Paperbark Camp

Quick Verdict

If you are comparing Paperbark Camp to a standard South Coast NSW hotel room, you are looking at a different category entirely. This is a tented safari-style camp set in bushland near Jervis Bay; closer in concept to Emirates One&Only; Wolgan Valley in Wolgan Valley or El Questro Homestead in Durack than to a beachside motel. For couples or small groups wanting immersive nature accommodation within reach of Jervis Bay, it earns its place. For business travellers or those needing reliable connectivity and urban amenities, it is the wrong call.

The Stay

Paperbark Camp sits at 571 Woollamia Rd in Woollamia, New South Wales; a location that puts Jervis Bay's white-sand beaches and national park within easy reach. The setting is the product: refined timber walkways, paperbark and scribbly gum canopy, the ambient sound of native bushland rather than traffic or crowds. That atmosphere is the draw, it is also the constraint. If you want quiet and genuinely dark skies at night, this delivers. If you need a business centre, a gym, or room service at midnight, look elsewhere.

The format, permanent canvas tents on raised platforms, is now a well-established model in Australian nature-based hospitality, Paperbark is one of the earlier and more referenced examples in the NSW south coast context. Properties like Avalon Coastal Retreat in Rocky Hills and Bullo River Station in Timber Creek occupy a similar niche in other regions. Paperbark's advantage is proximity to Jervis Bay, one of the most accessible coastal wilderness areas on the NSW coast, without requiring a flight.

The on-site Gunyah Restaurant is a known draw in its own right, serving dinner to guests and outside visitors in a treehouse-style dining room above the bush floor. It is one of the stronger reasons to stay here rather than self-catering accommodation nearby. Breakfast is included for guests, which matters when you are factoring total cost against comparable regional properties.

Reservations: Direct booking advised; availability tightens significantly on summer weekends and school holiday periods. Booking difficulty: Easy outside peak season, plan ahead for December–January. Leading for: Couples, small groups, wildlife-focused travellers. Less suited to: Business trips, large families needing multiple rooms, guests requiring accessible facilities. Getting there: Woollamia is roughly 2.5 hours south of Sydney by car; no practical public transport option to the property. Nearby: Explore more of the region with our full Woollamia hotels guide, restaurants, bars, wineries, and experiences.

How It Compares

Against the Sydney luxury tier, Capella Sydney, Four Seasons Hotel Sydney, or InterContinental Sydney, Paperbark Camp is not a direct competitor. Those properties serve business travellers, event guests, city visitors. Paperbark serves people who specifically want to be away from the city in a natural setting. The comparison only makes sense if you are deciding between a Sydney base and a Jervis Bay escape, in which case the right answer depends entirely on your purpose for the trip.

Within the nature-immersive category in Australia, Paperbark sits below the all-inclusive prestige tier of Southern Ocean Lodge in Kingscote or Amangiri in Canyon Point for international reference, but it is also considerably more accessible in both price and logistics. If you want the Australian wilderness camp experience without flying to a remote station, Paperbark is one of the more practical choices on the NSW coast. Chalets at Blackheath in Blackheath Blue Mountains offers a comparable nature-retreat format closer to Sydney if Jervis Bay is too far for your schedule.

For value comparison: properties like Drift House in Port Fairy or Il Delfino Seaside Inn in Yamba offer coastal character at potentially lower price points, but neither matches the bushland immersion that is Paperbark's specific offering. If that immersion is what you are buying, Paperbark earns it.