{"id":403237,"date":"2025-11-25T08:55:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/403237\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T08:55:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:55:33","slug":"cyclone-fina-luxury-resort-berkeley-river-lodge-destroyed-by-wild-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/403237\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyclone Fina: Luxury resort Berkeley River Lodge destroyed by wild weather"},"content":{"rendered":"

A luxury WA resort has been decimated by heavy rains and gale-force winds after Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina smashed the State\u2019s north.<\/p>\n

The cyclone \u2014 which also lashed the Northern Territory as it crossed over at the weekend \u2014 hit the Berkeley River as a category three system about 9pm on Monday.<\/p>\n

Berkely River Lodge, a four star resort which was mid-way through a huge renovation, was unrecognisable on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

Saltwater Properties owner Chris Banson confirmed Cyclone Fina had done \u201csignificant damaged\u201d to the guest villas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree of the eighteen villas are completely destroyed. Some of the villas have damage to their roof or exterior cladding that surrounds the open\u2013air bathrooms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe central lodge area before the Cyclone hit. Credit: Instagram\/@berkeleyriverlodge\/@berkeleyriverlodge\"ThreeCamera IconThree of the guest villas were completely destroyed. Credit: Berkeley River Lodge\/Supplied<\/p>\n

While the guest villas bore the brunt of the damage, the central lodge and surrounding buildings were also damaged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe central lodge area lost some exterior panelling and has some roof damage. Water and power services are no longer operating and the staff accommodation has extensive damage,\u201d Mr Banson said.<\/p>\n

He said the property\u2019s two caretakers weren\u2019t harmed by the wild weather and, with the resort closing in September, no visitors were affected by the damage.<\/p>\n

Mr Banson hopes the Lodge will re-open for the 2026 season, set to begin on May 1.<\/p>\n

\"CycloneCamera IconCyclone Fina caused severe damage to Berkeley River Lodge. Credit: Berkeley River Lodge\/Supplied\"CycloneCamera IconCyclone Fina caused severe damage to Berkely River Lodge in northern WA Credit: Berkely River Lodge\/Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still assessing the full extent of the damage and the impact that this will have on the 2026 season. Our plan at this stage is to still open in May for our planned full refurbishment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berkeley Lodge has 18 villas stretching along a section of the Kimberley coast. It has a capacity of just 36 guests and aims to offer guests an exclusive and luxury experience.<\/p>\n

The upgrades underway were set to include new interior floors, villa balcony decking, pool decking and screens around the open-air ensuites.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement on Tuesday that the cyclone had weakened to a category one system as it moves inland.<\/p>\n

A tropical cyclone warning remains in place for the King George River mouth to Berkeley River mouth, and further east to the Cambridge Gulf. These areas may continue to experience damaging winds and heavy rain.<\/p>\n

The remnants of Fina are likely to continue to produce showers and thunderstorms for the Northern Kimberley and nearby areas of the Northern Territory throughout the rest of the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A luxury WA resort has been decimated by heavy rains and gale-force winds after Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":403238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,50,8632,313],"class_list":{"0":"post-403237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-wa-news","11":"tag-weather"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115609505410827256","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}