Cathedral sound bath
60 min $95 · 90 min $135In the Cathedral of Sound
Lie on warm stone under a wool blanket while gongs, Tibetan bronze and quartz crystal bowls fill the sandstone hall. A small group, the lights low, nothing asked of you.
Frequency · Treatments · Water · Kitchen
Rejuvenation
Four things, used together and used often: sound in the Cathedral, hands-on ancient practice, mineral water from the spring, and food made to be eaten before a soak and slept on after.
01 · Frequency
The Cathedral of Sound
A sandstone hall over still water, built to hold a note. Gongs, Tibetan bronze and quartz crystal bowls, chant and breath. Each practice runs daily, and none is compulsory.
Sound bath
Gongs and bowlsLying still on warm stone while the great gong and a ring of bronze and quartz bowls are played around you. The aim is to arrive somewhere near sleep, and stay there a while.
Frequency meditation
A held toneA single sustained note, matched by the breath and then by attention. Taught from first principles, so it can be carried home.
Qi Gong
At first lightSlow standing movement on the cathedral deck, facing the valley and Lake Eildon, timed to the sun. Gentle enough for a first morning, deep enough for a tenth.
Tai Chi
The long formThe same movement principles taken further, practised on the deck above the valley, or inside the cathedral when the weather turns.
Breathwork
Before the waterPaced breathing taught before the first immersion, so the heat is met with a slow pulse rather than a quick one.
Yoga nidra
At duskGuided rest on the edge of sleep, held in the cathedral as the light goes amber.
Chant
OmThe syllable the place is named for, sustained by the room. No experience asked for, and no belief.
02 · Treatments
Sound and ancient practice
Every treatment works with vibration, touch or breath, and is taken alongside the water. Soak first, then the treatment, then back to the rockpool and sleep.
Sound and frequency響
Vibration you hear and vibration you feel, from the oldest instruments there are.
Private sound journey
60 min $210 · 90 min $290Cathedral or villa
One practitioner, one guest. Singing bowls are set on and around the body so the vibration is felt as much as heard, then gong and voice carry you into deep rest.
Tuning fork therapy
45 min $150In the villa
Weighted tuning forks placed along the body's points and lines, a quiet, precise practice drawn from acupressure. Taken clothed, on a warm table.
Ancient bodywork手
Hands-on traditions from Tibet, Japan and India, given in your villa after bathing.
Ku Nye, Tibetan massage
60 min $195 · 90 min $270In the villa
The traditional Tibetan bodywork: warm sesame oil worked deep into the muscle, kneading and pressure points, finished with a singing bowl on the back.
Shiatsu
60 min $195In the villa
Japanese finger pressure along the meridians, taken on a mat in loose clothing. Rhythmic, grounding and unhurried.
Abhyanga, warm oil ritual
75 min $240In the villa
The Ayurvedic oil massage, long flowing strokes with warmed herbal oil from scalp to feet, followed by a soak in the spring to carry it in.
Couples sound and massage
90 min $520Two practitioners
Side by side in your villa: a short bowl ceremony, then Ku Nye massage together, ending in the rockpool as the bowls fade.
Breath and water息
Movement, breath and the spring itself.
Private Qi Gong and breath
60 min $140Cathedral deck
One to one on the deck above the lake: Qi Gong forms, breathwork and a closing chant of Om. Movement that leaves you calmer than it found you.
Mineral clay and spring ritual
60 min $175In the villa
Warm mineral clay over the back and limbs, a hot compress, then a long soak in your rockpool while the clay is rinsed away by the spring.
Treatments support rest and relaxation and are not a substitute for medical care. Tell your practitioner about any condition, injury or pregnancy before you begin.
03 · Water
Mineral water at 38.6°C
Rain that fell on the Victorian Alps rises through granite beneath the site, carrying magnesium, bicarbonate, silica and calcium. It fills a rockpool at every villa, passes through once, and is let go.
Blood heat, and a little beyond
The long fall afterwards
Twenty minutes at 38.6°C lifts the body a degree or two past its own. The long descent that follows is what carries a person into sleep, and of everything hot water is said to do, that is the one it does reliably.
Salt
The warmth that follows you out
Salt is the second mineral here in quantity, and it is the reason the heat outstays the bath. A fine trace of it settles on the skin and slows the sweat from leaving, so the body lets its warmth go far more reluctantly than it otherwise would. Japan has a name for a water that behaves this way: netsu no yu 熱の湯, the hot water. Guests tend to describe the effect the following day rather than the same evening.
Bicarbonate
The water that leaves skin smooth
Bicarbonate loosens what the week has left on the skin, the way a very good soap does and without any of the tightness after. Japan calls a water carrying it bihada no yu 美肌の湯, beautiful skin water. The effect is not subtle. Most people notice it on the back of the hand within an hour of getting out.
Magnesium
A healing water, and the word is the laboratory’s
Magnesium is the mineral by which a bathing water is judged. This one carries 150 mg/L of it, more than any other in the country publishes, and it is the dominant mineral here by a good margin. An independent laboratory has classified it a healing water in those words. How much of it crosses the skin remains unsettled, and we decline to pretend otherwise. Beyond dispute is the feel of the water, and the difficulty of leaving it.
- 露天風呂 Rotenburo
- An open air bath. The Om rockpool is one, and there are a hundred and forty two of them, one to a courtyard.
- 掛け流し Kake-nagashi
- Water that passes through once and is let go, never returned to the rockpool.
- 焼杉 Yakisugi
- Timber charred to preserve it. Weathers without coating and darkens with age.
- 米麹 Kome-koji
- Rice cultured with koji, salted, and used where a Japanese kitchen would reach for soy.
- 間 Ma
- The interval. The space deliberately left empty, and the reason the villas hold so little.
- 湯 Yu
- Hot water. The character hung outside every bathhouse in Japan.
The bathing ritual, step by step
Independently tested and certified. The full analysis is available on request.
04 · Kitchen
Food for bathing
A Japanese kitchen cooking on butter, ghee and tallow, with produce from the organic farm next door. Warm, salted, easy to digest, and carried hot to your door.
First light朝
Okayu, rice porridge with cultured butter, koji and a soft egg$24
Suimono, clear dashi broth with soft greens$12
Chawanmushi, egg custard with prawn and shiitake$26
Goulburn Valley peaches stewed in honey, jersey cream$18
Mildura oranges, pressed to order$12
Midday昼
Lakes Entrance oysters, yuzu and sea salt, six$34
Lake Eildon trout, confit in ghee with lemon and dill$42
High Country beef donburi, onion simmered in dashi and koji$44
Takikomi gohan, rice cooked with shiitake, carrot and prawn$36
Carrot and daikon namasu, rice vinegar, coconut oil, sea salt$16
Evening夜
Beef cheek kakuni, mirin and ginger, simmered seven hours$52
Oxtail and daikon nabe, dashi and well cooked greens$56
Nimono, root vegetables simmered in dashi and butter$24
Warm milk pudding, box gum honey, toasted rice$16
Through the day終日
Beef bone broth, salted, a cup$14
Amazake 甘酒, warm fermented rice with ginger$11
Coffee, jersey cream and raw sugar$9
Hojicha, roasted and low in caffeine$8
Three night reset
Fifteen dishes arranged around your bathing. Broth and warm sugars before each immersion, shellfish on the second day, and stewed fruit with cream at night.
3 nights or longer$420
Four night program
Twenty dishes, beginning with a consultation on arrival. Temperature and pulse are taken each morning and the salt, sugar and dairy adjusted to what they tell us. Liver once, oysters twice.
4 nights or longer$560