Paradise Bay - Luxury Island Resort - Queensland - Australia

Daily boating adventures, cocktails and canapés at sunset, whale watching (in August to October), snorkelling, swimming, kayaking, turtle watching, lazing on one of the Whitsunday’s amazing beaches, feasting on a picnic lunch prepared fresh each day, sitting around the bonfire toasting marshmallows, your private veranda, go for a dip in the crystal clear water, what could be more romantic than lazy days boating, king size super soft beds, gourmet food and cocktails and quiet time by the beach?

 

 

Facilities Honeymoons Weddings

No. Rooms 10

Capacity 20

http://www.paradisebay.com.au/ecology

Construction and Design

Prior to the construction of the Eco-Resort non-native plants and animals were removed from the site with the assistance of the National Parks and Wildlife Service.  While the lease on the property is 3.2 hectares only a tiny amount of that is actually built upon.  The remainder has been encouraged to return to nature with native vegetation planted and encouraged and non-native rigorously removed.  A good deal of construction was done utilizing electricity generated entirely by the solar power system.  The open-air structures are kept cool by tropical breezes and solar-powered ceiling fans.

Solid Waste

Solid waste is one of the most challenging aspects of operating an Earth-kind Whitsunday’s resort. There are limited recycling facilities in the Whitsunday’s.  We are continually looking for creative and cost effective means of dealing with waste. The following are some examples of what the resort does to minimize their solid waste:

All food waste is composted and is used later as fertilizer in the resorts gardens.  Paper products and packaging that is not reusable or recyclable are shredded or burned and the ashes are composted for fertilizer. Plastic is the most challenging waste product, whilst the resort does everything it can to minimise its usage most local suppliers still ship things in plastic even when asked not to. Plastic waste is returned to the mainland daily and sent for recycling by a local supplier.  Metal is an easier product to recycle. The resort tries to either "upcycle" or recycle metal items whenever possible. 

Glass, while easier than plastic to recycle, still presents some challenges. The biggest culprits on this island are beer bottles. Paradise Bay only purchases beer in bottles that are recyclable and from suppliers that guarantee buy-back.

The resort selects cleaning products very carefully and is happy to use Natural Instinct Cleaning Products.  Natural Instinct products contain NO sodium lauryl sulphate, no petroleum by-products, no artificial fragrances or colours, no harsh detergents, no animal derivatives, and no harmful chemicals. The ingredients are plant derived and environmentally friendly, and contain only the finest quality ingredients including natural vegetable derived oils and certified organic herbs.  Most cleaning cloths and materials are provided by Enjo.

The Power Behind Paradise  

The shining achievement at Paradise Bay is that the electricity generating system, which powers your nature vacation is from the resorts solar field (which was made larger still in December 2007), with a daily electricity generating capacity of over 30,000 watts and a battery storage facility totalling 2,800 amp hours.  Paradise Bay utilises approximately 85% solar energy for its electrical needs, including a commercial kitchen. This system was designed by Energy Matters and can be monitored remotely for optimum performance. 

Waste Water Treatment

Grey water and Black water waste (one of the most detrimental wastes to near-shore tropical aquatic ecosystems) is dealt with by the remarkable BioCycle® system.  BioCycle® aerobic waste-water treatment systems efficiently separate and digest solid wastes and treat the waste-water, in a series of controlled biological processes, to a level of purity unattainable by conventional septic systems.  This clean, odour-free water, disinfected to international health and environmental standards - is then automatically recycled to our garden irrigation systems.

Water Usage

Being in the tropics the resort is blessed with between 1,600 and 2,000 millimetres of rainfall per year (most of which comes at night during the wet season).   While it can be a while “between drinks” in the dry season, the resort has installed over 36 water tanks (the resort's water farm) which gives the resort a 300,000 litre storage capacity.  This is enough for 6 months average usage and all the tanks can be filled in just one night with one tropical downpour.  Every roof on the island has a tank or more connected to take full advantage of the rain when it comes.  Once used it is recycled by the resort's BioCycle® system and ends up in the vegi-garden and fruit groves of the resort – exactly where it would have ended up if we had not collected it.  

Plus the resorts environmentally friendly 3 ½ star water saving shower heads has been specially selected to provide a luxury shower experience while still limiting flow to just 7 litres per minute.  All hot water for your vacation is created using Solar hot water heaters provided by Edwards, no electricity is used. It is supplemented during winter by on-demand gas heaters using natural gas.  Each two-person beach bungalow is fitted with a 200 litre heater; the commercial kitchen utilizes two 300 litre heaters.

Purchasing

The best method to deal with solid waste is to purchase items that have minimal amounts of material.  The resorts consider packaging in bulk when they make a purchase. Doing this from Paradise Bay, is an even greater challenge because of limited suppliers and shippers. The resort purchase as much as possible from local suppliers to minimize packaging and shipping. 

• Best Luxury Eco Tourism - Luxury Travel Magazine- 2010

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