When I first acquired the Gwinganna site, I didn’t really know where the journey would take us, but I knew I wanted to create something that would help people enjoy a long and healthy life.

My mother, Yvonne Marie, was my inspiration. My father died aged 49 of heart disease, when I was just 16. Both my parents drank, smoked, ate rich foods and did not really exercise.

But after the death of my father, my mother changed her lifestyle. She gave up smoking, curbed her drinking and started swimming year-round in the ocean, meditating and doing tai chi. She even started visiting what I believe was Australia’s first health retreat – then known as a fat farm – several times a year.

I knew that to remain healthy, I should live like my mother, but I didn’t have her discipline. So I decided the best chance for me was to develop my own health retreat and spend a lot of time there.

Many of my associates in the fitness industry thought I was crazy when I spent close to AUS$30m (US$22.5m, €20m, £15.3m) buying and developing the site over three years. There were times in those first few years when I thought I was crazy too! But after opening in 2006, we broke even in year three and we’ve been surging forward ever since.

Sharon [Kolkka] and I were clear from the start that we wanted to limit the number of visitors at any one time to 64 people. It’s served to preserve the integrity of the retreat and its special atmosphere. We only offer communal dining, as well as a carefully designed nutritional regime with no gluten or dairy – so people really see results.

I remain very involved with management, but I don’t micro-manage. We have a very talented team led by Sharon. My wife and I visit often and while I’m there I’ll hold business meetings with the team, discuss strategy, pricing, future profit centres, programming and staff training, etc.

Our team have been integral to the success of Gwinganna. If you want your staff to act like owners and treat the business with as much care, you have to give them a piece of the action. In the early days we gave core staff shares in Gwinganna’s operating company, so they’re now able to benefit from the success of the business.

Playing a part in developing Gwinganna from the ground up has been very exciting and allowed me to incorporate key elements that I felt were important for such a retreat.

As GM, I’m responsible for day-to-day operations and financial outcomes. My role also includes being the wellness director, which centres on the vision and implementation of our programmes. I develop the concepts (we have over 15 programmes) and liaise with guest speakers so that content and formats are relevant.

Due to my background in the fitness industry, personal training and instructor education, I’m very hands-on with the guest experience, which I love. This includes the arrival presentation, delivering seminars each week, along with activities such as qi gong.

I’ve secured a management team with a broad base of skills and a strong understanding or experience of hospitality. We’ve brought together an extraordinary group of qualified individuals – 145 staff members in total – who love the challenge of creating something unique and delivering our guest experience each week.

I’m so proud of my team and what they bring to our business. Sixteen employees have been here since the first year of operations, which is a wonderful confirmation of their commitment to what we do.

We now have so many return guests. In the past 18 months, it’s not been uncommon for us to see up to a 50 per cent return of guests on any programme. We’ve also won many national and international awards (eight awards in 2015 alone).

It’s rewarding for us to be leading the way with our educational wellness seminars, sharing evidence-based research (see p64). When we began 10 years ago, very few of our guests had heard of epigenetics (see p52) or the advances in neuroscience in relation to managing stress. According to their feedback, we’ve empowered them to make changes that have improved their health over the years. Guests often tell us they heard it first at Gwinganna.

We’ve seen a surge in demand for our emotional wellbeing therapies, such as psychotherapy and equine therapies. As a result, we’ve built a new facility with five counselling rooms, plus an additional yard for the horses. We see this as a growing trend and estimate around 30 per cent of our guests currently request this type of service.

We’ve also created three new Meditation Suites. The suites are set apart from the main buildings and are designed to provide a place of tranquility, with high-end comforts, including a private deck with day bed, deep bath, king-sized bed, yoga mat, meditation cushion and meditation sessions on an iPod. They’re incredibly popular and since their release in January, have all been booked out.

We always follow the health issues affecting our guests and look for programmes to help address these. Our very popular Triple S programme is an ideal example – developed to address the three troublesome areas of stress, sugar and sleep.

I find it really exciting that more research is identifying how so many modalities and lifestyle practices can be of significant benefit in a long term health plan.

I was fortunate to come on board, initially as a trained chef, just prior to Gwinganna’s opening. I grew up in a regional area where my parents grew and farmed everything we needed, so throughout my life, gardening and food were a passion. While working here as a chef, I started taking guests through the gardens at the end of the cooking demos and sharing tips with them. When the gardener left, it was an easy switch for me.

We have four areas of gardens, plus an orchard. All are managed organically without use of pesticides or herbicides.

One of the star ingredients we grow is aloe vera, which is wonderful for gut health, and we show guests how to make the juice. Other ingredients with incredible benefits are turmeric, ginger and garlic, which are always in use here. A very popular dish is our Salad of Abundance – a collection of the best seasonal produce in the gardens on any day. It can include greens, micro greens, herbs, flowers and vegetables or fruits, such as eggplant or sweet lime. Then the chef designs a dressing to complement the flavours and guests love it!

Having been a chef in the same kitchen helps me understand their requirements and design the garden plan to provide what they need most.

My day also includes keeping our six active beehives, which produce all the honey for the kitchen. I may teach a gardening class or tend to the orchard.

Our gardens are an integral part of our guests’ stay and often they don’t expect to be learning about gardening during a health holiday. We have steadily increased the number of presentations I do so that even more guests can learn about protecting the environment, understand more about natural solutions for ailments and the importance of organic processes without harmful chemicals or fertilisers.