Riverside Holiday Resort Urunga wins Self-Contained Accommodation category

The awards were announced at a gala event held at Luna Park in Sydney on Thursday night, and manager Rebecca Beaton and CEO Ken Conway were present to hear their resort named best in the state.

It’s the first time the Urunga resort has entered the awards and Rebecca said it was former winner Yvonne Wynen, from Lilypad Luxury Cabins at Hydes Creek, who had encouraged them to step up and apply.

“They won it three times in a row and they’re in the Hall of Fame now,” Rebecca said.

“I hadn’t even heard of the awards until she and Michael Grieve from council contacted me.”

Applications take a massive amount of work and involved producing a 68-page booklet full of photographs, policies, procedures, stats and strategic and operational plans, but Rebecca said they were well supported by local professionals in pulling it all together.

“Our photography’s from Gethin Coles and we worked with Sam from CornerPost Consulting – I sent 12,000 words over to her and she formatted it all and got the graphs in and made it perfect,” Rebecca said.

Riverside Holiday Resort is tucked below the golf club in Urunga, overlooking the river, and it has 32 self-contained units, quite a few of which are wheelchair accessible.

It’s only a short distance to pathways that lead to the boardwalk and Hungry Head.

“You can go all the way to the waves in a wheelchair from here,” Rebecca said.

With a hydrolift for the pool and two extra wheelchair-friendly units among the eight they plan to build soon, promoting the resort as suitable for guests with a disability is high on their agenda, Rebecca said.

With this in mind, they’ve nominated for a Ian J. Cooper Award for Access and Inclusion from Bellingen Shire Council. 

“That’s something that’s really important for us,” Rebecca said. “Accessible accommodation for tourism.”

The resort will also be representing NSW at the Australian Tourism awards next year.