26°23′S 153°05′E
Noosa
Hotels, private homes and hinterland stays across Noosa — from Hastings Street and Little Cove to Sunshine Beach, Noosa Sound and Doonan.
Year-round · quietest May–Aug
Stay
Selected stays, introduced personallyWAYPOINT STAY
The selected stay division of WAYPOINT & CO — an editorial collection of houses, lodges and islands chosen for setting, craft and the people behind them, and introduced personally.
Selected stays, introduced personally.
WAYPOINT STAY selects private residences, houses, lodges and islands across Australia and New Zealand. It is a small collection of places worth travelling for: properties join it by selection, and each stay is introduced personally rather than listed.
This page is an editorial map of how we think about each region: access, season, architecture, service and the reason a guest would choose to stay another three days. The same contact who arranges the house can connect it to AIR, SEA and EXPERIENCE, so the flight in, the day on the water and the nights ashore are held as one journey.
Where we are looking
7 of 7 regions
33°51′S 151°12′ESydney
Benchmark harbour hotels and private residences across the Eastern Suburbs, the city and Palm Beach — chosen for position, plan and how easily the harbour becomes part of the day.
Year-round
20°21′S 148°57′EHamilton Island
Hamilton Island residences for a Whitsundays week — private houses, harbour bases and stays linked to yacht, air and island experiences.
Apr–Oct
42°53′S 147°19′ETasmania
Unique stays, coastal shacks, cabins and wilderness lodges across Tasmania. Architecture set against weather, where the produce, the light and the cold are the point.
Nov–Apr · winter for the stillness
45°01′S 168°39′EQueenstown
New hotels, iconic lakefront stays and alpine lodges across Queenstown — paired with adventure, food, wine and a slower approach to the week.
Dec–Mar · Jun–Sep
Interior · latitude on requestRemote & Outback Lodges
Station country, gorges and desert. Small lodges where access, water and staffing decide everything.
Apr–Sep
Coral Sea · Southern OceanIslands
Island travel as a category of its own — destinations such as Lizard Island, Kangaroo Island and Pelorus Island shape how we think about access, boats and time.
Destination dependent
Australia, well placed
20 of 20The lodge is not separate from the destination; it is the way into it. These are the houses, camps and small lodges we return to when a journey needs somewhere that explains the country around it — written as we see them, and arranged directly with each property.
Arkaba
Flinders Ranges, South Australia
Outback
A former sheep station turned private conservancy, with five rooms and a walk that takes four days to cross it. The point here is the country, and the fact that guests are quietly funding its recovery.
Bamurru Plains
Mary River floodplain, Northern Territory
Outback
Safari-style bungalows on the edge of a floodplain that fills and empties every year. Airboats at dawn, buffalo, magpie geese and mesh walls that put you inside the weather rather than behind it.
Mount Mulligan Lodge
Mount Mulligan, Northern Outback Queensland
Outback
A remote lodge on a working property beneath a ten-kilometre sandstone escarpment, reached as part of a planned journey from Cairns. Guided drives, ATV country, walking, fishing and pastoral and mining history.
Capella Lodge
Lord Howe Island, New South Wales
Island
Nine suites below Mount Gower on an island with a visitor cap and a lagoon you can walk into. Two hours from Sydney by air, and the closest thing Australia has to an unhurried Pacific week.
El Questro Homestead
Kimberley, Western Australia
Outback
Nine rooms on the edge of the Chamberlain Gorge, on a property large enough to hold its own river systems and thermal springs. Days move by four-wheel drive, boat and helicopter.
Lake House and Dairy Flat Lodge
Daylesford, Victoria
Country
Three decades of one family cooking from their own valley, with a farm-set lodge a short drive away for guests who want the kitchen and none of the traffic through it.
Lizard Island Resort and The House
Northern Great Barrier Reef, Queensland
Island
Twenty-four beaches on a granite island with the outer reef an hour away by boat. A research station shares the island, which tells you something about the water.
Longitude 131°
Uluru-Kata Tjuta, Northern Territory
Outback
Sixteen tented pavilions in the dunes, each facing Uluru through glass, so the rock is the first and last thing you see. Anangu knowledge is central to how the country is explained.
Mt Mulligan Lodge
Mount Mulligan, Far North Queensland
Outback
A private station beneath a sandstone escarpment ten times the length of Uluru, with a handful of rooms and an emptiness that reads as luxury after two days.
On Board
Southwest and East Coast Tasmania
Water
A purpose-built boutique expedition vessel for Tasmania's remote coastline, with tender access into wild places and a seaplane arrival for Port Davey when the journey begins from the southwest.
Orpheus Island Lodge and Pelorus Private Island
Palm Islands, Queensland
Island
A quiet national-park island with fringing reef off the beach, and a neighbouring island taken on an exclusive basis when a group wants the whole horizon to itself.
Pretty Beach House
Bouddi Peninsula, New South Wales
Coast
Four pavilions in angophora forest above Broken Bay, ninety minutes from Sydney. Close enough for a long weekend, far enough that no one finds you.
qualia
Hamilton Island, Whitsundays, Queensland
Island
The adult end of Hamilton Island: pavilions along a northern ridge, private arrival, and every reef and Whitsunday logistic already solved by the airport below.
Saffire Freycinet
Coles Bay, Tasmania
Coast
A low, curved building above Great Oyster Bay with the Hazards filling the glass. Guided walks, oyster leases and a national park that behaves like part of the property.
Sal Salis
Ningaloo Reef, Western Australia
Coast
Tents in the dunes behind Ningaloo, where the reef starts a short swim from the beach and the season brings whale sharks past the front door.
Silky Oaks Lodge
Daintree, Far North Queensland
Rainforest
Treehouses above the Mossman River, where the swimming hole is the itinerary and guided walks make a wall of green legible.
Southern Ocean Lodge
Kangaroo Island, South Australia
Coast
Rebuilt on its clifftop after the fires, facing weather that comes straight from Antarctica. Beaches, sea lions and an island that has grown back in front of everyone.
Spicers Peak Lodge
Scenic Rim, Queensland
Country
The highest non-alpine lodge in the country, on a ridge above the Scenic Rim. Cold nights, big views and a kitchen worth staying in for.
The Louise
Barossa Valley, South Australia
Country
Suites set among vines, with growers close enough to visit before lunch and a cellar that makes the afternoon disappear honourably.
True North Adventure Cruises
Kimberley, Rowley Shoals and beyond
Water
A purpose-built expedition ship with its own helicopter and a fleet of tenders, working coastline that has no road and only a short season.
Owners and operators
Have a place worth finding?
We are speaking with owners of residences, lodges and small properties who want their place understood properly before it is sold to anyone.
- Studio
- Brand, website and launch for the property itself. WAYPOINT Studio
- Manage
- Commercial review, route to market and continuing management. WAYPOINT Manage
- Collection
- Selection and representation within the WAYPOINT stay collection.
How the stay collection works
Find · Introduce · ConfirmA place earns its way into the collection before anyone is sent there.
We select for setting, character, standard and the way a property sits within its destination. Most of what you read here is editorial: places we rate and would happily plan a week around. A smaller number are properties we represent under an agreed arrangement, and we say so when that is the case.
- 01
Find
We narrow the field to the places that suit the destination, the season and the group.
- 02
Introduce
We approach the property or its authorised booking channel and put the request properly.
- 03
Confirm
You see the confirmed rate, inclusions and booking terms before any commitment is made.
- Accommodation is supplied by the property itself or its authorised booking channel. WAYPOINT does not own or operate the properties.
- The editorial collection is a considered recommendation, not a statement of partnership. Inclusion does not imply a commercial relationship.
- For selected represented properties, WAYPOINT may work under an agreed travel-trade rate or commission arrangement with the property.
- Availability, inclusions, cancellation terms and payment conditions are property-specific and are set out before you commit.
Plan a stay
Tell us where you're headed and what a good week looks like. We will point you at the right region, and at people we trust in it.