Lamb carcasses hang splayed and suspended over hot coals as cooks in long leather aprons baste the beasts and tend the embers. Lanterns glow and wood smoke infused with lemony eucalyptus curls into the air. The magic faraway birthday table.
Overhead, sheet-sized painted curtains usher guests into the theatre of an endless white-clothed banquet table beyond. Somehow, we have emerged from our bush tent, past giant paperbark and scruffy sheoak trees, and slipped onto the time-warped canvas of a medieval painting. One thing is clear, the owners of Paperbark Camp, Australia’s first “glamping” enterprise near Huskisson on the NSW South Coast, don’t do things by halves.
The occasion is Paperbark Camp’s 25th birthday, where friends, family and new and returning guests gather to celebrate this milestone created by Sydney couple Jeremy and Irena Hutchings, who opened it in 1999 after being inspired by safari-type accommodation during a trip to South Africa. While the dinner could have been held in the camp’s destination restaurant, The Gunyah, with its soaring roof and chef’s kitchen, Paperbark Camp is all about embracing the land it sits upon, so kingfish ceviche, roast lamb and local cod are enjoyed on Wanda Wandian country under starry skies. The night begins with a local Indigenous smoking ceremony followed by a dance performance, including a seemingly simple representation of a kangaroo that’s so uncanny we are talking about it hours later.
Whether it be the wood s.
