in place.
They include a birthday booking from Hervey Bay but she is still waiting to see who her customers will be and if other special occasions will bring them to the bathhouses.
