Looking After This Place

Six hectares on the Coomera

Historic Rivermill sits on six hectares of riverside land at Mount Nathan, in the Gold Coast hinterland. An arrowroot mill worked this bend of the Coomera River from around 1910, one of six mills that once ran along it. The river, the old trees and the animals are why people visit. Looking after them is not a side project for us; it is the business itself.

What we protect

Macquarie short-necked turtles surface by our jetty, sometimes by the dozen on a still morning. Century-old strangler figs stand across the grounds, beside an old-growth ironbark on the riverbank. Our she-oaks drop the seed pods that yellow-tailed black cockatoos feed on, and the bottlebrush along the river feeds the honeyeaters. Where introduced plants crowd the natives, we remove them and replant with species that belong here.

What we do

The power we use starts on our own roofs, with solar feeding the site directly. Stable bedding, manure and garden waste are composted here rather than trucked away. Waste is sorted into streams, and eligible bottles and cans go to Queensland's container refund scheme. We buy from local suppliers first, which keeps our deliveries short and our money in the district. And we have said no to some income, including food trucks, because heavy vehicles damage the ground and the green areas you come here to enjoy.

Climate change, plainly

The Coomera floods, and the summers are getting hotter. Flooding has already cost us equipment. So we reduce the power we draw before we generate more, keep shade and water across the paddocks, and would rather rebook your horse ride than run it on ground a storm has soaked.

Small choices help too, and they are yours as much as ours: bring a refillable water bottle, use the labelled bins, and let the wildlife find its own food. Feeding wild animals changes how they live, so we ask you not to, however friendly the ducks are about it.