Gondwana Sanctuary

Gondwana Sanctuary is a residential community and meditation centre located near Byron Bay on the sub-tropical east coast of Australia. It is situated 2 km from Tyagarah beach with wonderful views of Cape Byron and Mount Warning.

Gondwana is a vibrant community with a well-defined vision of community and spiritual life. Its inspiration derives from Osho and his vision of love, meditation, celebration and awakening.

We have regular meditations, working bees, community meals, and other community events. We have an openness to personal and spiritual growth as a core value, and hope to achieve a viable balance between the individual and the community. Community decisions are to a large extent made by consensus.

Gondwana is an active wildlife sanctuary having restored what was cattle pasture to a flourishing natural environment. There has been over the life of the community an extensive program of environmental repair and regeneration.The majority of the total land area is being progressively revegetated.

Gondwana currently has 15 shareholders - that is, community members who own a dwelling on one of the 10 residential sites. In addition, there are approximately 15 guests and long-term residents who either live in the community "Main House", or in one of the residential dwellings.

Gondwana News

22 Jan 2010 - Dru Yoga classes with Yuti

Yuti has recommenced Dru Yoga classes at Gondwana. The classes are held in the Gondwana Meditation Hall, and Yuti is happy at any time to share her love and knowledge of this beautiful sadhana.
For more about Dru Yoga (Stillness in Motion), see here. For class times see the Meditation page.

10 May 2009 - Milli Flies Free

Milli, a long time resident at Gondwana, died on this day, as a result of a tragic accident on the Pacific Highway close to Grays Lane.

IT WAS the most abrupt of deaths for the most peaceful of souls.

Milli O’Nair was killed tragically and instantly on Sunday morning when a young driver hit her push bike with the rental truck he was driving.

“She was just such a beautiful lady, full of life and doing such great work,” her housemate of three years, Bodha, said.

Friends talked of Milli’s work as a non-violent communication trainer and relationship mediator who was invited across Australia to work with groups, couples and individuals. She delighted in laughter and in sharing her talents as a laughter yoga practitioner and as a fairy and face painter at local markets and kids’ parties.

“She was a visionary. She had big visions for a peaceful world.”
(www.northernstar.com.au - 12/05/2009)

Please visit the tribute site for Milli to share your messages, wishes, stories and photos.
There is also an NVC Community blog devoted to Milli's work with NVC.

29 April 2008 - Gondwana Calendar of Events

A calendar of Gondwana Events is now available on this website, thanks to Aparimit - see Calendar.

18 Jan 2008 - 21st Birthday Reunion

Gondwana celebrated its 21st birthday with a weekend reunion event (18 to 20th January). This was highly successful with many previous community shareholders and residents present. Photographs of this event can be found on our Photo Album page.

15 Jan 2008 - Community Title

Byron Shire Council recently approved our development application to convert Gondwana from a Multiple Occupancy development to a Community Title development.

This change to Community Title offers an improved legal structure for Gondwana, including separate land titles for each dwelling site which will enable us to raise mortgages on dwelling sites. We have been working towards this for over five years now, so greet this approval with a great sense of relief. There are still a number of consent conditions of the approval which we need to implement, so it is still a little early to bring out the champagne, but it is still an important milestone on this particular journey.