YOU can still buy a house in Sydney for $650,000. But go west to the other side of the country and you could be the proud owner of the 26ha Nyamup Holiday Village, complete with 25 cottages, a manager’s residence, a park and a nine-hole golf course.

Nyamup is located in Manjimup shire amid the famous karri, jarrah and red gum forests of south-west WA, 320km from Perth. Thestately karri is one of the tallest hardwoods in the world, reaching 90 metres in height.

Nyamup was established as a timber mill town in 1939 by Bunning Brothers on crown land. At its peak the town had more than 50 cottages, an office, staff quarters, boarding house, butcher, millwright, school, bowling green, clubhouse and the mill itself.

YOU can still buy a house in Sydney for $650,000. But go west to the other side of the country and you could be the proud owner of the 26ha Nyamup Holiday Village, complete with 25 cottages, a manager’s residence, a park and a nine-hole golf course.

And this is not to mention the community dance hall, once regarded as the best dance hall in WA outside Perth, with its jarrah floors especially designed for old-time dances.

Wilgarup River, which runs through the property, is stocked with trout and the prized native freshwater crayfish known as marron.

Nyamup is located in Manjimup shire amid the famous karri, jarrah and red gum forests of south-west WA, 320km from Perth. Thestately karri is one of the tallest hardwoods in the world, reaching 90 metres in height.

National parks and reserves cover 80 per cent of the Manjimup region.

Nyamup was established as a timber mill town in 1939 by Bunning Brothers on crown land. At its peak the town had more than 50 cottages, an office, staff quarters, boarding house, butcher, millwright, school, bowling green, clubhouse and the mill itself.

The mill operations were wound up in 1990 and Bunnings entered into an agreement with business couple Derek and Marilyn Hall to purchase buildings and assets on the site. Many other buildings were sold to different parties for salvage.

The Halls turned the village into a family retreat and holiday centre.

Derek’s father, Joe, and his partner Dot Oates, lived at Nyamup and slowly worked to restore the buildings over the last decade.

The Hall family finally gained freehold title over the land after a protracted and complicated land-swap deal with the WA Department of Conservation last year.

Several cottages have been renovated, but competing business interests and health issues have pushed the Halls into putting Nyamup on the market.

“We will be sad to sell,” Derek Hall said. “The place has that much potential. Unfortunately we have no choice.

“The vision that we all had, it would have been nice to continue on. My father achieved a lot here, he has done all the work. But unfortunately, because of his ill health, we haven’t been able to achieve what we would like to.

“We hope someone with the same or similar vision to us will bring the place up to what our expectations were.

“There is a lot of work to do, there’s no doubt about that, but it’s work that you can casually do, and reap the rewards in the end.

“Nyamup has been a refuge for a number of people, it is so serene, it brings people back to reality. It is a beautiful place.”

Selling agent Trevor Fellows of Elders at Manjimup said: “As you drive down through the leafy trees, with the emus and kangaroos living side by side on the property, it’s magnificent. There’s so many things you could do with this property, from school groups to scout camps to leasing cottages out to charities.”