Riverwood Downs Pet Policy
Policy - Riverwood Downs welcomes pets in its Camping Area, Platypus Lodge, Cabins, River Cottage, selected Resort Room accommodation and its special Pet Friendly Restaurant. Subject to it being under your control at all times, you are welcome to take it for walks anywhere on our 750 acre property. In the interests of the comfort and safety of other guests, owners must always pick up droppings after their pets, wrap them, and place them in the rubbish bins provided.

Conditions - Your pet must be under your control at all times - either on or off lead depending upon your pet's training and obedience. Pets must be inside or restrained at night. Pets must not be left unattended in the accommodation/facilities at any time.

Damage or Injury - It is an explicit condition of you bringing your pet to Riverwood Downs that you accept full responsibility for any and all damage or injury caused by or to your pet and that you agree to indemnify Riverwood Downs, its servants or agents, against all actions or claims against it howsoever arising from the actions of your pet whilst at Riverwood Downs.

Disclaimer - Pets are welcome at Riverwood Downs but only at the pet owners risk. Riverwood Downs, its servants or agents accept no responsibility or liability for death, illness, injury or accidents of any kind occurring to pets caused by or as a result of visiting Riverwood Downs.

Owners are fully responsible for the control and behaviour of their pets at all times whilst at Riverwood Downs.

Pets Welcome - Pet Friendly self contained Family Cabins, Riverside Spa Cabins, selected Resort Rooms and Camping are also available for Guests with Pets, extra charges apply.

Horseriding
Children aged from 10 to 14 years must be accompanied by a parent/guardian on the trail ride.
All participants on the trail ride must wear long pants and closed in shoes.

Pony Rides
Each child on the pony ride must have a parent/guardian to lead the horse. All participants on the pony ride must wear long pants and closed in shoes.

Special Horseriding Deal
This discount is only available for horse and pony rides paid in full prior to arrival. There is a cancellation fee of $20 per person per ride should you cancel or not show for a booked ride.

Historic Local Towns

Visit Stroud
The pleasant town of Stroud is full of beautiful historic buildings and happens to be home to one of the largest displays of convict constructions in Australia. Stroud was established in 1826 when it was included in a land grant of almost a million acres to the Australian Agricultural Company.  Stroud was first established in 1826 and its main feature is the 'Silo-Hill', a hill with eight underground wheat silos.

What to do in Stroud: 
Stroud Heritage Walk
St John's Anglican Church
Booral Wharf Ruins
The Gables
Gundayn House
Quambi House
Silo Hill
Alderly House (convict house built by Cobb and Co.) 
Stroud House
Stroud Gate
International Brick and Rolling Pin Throwing Competition. - Every April


Visit Dungog
The township of Dungog is home to many lovely buildings, some with their magnificent wrought-iron lacework still intact-a monument to the artisans of yesteryear. Dungog is rich in natural assets. Mountain ranges, freshwater streams, clean air and magnificent rural vistas entice visitors to the area. The shire population of 8000 has for many years been dependent on the local agricultural industries including dairy, timber and beef cattle, but now includes a growing tourism industry offering visitors the opportunity to discover a small rural community within 3 hours easy drive from Sydney. Three significant rivers bisect the area offering many fertile valleys, magnificent country scenery and quite rural villages; while supplying drinking water for the population of the lower hunter region. Wind your way along scenic hillside drives, canoe and fish your way along quiet streams or walk your way up to the Corker; it's totally up to you.

First discovered by European settlers in the early 1800's it was seen as a valuable source of cedar timber as the river allowed for easy access from Paterson or Clarence Town, both of which were centres of river navigation. Agricultural pursuits attracted a large number of settlers into the area from 1824 after the first land grants were made and many small villages were established throughout the fertile valleys between the Paterson and Williams Rivers.

Now a quiet rural area, with a busy commercial centre; Dungog provides a home base for the surrounding areas with a movie theatre, cafes', restaurants, banks, a supermarket and a large variety of browsing opportunities. A gateway location for the surrounding area Dungog is a town that must be visited while enjoying a stay in the Barrington Tops.

What to do in and around Dungog:
Take a self guided tour of the fine historical buildings throughout town including the museum 
Spend a day walking in the Williams River areas of the Barrington Tops National Park.
Visit the Camelot Lavenderand Llama Farm - Wallarobba
Johnson's Farm Gate - Glen William
Gresford Wine and Olive Trail
St Mary's on Allyn Historic Church - Gresford
Tocal Historic Homestead
Museums at Clarence Town and Paterson
Local markets held regularly in Dungog, Gresford and Clarence Town

Visit Gloucester
Gloucester is a vibrant, large country town in a picturesque river valley at the junction of the Avon, Gloucester and Barrington Rivers, under a range of impressive monolithic hills called The Bucketts.
Gloucester Shire is a predominantly rural area. The Shire encompasses a total land area of about 2,900 square kilometres, of which a large proportion is National Park and State Forest. Most of the rural area is used for timber-getting, grazing, dairy farming and with several boutique farms producing herbs, award-winning goats cheeses and olive oils. The township of Gloucester is the main commercial, industrial and urban centre of the Shire.

What to do in Gloucester:
Dine at one of the many cafes
Visit the Folk Museum and St Clements Park to see the original schoolhouse and folk museum for tales from the gold-mining era.
Take the Bucketts Scenic Walk for panoramic valley views
Hire a canoe and explore the rivers.
Gloucester Gallery
Boomerang Walk in the beautiful local park 

Visit Barrington Tops
Barrington Tops is a unique World Heritage Listed wilderness destination, covering 120,000 hectares of lush sub-tropical rainforests and ancient beech forests, beautiful valleys, pristine rivers and breathtaking views. The impressive array of habitats found in the Barrington Tops nurtures half of the plant species found in Australia and over one-third of its mammals and birds.

Imagine a place where the mountain grandeur is so unspoilt that the air itself is almost blue. Where adjacent rainforest surrounds you with the quiet secret magic that makes the expectation of mythical characters seem quite rational. Or the streams and waterfalls so clear that the word crystal seems inadequate.

There are four main areas offering access to the diverse beauty of the forests of the Barrington Tops region. The experience of each is different and a single visit can grant only a glimpse of the depth and complexity of these natural wonderlands.

The unique quality of this region is reflected in its listing as a World Heritage Area - the closest such area to Newcastle, and one accessible even to those with limited mobility. Barrington Tops is the habitat of an enormous diversity of plant and animal life being at the northern extremity of the range for many southern Australian species as well as the southernmost extent for many more tropical species. More than 50 plants and animals of the Barringtons are listed as rare, threatened or endangered.

Barrington Tops is a 25 kilometre long plateau extending between a series of extinct volcanic peaks in the Mount Royal Ranges, an easterly offshoot of the Great Escarpment. 80 kilometres west of surf and sand, as the black cockatoo flies, 1.5 kilometre high mountains rise to swirling mists. On a plateau stretched between their summits, alpine meadows awash with fragile wildflowers in springtime spread out beneath snowgums' open boughs. Melted snow becomes lithe white water dancing down to the sea through ancient beech forests bathed in an ethereal green light. Pure clear water flows from sphagnum moss swamps that retain and slowly release great quantities of water from the plateau, fed by mists, melting snow and an annual rainfall exceeding fifteen hundred millimetres.

More than twenty valleys radiate from the hub of the plateau. Wild rivers become waterfalls plunging from great heights into fern-lined gorges. In the river valleys of the lowlands, weathered basalt washed down from the mountains forms rich alluvial soils. Rainforest in Barrington Tops National Park is the southernmost link in a chain of remnant rainforests in central Eastern Australia protected by World Heritage listing. Antarctic beech forests cloaking the slopes above the nine-hundred-metre mark are a living link with the supercontinent of Gondwanaland, where they evolved sixty-six million years ago. Pollen of the genus Nothofagus dates back to the Late Cretaceous period, when Australia was still part of Gondwanaland. It is believed the genus evolved after links between Africa and South America were severed. Today, it is found in the mountains of New Guinea, New Caledonia, New Zealand and southern South America and relic rainforest in Tasmania. Nothofagus is the southern hemisphere's representative of the European beech.

The first stage of the Barrington Tops National Park was dedicated in 1969 with additions being made in 1982. The park gained World Heritage Listing in 1986 and, more recently, much of the area has been declared Wilderness. The pure quality of their water and their special aesthetic beauty have enabled Boonabilla Creek and the Paterson, Williams, Chichester and Wangat rivers to be classified as Wild Rivers. Fantastic views of forested wilderness unfold from the highest peaks. On a clear day from Carey's Peak, at an elevation of 1545 metres, the white sands of Stockton Beach may be visible as a distant fine line above the rolling, agricultural, green valley of the Williams River, scooped out in a blue-green wilderness of forest. At Mount Barrington, at 1556 metres, a view to the western slopes of the Tops overlooks grazing land towards Scone in the Hunter River Valley.
While reaching up to meet enveloping mists, Antarctic Beech trees tower over an understory of treeferns.

At the Laurie Lookout in Gloucester Tops, it is possible to see distinct changes in forest types. Rising from the valley floor, warm-temperate rainforest species merge with wet eucalypt forest up the slopes. Where the slope retains little water, dry eucalypts thrive. Adjacent to the subalpine swamp communities and woodlands, grassy summits known as 'grassland balds' cap the summits.
The impressive array of habitats found in the Barrington Tops nurtures half of the plant species found in Australia and over one-third of its mammals and birds. A high concentration of gliders and owls, including the barking owl, which emits a blood-curdling human-like scream while hunting at night, nest in hollows in eucalypt forest that has never been logged, saved by the rugged nature of the terrain. The powerful, masked and sooty owls, however, join twenty-three other animals on the endangered list, including the tiger quoll, the red-legged pademelon, yellow-bellied glider, koala, broad-toothed rat and sphagnum frog. One of Australia's rarest birds, the tiny and elusive rufous scrub bird, may be heard singing a loud melodious song while foraging on the forest floor adjoining beech forest.

Barrington Tops is home to the magnificent iridescent blue-green paradise riflebird, which belongs to the birds of paradise family, often considered the most beautiful birds in the world. Sometimes this bird can be heard tearing rotten wood, in pursuit of insects, with his strong curved beak. The paradise riflebird decorates his cup-shaped nest with cast-off snakes' skins, the skins of diamond pythons and green tree snakes, reptiles which share his moist forest habitat in wet eucalypt and temperate rainforest.

Walks from the Allyn River
Several gentle day walks in Barrington Tops National Park and Chichester State Forest extend into subtropical riverine rainforest beside the classified Wild and scenic Allyn and Williams rivers, where they drop off sharply from the south easterly peaks of the Barrington Tops. The walks in the Barrington Tops National Park are near the Barrington Guest House, which has been a mecca for visitors discovering the scenic delights of forest and mountain for more than sixty years. The suspension bridges on the Twin Bridges Walk overlook the crystal waters of the Williams River rushing down the rocky riverbed through fern-lined banks. Platypuses are sometimes seen in pools beside the river bank. This walk links with the Rocky Crossing Walk.
At Chichester State Forest, the Allyn River can be investigated along the Allyn River Rainforest Trail. The subtropical rainforest here is well documented at twelve sites, where explanatory signs point out features of the forest which abounds with wildlife. Red cedars and strangler figs are common and the largest river oak recorded in New South Wales is here.

The difficult walk to Carey's Peak (1545 metres) begins at Lagoon Pinch. A magnificent view from The Corker rewards walkers who ascend 600 metres in only four kilometres. The summit at Carey's Peak is a further four-kilometre uphill climb.
The well documented Tops to Myalls Heritage Trail also begins at Lagoon Pinch and although the track ascends from here along The Carey's Peak Trail for approximately nine kilometres to the first campsite at Wombat Creek, the rest of the 220 kilometre walk is generally a downhill walk. The Tops to Myalls Heritage Trail is designed to be broken up into eleven day walks, many of which can be completed as single day walks. The whole walk encompasses a wide range of ecosystems, from the alpine woodlands, subalpine meadows and beech forests of the majestic mountains at the Tops through extensive wet and dry eucalypt forests managed in State Forests in the mountains falling to the Myall Lakes. At the coast, wildflower heathlands, wet palm forests and mangrove wetlands surround sparkling lakes, heralding the walk's end, where mobile dunes meet the sea.

Beech Forest
A dramatic change occurs at the edge of the beech forest. Every surface, apart from the dark scalloped trunks of the giant beech trees and the tan, round leaves carpeting the path, appears a shade of green. Bright, light-green, thick moss glows between the lacy tracery of tree fern fronds. An ethereal greenish light shines through long blue-green, old men's beards-a long lichen 'dripping' from almost every bough, twisting high into the deep dark canopy.
The forest becomes an enchanted timeless place where children can imagine fairies among the delicate ferns and mosses clothing the forest floor in intricate miniature shapes and luxuriant textures. In springtime, the fieldia, a fragile vine with a tiny scalloped leaf, glows when it showers its gorgeous cream bells where it creeps over moss-covered rocks. Terrestrial beech orchids cascade creamy-white sprays from beech boughs. All year round, opaque putty-white elephant's foot fungi-the scale of the animal's anatomy -stands out from everything green, where it is anchored between the bulbous base of the beech. Coppice growths, upright beech tree suckers, appear here, ready to flourish if the parent tree is damaged. The beech trees also disperse seeds and many saplings can be seen emerging from the forest floor. The ingenious yellow-throated scrub wren's nest dangles from frail twigs at the end of a branch. To deter predators, this tiny designer builder, which weighs only a few grams, weaves a delicate,hanging, dome-shaped nest from moss and lichen, complete with a side door opening away from the tree, over a swift-flowing mountain stream.

Location 
Riverwood Downs is located in a valley on a beautiful Mountain River, in the foothills of the Barrington Tops "World Heritage Wilderness", just 2.5 hours north of Sydney and only 1.5 hours north of Newcastle.

Located in a beautiful rural area known as the Monkerai Valley between the towns of Stroud and Gloucester. Riverwood Downs is a Multi Award Winning Property on 5kms of River Frontage with 750 acres to enjoy.

Tall mountains, cool mountain pools, crackling log fires, fresh air and bright stars, abundant wildlife, friendly staff and relaxed country hospitality complete the peaceful setting.

We look forward to welcoming you to 
Riverwood Downs!

Directions to Riverwood Downs 

GPS Coordinates
32 degrees 16 min 59.58 sec South, 151 degrees 50 min 59.51 sec East

From Sydney or The South of NSW
Take the Sydney to Newcastle Expressway north and follow it right to its end. At the roundabout turn right and follow the Pacific Highway 1 signs to Hexham and then left over the Hunter River bridge. (CAUTION when you come to the Raymond Terrace Round about IGNORE the sign that says Dungog Barrington Tops.) Drive straight through the roundabout.  You will bypass Raymond Terrace, following the Taree signs. On the Pacific Highway 20 kms north of the Raymond Terrace By-pass Roundabout, turn left onto the Bucketts Way to Stroud (Gloucester and Barrington Tops). The turn off to Riverwood Downs is on your left, 17 kms beyond Stroud. Do watch for the turn off, as it comes up rather quickly if you are travelling at highway speed. Then just follow the signs 8kms of gravel road in to Riverwood Downs. (Note: there is no need to go through Newcastle to get to Riverwood Downs.)

From Newcastle 
Coming from Newcastle take the Pacific Hwy North. (CAUTION when you come to the Raymond Terrace Round about IGNORE the sign that says Dungog - Barrington Tops.) Drive straight through the roundabout following the sign to Barrington Tops via Gloucester. On the Pacific Highway 20 kms north of the Raymond Terrace By-pass Roundabout, turn left onto the Bucketts Way to Stroud (Gloucester and Barrington Tops). The turn off to "Riverwood Downs" is on your left, 17 kms beyond Stroud. Do watch for the turn off,as it comes up rather quickly if you are travelling at highway speed. Then just follow the signs 8kms of gravel road in to Riverwood Downs.

From Northern NSW
We are situated between Dungog and Gloucester. Coming from the North, it depends whether you intend to travel on the New England or Pacific Highways.  If you are on the New England Hwy, you turn off the Highway at Singleton and proceed through Gresford to Dungog and then on the road to Stroud.  You can turn left onto Monkerai Rd about 
5 kms further on from Dungog and follow Monkerai Rd to Riverwood Downs - There is about 17 kms of gravel road through the Monkerai Nature Reserve.
The other alternative is to continue on the road from Dungog to Stroud, turn left onto the Bucketts Way heading to Gloucester. The turn off to Riverwood Downs is on your left, approximately 15kms from where you make the turn onto the Bucketts Way. Do watch for the turnoff as it comes up pretty quickly if you are travelling at highway speed. Then just follow the signs approximately 8 kms of gravel road in to Riverwood Downs gateway.

If you are travelling on the Pacific Hwy, turn right at Nabiac to Krambach. At Krambach turn left onto the Bucketts Way to Gloucester. From Gloucester, head South for about 35 kms towards Newcastle. You will pass through the villages of Stratford, Craven and Wards River and will find the turn to Monkerai on your right about 5kms South of Wards River. Do watch for the turn off as it comes up rather quickly if you are travelling at highway speed. Then just follow the signs 8km of gravel road in to Riverwood Downs.

There is limited mobile phone reception at Riverwood Downs.