The Laklinyeri Beach House

The Women’s & Children’s Hospital Foundation ‘Laklinyeri’ Beach House, located within the picturesque Encounter Lakes in Victor Harbor, is an extraordinary holiday home where families can relax and create wonderful memories.

Why is the Beach House so special?

The Beach House is the perfect sanctuary for families, who face significant challenges every day, to relax and spend treasured time together.

The home is specifically designed, constructed and medically equipped to meet the needs of children with complex medical needs or in palliative care, while the beautiful interiors, landscaping and sweeping views of the lake create a sense of calm and wellness.

The Beach House can sleep up to 12 people allowing immediate and extended family, as well as friends to stay, so everyone can experience this special holiday.

Support the Beach House

Your donation will contribute to ensuring the Women’s & Children’s Foundation can fund families’ stays well into the future, making the Beach House a sanctuary for years to come.

Donate now

Tour of the Beach House

Click on the rooms below and join the Halfpennys on a tour of the Beach House.

The first family to be welcomed to the Beach House were the Halfpennys – Jessika, her brother Jakob, and parents Wayne and Emma.

Laklinyeri

Building connections to the Ngarrindjeri-Ramindjeri people and country, to acknowledge the traditional landowners where the Beach House is located, was very important to the WCH Foundation.

As a tribute to traditional custodians of the local area, the Beach House also has an Aboriginal name — Laklinyeri. Ramindjeri artist, Cedric Varcoe, explains the meaning of Laklinyeri.

Learn about Laklinyeri

Building the Beach House

In 1999, Nurse Practitioner Sara Fleming set up the first Paediatric Palliative Care Service in Australasia at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide.

Every day, this team helps children and families, who have limited time together, live for every month. Out of her desire to make a difference, the dream for the Beach House was born.

In 2013, when the WCH Foundation heard of Sara’s dream to build the Beach House and the difference it would make, the Foundation was driven to make it a reality and felt compelled to take on the ambitious, but necessary project.

More about the build

“Laklinyeri alludes to many things relating to family; close family and the larger grouping of families related through kinship, stories, songs and dance. The name denotes a sense of belonging to all of the family, your place and interconnections with each other, the land, the place and the life in that place. Laklinyeri encompasses the heart, the mind, the sense of being. Everything continues to be connected through time.”