A wellness wonderland: About Time

Torquay’s newest wellness and bathing hub About Time is set to open this summer with a team of Australian health and wellness friends teaming up to create a relaxation wonderland for residents and travellers to kick back on the Surf Coast.

About Time is the creative masterpiece of Stacey Burt and Kent Pomare of Little Company, Joanna Beecher of STILL Beauty, and Carlton footballer and Surf Coast local Ed Curnow and is set to take the town to new heights with its unique wellness and bathing offering.

The modern Australian bathhouse will be the first of its kind for the Surf Coast and Greater Geelong region and will feature massage and holistic skin treatments from both Little Company and Still Beauty alongside indoor and outdoor bathing, steam, traditional sauna, infrared sauna, ice and functional movement.

About Time started when Beecher and Burt met many years ago through a mutual connection and quickly became industry friends, who aligned on many shared values and beliefs surrounding wellness and holistic approaches to their practise.

Fast forward a few years and close friend Curnow would bring Little Company and STILL Beauty together again, supporting the notion of forming a partnership between the parties to create a new wellness space in the former Quiksilver building in Baines Crescent.

Luckily, the timing was right for the joint venture and the idea of a bathhouse and wellness facility was born.

“It was around 2019 when I met Joey from Still Beauty and Kent from Little Company,” Curnow said.

“Joey had this idea around making a bathouse, and Kent was also looking at the space and it was just about coming together as three different partnerships and coming up with a concept.

“It took me a while to sink my teeth into the project but the idea of working with Joey (Joanna) and Kent to bring something unique to Torquay and to create this environment where you can go and just relax, feel good and refresh is pretty exciting!

“For me it’s always been a trigger, growing up around the ocean and being in footy for so long, I have been spoilt to use great facilities for recovery and re-energizing, and we are aiming to build something similar.

“We are hoping it’s a place that people can come and kind of escape the day and have a unique experience.”

The people behind About Time are all passionate about wellness and the idea of extending the traditional experiences of skin treatments and massage to include a holistic approach in water, steam, sauna and ice.

According to Curnow and the About Time team, the new space is inspired by the many different cultural interpretations of bathing and the various inspirations they can take from ancient techniques and rituals to create a new space that is authentically Australian.

The space embraces the locality of where it is, taking inspiration from raw, local materials and includes an outdoor bathing sanctuary that showcases a wide range of native flora.

Relocating back to Torquay only recently, Curnow is thrilled to be back in town to give more time to the project.

With a young family and plenty of creative goals and aspirations, the 32-year-old said the timing was perfect to take on the new professional venture.

“I’ve always wanted to move back down to Torquay and [About Time] is a great opportunity to do something fun and exciting back here, one that draws links and parallels to my experience in footy.

“I’ve had great access to facilities through football and met great people in the fitness and wellness field, so to then combine those areas and to bring something to Torquay that can give people that experience is exciting.

“It’ll provide a different offering.”

About Time will be set out across more than 1,000 sqm of space, and will include indoor and outdoor magnesium pools, private secluded bathing, infrared saunas, cold plunge pools, fire-fuelled saunas and much more.

Curnow and the team hope that their unique and widespread offering will be a Surf Coast gem for many years to come.

The About Time space is set to be open in February 2023.

To find out more, head to atthebathhouse.com.au