Kalighat River House

10/06/2024

Another happy family returning to the mainland after enjoying , bushwalks and on the deck at

03/06/2024

Another happy group returns to the mainland after enjoying

24/05/2024

13/04/2024

when the Hawkesbury floods lots of stuff comes floating down. Sometimes we find useful things like fridges full of beer, but mostly it's trees and branches that get trapped under the jetty. They then catch more branches and rubbish until it becomes impossible to berth our boats. If enough weight builds up it can even damage the jetty. So what we have to do is tie a rope on it and then rev harder and harder until the heavy tree trunk pulls free of the mud.

12/04/2024

Delivering the mail.

08/04/2024

22/02/2024

Sonia and Jack planting a lucky Money Tree - aka Malabar chestnut, French peanut, Guiana chestnut, Provision tree, Saba nut, Monguba (Brazil), Pumpo (Guatemala)

09/02/2024

The lonely grave of 10 year old Frances Peat at Fairview Point, laid to rest in 1842.
Tucked in just below the crest of a steep, forested and unfortunately heavily littered hill, on a point of land jutting into the Deerubbin River, a rarely visited grave set in a patch of scruffy, withered turf. It is not concealed but it is out of the way – care was taken to position it in the lee of an ancient sandstone ridge, in a grove of trees amid an understorey of bracken and invasive foreign weeds. Leaf litter and rubbish is everywhere. A dramatic gnarled angophora reaches up and out above this last resting place.
The grave is solitary but not forlorn – protected from the storm gusts, sheltered from the heat, enclosed by the enduring bush.
The ridge just further up from the grave forms an overhang, a
shallow cave, with signs of habitation over many years – the stain of
smoke from low smouldering fires, and vast quantities of bleached
shells, a midden from long ago. Over the countless ages this was
home for more people than we can ever know. Perhaps just for
limited seasons, for it was not a permanent habitat. On the evidence, those people lived well, if transiently. North-facing, it would have been warm in the winter sun, shaded in Summer. A good place, one would think, to take one’s ease, or to rest in peace. The previous owners are no longer here. They passed on long ago. But new visitors have come to use the cave and left a litter of foam mattresses and plastic mats.
Not far away is the endless stream of droning, heavy traffic on the multilane motorway that runs between Sydney and Newcastle. The huge modern highway follows the old bridle path laid down by Frances' Father, Mr George Peat and not far from here are the few ruins of the great house he built. The local river people still refer to this area as "The Ruins"
But the bridle path was not in fact Peat's track, he was shown it by the Darkinjung people. A trail of very great antiquity, and an important songline that runs up through the bellbird country to Gosford. Their track led close to an important ceremonial initiation ground, but it led also to the edge of one of the most significant sacred sites in Aboriginal Australia. From the flattened top of Mt Yengo, the All Father Baiame, creator of life, creator of the Law, creator of ceremony, maker of all things, source of all totems, stepped down into the world; and from there, when that business was finished, he stepped back up again to the sky world, Mirrabooka, the Milky Way.
The traditional owners of this land, the Darkinjung people, are
long gone. The Peat family has left this country too. The great house that George Peat built for himself and his family, a family of girls, that has gone too. He had no son to carry on his family name. He did leave his name though – it is all over the maps hereabouts. The ferry service he began ceased soon after World War II, no longer necessary; bridges cross the river now.

24/01/2024

ABC colleagues reunion

21/01/2024

Another beautiful day on the river. Mick Harvey & Amanda Acevedo at Dangar Island Bowling Club

01/01/2024

Another group of happy guests. These young Thai women celebrated New Years eve with us.

04/11/2023

Contact us directly for cash discounts, free boat transfer for Musicians and Artists
https://www.booking.com/hotel/au/kalighat-river-house.en-gb.html?aid=390156&label=duc511jc-1DCAsoD0IUa2FsaWdoYXQtcml2ZXItaG91c2VIM1gDaA-IAQGYAQm4ARjIAQ_YAQPoAQGIAgGoAgS4ArPxmqoGwAIB0gIkMTViNDYxMjMtOTJlMC00MjVlLWJmYTgtNGQ2MTA2MjM4OWEw2AIE4AIB&sid=2deb2e6d50c7e66c6b4dc32c4759343e&dist=0&keep_landing=1&sb_price_type=total&type=total&

04/11/2023

Kalighat River House

28/10/2023

Nothing makes us happier than happy guests.