Premalaya: A Place of Love

Refresh and recharge at Premalaya, the Margaret River Region’s newest wellness retreat.

When Hayley and Scott Lane bought their Yallingup bush block four years ago, there was nothing but a shack and a shed. Since then, the Lane family have invested their hearts and souls into transforming the property into a unique community hub, and the Premalaya Wellness Retreat has just opened to the public.

The idea for Premalaya – which means place of love in Hindi – first came to Hayley around 15 years ago when she began her journey as a yoga teacher and Ayurveda medicine healer.

“I always had this vision of creating a community hub where people of all kinds can gather and enjoy themselves,” she says.

I always had this vision of creating a community hub where people of all kinds can gather and enjoy themselves

Ayurveda is the ancient Indian system of medicine, and seeks to treat and integrate body, mind and spirit by using a comprehensive holistic approach emphasising diet, exercise, meditation, breathing and physical therapy.

While guests of the eight self-contained chalets can reap the benefits of the in-house wellness program without leaving the comfort of their room, Premalaya isn’t exclusively for the spiritually minded. “It’s not a prerequisite to come and stay here that you have to be spiritual,” Hayley says.

“Even if it’s just coming and sitting on the deck and opening up a nice bottle of wine and going, ‘oh my god I didn’t realise how stressed I was’, it’s all about peeling back all the layers.”

“You can come and go, ‘I’m going to completely transform my life’ and go on this spiritual quest and become a yoga teacher, or just come and realise you need to chill out. It’s about balance on all levels.”

On a deeper, spiritual level, it’s a place where people can come and heal and remember who they are. My priority is to create a community

While Hayley’s passions lie in women’s health, Scott is also a keen fisherman and surfer, and he hopes to address men’s health by sharing his intimate local knowledge and utilising the region’s abundance of natural resources.

While the principles of Ayurveda treat specific individual health, Hayley and Scott also hope to provide a place where community wellbeing prospers, and people can combine their passions to create a unique space.

“It’s what we’re missing in the South West, we’re missing a hub, a community, a place where people can come and you don’t have to feel you need to spend lots of money, you can just come and hang out if you’re feeling a bit stressed,”

“I don’t want to employ people and be the boss, I want this to be a sacred place that you can come and bring your passions into, and offer it to the community and the international field.”

With many people traditionally migrating to warmer climates over the winter months, Hayley and Scott hope to open up an affordable option for everyone, not too far from home. “We really want to open up the winter to everyone,” Hayley says. “People just seem to run and go to Bali, but we really want to embrace winter here and make it special and really utilise the beautiful region that we live in.”