$4.495m Noosa wellness retreat Jo Walker designed for ‘modern hippy’
Jo Walker, daughter of former Melbourne Lord Mayor and F1 boss the late Ron Walker, is selling the wellness retreat she designed for “the modern hippy”.
Ms Walker, who has worked in the Aussie music industry with Austereo and MTV Australia, said the retreat built during the Covid era had helped her gain a better understanding of her father’s visionary side — but also reflected her independence from him.
The idea was to create a space for people to reconnect with nature and detox, but where they could blend in modern biohacking concepts and still jump onto a video conference call for work if need be.
The Verrierdale property named Fila Casablanca near Noosa is one she bought after heading north during Melbourne’s lockdown era, and after extensive renovations and planning approvals has now been confirmed as a wellness retreat with a stand-alone cottage as well as the main house, and approvals to add eight cottages to the site.
When she bought the 63-83 Sudholz Rd estate she had just the first stages of a vision to create a wellness retreat.
The home is surrounded by natural flora, providing opportunities for wildlife observation and to relax while taking in the serene backdrop.
“I had no idea what I was doing, it’s a 38.3 acre property and I had never managed a property before and just assumed you would mow it and didn’t have any interest in land management and machinery,” Ms Walker said.
“In my head I wanted to do a modern wellness retreat for the modern hippy.”
While there’s many places that can help you disconnect and detox, she wanted to create somewhere you could blend those ideas with contemporary concepts like biohacking — and still take a zoom call for your business if need be.
A renovation and extension of the main residence was intended to cement it as the modern Queenslander, retaining the character style, but upgrading it for contemporary tastes and throwing in a new kitchen along the way.
The main residence’s extension was very much in keeping with the home’s character-filled origins.
The rooms provide space for guests to spread out — and to enjoy the views.
A cottage on the property has been designed as a perfect retreat for guests, and there’s also a permit for eight cabins to be added to the property.
During the renovation Ms Walker concluded her concept could go bigger than a hinterland retreat, so she’s established an even larger space in Palm Woods — near the Big Pineapple.
At that site it’s “wellness literally from the ground up” with the restaurant serving food grown on site and offering beekeeping experiences to visitors.
Ms Walker said she would miss the Verrierdale property’s neighbourhood, and seeing the property knowing what it represented from her having learned so much to how much effort she had put into its creation.
