About Us

BAANYA BIAMI, meaning Camp of Great Spirit, is a name remembered by thousands of children in Victoria as a place of Adventure since the 1980s. In 2013, Jeffrey Brook purchased the camp to create a Place of Purpose for people to reconnect with the bush and so reconnect with themselves.

Located in a tranquil valley adjacent to the Brisbane Ranges National Park, Baanya Biami is 150 acres of bushland with Reilleys Creek flowing though. The accommodation and facilities are unique in their design with their construction over the decades honouring the environment around them.

Bridges over the creek lead people on a gentle meander further into the bush where creek flats, bush spurs and the extraordinary gentleness of the bush awaits to be discovered. Longer hikes into the Brisbane Ranges are possible from Baanya Biami.

Baanya Biami has a gentleness which is felt by all those who visit. It is a place to disconnect from the fast pace of life and technology. It is a place to reconnect with our Earth, the bush, each other and ourselves.

Jeffrey Brook

Jeffrey has over 40 years of experience working with people in the Outdoors and Education. Jeffrey has spent nearly 20 years living and working in the High Country of Victoria leading people on foot, skis and horseback exploring and connecting to the mountains. His final few years in the mountains were as Head of Outdoors for Geelong Grammar School at their Timbertop campus. In 1997, Jeffrey moved out of the High Country and co-created Avalon College, a unique and exceptional ELICOS boarding school in Victoria, Australia. It is here that young international students live and study to further improve their English before heading into Australian Secondary Schools.
Jeffrey has always had a passion to create a Place of Purpose and that has now taken the form of Baanya Biami becoming a Place for Wellness and Connection. He brings his love of the Outdoors and his sense of Being to all that he does at Baanya Biami.

Louise Kerwin-Brook

Louise has worked as a Health Professional for over 30 years. She has worked as a Physiotherapist in Acute Hospitals, Rehab, Community Health, Private Practice and the Disability Sector. The last 30 years has seen her study and work concurrently with Energetic Medicine – the Body-Mind-Spirit connection, where the focus of Louise’s work shifted to the emotional and mental wellbeing of people and how this affected their physical state. Louise was able to offer this combined service of Physiotherapy and Medical Intuition from Karuna Maya Medicine – a Medical Centre in Jan Juc – where she worked for 16 years but she has now chosen to focus solely on the wellbeing of all those who come to Baanya Biami.

Together, Jeffrey and Louise are also creating a Place of Purpose nearby in Durdidwarrah. Here on over 200 acres of private land, they are Regenerating the Landscape to give back to Our Earth. They are looking at the land becoming a Community Space for others to join in and fall in love with our Earth again. It will become a place for Regenerative Farming, Community vegetable gardens and orchard, an Art Space, a place of Learning. It is a place for Connection to our Earth and Each Other.