Yarra Valley · Venue finding

Conference, Retreat & Winery Venues in the Yarra Valley

Tell us what you need in the Yarra Valley. Shortlist within 48 hours, free to you.

The Yarra Valley is Melbourne's wine-country offsite, under ninety minutes from the city and among vineyards and rolling hills for most of the way. Estate venues and resort properties suit leadership retreats, strategy days and incentives, the kind of event where the change of setting is doing part of the work. We source across the valley and negotiate the venue, dining and accommodation as one arrangement.

What we source in Yarra Valley

  • Residential conference and retreat properties with the rooms on site
  • Working winery estates for dinners, launches and offsite days
  • A museum plenary for forums and product launches
  • Heritage houses for board level exclusive use
  • Coach logistics from Melbourne and between the valley towns
Where to start

Not sure where in Yarra Valley your event belongs?

A quick steer, based on what you are running. Tell us the detail and we will shortlist what suits it, rather than the obvious names.

Based on venue suitability alone.

Leadership retreats and offsites
Chateau Yering, Meletos, Yering Station’s boardroom
Residential conferences
RACV Healesville, Yarra Valley Lodge, Balgownie Estate
Premium winery dinners
Levantine Hill, RACV Healesville Ballroom, Chateau Yering Oak Room
Incentives
CHANDON, Levantine Hill, Healesville Sanctuary
Product launches and brand events
TarraWarra Museum of Art, Levantine Hill
Large conferences and fly in meetings
Not here. Melbourne CBD
Local knowledge

Where in Yarra Valley to hold it.

The area you choose shapes everything from how easily delegates arrive to what you will pay for dinner. These are the ones we source across most, and what each is good for.

Healesville

When the program is residential and needs real breakout depth. RACV Healesville has thirteen function rooms including six syndicate rooms, with TarraWarra and Healesville Sanctuary in the same town, so beds, plenary and a distinctive offsite sit together.

Chirnside Park

The largest single room and the shortest run from the city. Yarra Valley Lodge is self contained with 102 rooms and nine venues inside a private golf estate, and the property publishes about 45 minutes from the Melbourne CBD. It is the gateway rather than wine country.

Coldstream

Winery dinners, incentives and launches. CHANDON, Levantine Hill and the Meletos estate sit here, which gives the precinct strong event spaces and very shallow beds, so any group above about 25 staying here is split.

Yering

Boards, executive teams and heritage dinners. Chateau Yering gives 32 suites and an Oak Room seating 130, with Yering Station next door. This is the buyout precinct for a group of 20 to 40 and it does not scale past that.

Yarra Glen

The third residential resort of scale, at 70 suites, and the fallback when Healesville and Chirnside Park are both held. Its room capacities are not published, so nothing can be quoted without a direct confirmation.

Worth knowing first

The parts of Yarra Valley we would raise before you commit.

No destination is right for every brief, and the useful conversation is about where the limits are. These are the ones that change a Yarra Valley program most often.

Most wineries have no beds

The venues with the best rooms for a dinner are not the venues with the rooms for the night. That is fine when it is planned and expensive when it is not, so we settle the accommodation contract and the transfers before we get excited about a cellar door.

It is a dispersed region with no useful public transport

Healesville, Coldstream, Yering, Yarra Glen and Chirnside Park are separate towns. A delegate cannot get between them without a car or a coach, and neither the tourism authority nor the properties publish reliable town to town drive times, so we cost the transfers explicitly rather than estimating them.

Above 325 in plenary we have not verified a room here

Across the Yarra Valley venues we have verified there is no exhibition hall, the largest floor plate is 400 square metres and the largest accommodation base at one address is 102 rooms. Anything above about 325 in plenary or requiring a trade floor is better placed in the Melbourne CBD, and we would say so.

Why CVBS in Yarra Valley

The Yarra Valley is where a Melbourne leadership program actually belongs.

Karen Jepson, Director, CVBS

One brief. A real person on the other end.

Everything above this point is information. It is genuinely useful, and no other venue finder in Australia publishes it. But it is not the thing you are actually buying.

What you are buying is someone who has already had the conversation with the person who holds that room, knows what they will move on and when, and will pick up the phone rather than send you a portal login. Whoever takes your Yarra Valley brief stays your point of contact from the first call through to the final invoice.

Karen, Anthony, Chantelle and RychelleSourcing Australian conference venues since 1989

Venues we can speak for

An hour from the city, with exclusive use properties, real breakout depth and a cellar door program on the doorstep. What it is not is a conference destination at scale, and knowing exactly where that line sits is the most useful thing we bring to a Yarra Valley brief.

The drawbacks as well as the pitch

Every venue has something worth knowing before you sign. A difficult load in, a low ceiling, a pre function space that struggles once the room is full. You will hear that from us at shortlist, not on the day.

Free to you

There is no fee for our service. The sourcing, the local knowledge and the negotiating are all included, and the rate you end up with is usually better than booking direct.

FAQ

Yarra Valley venue finding, common questions

How much does it cost to use CVBS to find a venue in the Yarra Valley?
Nothing. Our Yarra Valley venue finding service is free to you, and the rate we negotiate is usually better than booking direct. If you would like the detail, it is set out on how we are paid.
How quickly can you find Yarra Valley venues?
We deliver a shortlist of matching Yarra Valley venues within 48 hours of receiving your brief, with rates and inclusions ready to compare. If your dates are tight or unusual, tell us in the brief and we will call the venues rather than email them.
What is the largest conference venue in the Yarra Valley?
Of the venues we checked, the Marmion Ballroom at Yarra Valley Lodge in Chirnside Park has the largest published single room theatre capacity at 325, across 305 square metres. RACV Healesville’s Ballroom is larger by floor area at 400 square metres and seats 320 theatre.
How many delegates can stay on one Yarra Valley property?
Yarra Valley Lodge publishes 102 rooms, which is the largest inventory of the properties we checked. RACV Healesville publishes 80 rooms sleeping 160, Balgownie Estate 70 suites, Chateau Yering 32 and Meletos 23. Above about 100 delegates in single occupancy a program becomes a two property exercise.
Do you cover group accommodation in the Yarra Valley as well as venues?
Yes. We can package delegate or group accommodation in Yarra Valley with your venue as a single negotiation, which often strengthens the rate on both. See group accommodation for how that works.
Can we hold a conference at a Yarra Valley winery?
For the dinner, the launch or an offsite day, yes, and Levantine Hill has the most genuine conference fit out of the working wineries. For a multi day residential program, no: CHANDON, Yering Station, TarraWarra and Levantine Hill all publish event spaces and no accommodation, so the group sleeps elsewhere and coaches in.
Yarra Valley or Mornington Peninsula for a leadership program?
The Yarra Valley is closer to the Melbourne CBD and more compact, with better breakout depth at RACV Healesville. The Mornington Peninsula adds coastline, the Sorrento village and a larger single residential property at 204 rooms. If the group is 40 or under and the agenda is dense, we usually lean Yarra Valley.
Is the Yarra Valley suitable for a large conference?
Not above about 325 in plenary. There is no exhibition hall, the largest verified floor plate is 400 square metres and the largest single accommodation base is 102 rooms. A program at that scale belongs in the Melbourne CBD.
Ready when you are

Planning something in Yarra Valley? Tell us about it.

You will have Yarra Valley options to consider within 48 hours.

Negotiated venue offers

Hear about the next one first.

Every so often we negotiate a rate or an inclusion worth knowing about. We send those to the people planning events, and nothing else.

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