By Michael Burt
A Banya Bathhouse is still coming to Bellingen.
Transforming the old church at 8 Church Street into a luxurious bathhouse and restaurant has been delayed, however, due to construction compliance tasks and heritage considerations.
“We have had to tick a few boxes with regards to fire risk management compliance,” said owner Brendan Lawless.
“The fact that is a Heritage building does make it a slow process.”
Mr Lawless recently attended a Bellingen Chamber of Commerce meeting to update the local business community on progress.
“The good news is that everything has been approved, and we are excited to say that we are scheduled to start building works in September. It will be a one-year build, so the opening has been pushed back to late next year.”
“We have had a lot of people from the Bellingen area who have come up to Banya in Mullumbimby telling us to hurry up and get one open in Bellingen.”
A local builder has been enlisted, and the bathhouse will be modelled on The Banya at Mullumbimby, which was born out of an old bank building and opened in 2022.
The Banya at Mullumbimby is a bathhouse, restaurant, bar, and sauna. The multi-million development includes outdoor hot mineral pools, tubs, lap pool, cold plunge pools, a steam room, massage rooms and wood-fired sauna. It employs up to 50 staff, including 25 massage therapists.
Mr Lawless is tapping into a bathhouse boom that is making waves across Australia.
Australia has one of the world’s fastest-growing wellness economies, growing at an annual rate of 7.5% from 2019 to 2023 – with bathhouses, thermal springs, ice baths and saunas playing a key role.
The number of bathhouses has expanded rapidly with popular spots like Soak Bathhouse and 38 Degrees: The Bathhouse in Sydney. Townsville, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast also now boast bathhouses, and the country’s largest sauna and bathhouse will open in Melbourne later this year.
The boom has taken inspiration from historic bathhouse culture in countries like Finland, Russia, Japan and Turkey. In Finland, sauna bathing – where water is thrown on hot stones to release steam – is believed to date back as far as 7000 BC, and the Finnish claim it is one of the reason’s their country is regarded as one of the happiest in the world.