A wellness retreat on the banks of a billabong

I am finding it incredibly hard to switch off my phone. I have just checked into Billabong Retreat for a weekend of yoga, meditation, spa treatments and nutritious food. And while the wellness sanctuary - located in north-west Sydney, about an hour's drive from the CBD - makes no such demands of its guests, I am determined to go phone-free for 48 hours.

There's no dearth of studies linking excessive use of smartphones to soaring levels of stress. I look at my black mirror first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, too.

So this weekend, I am keen to test the theory: can breaking away from the screen really reap rewards? So far it's definitely not working: the very act of trying to go off-grid is making me anxious.

But in the end strong will prevails. I bring myself up to speed with everything (emails, text messages, headlines), make social posts about going offline (ironic much?), take a deep breath and dive into a two-day iPhone abstinence. Digital detox 1, smartphone 0.

And suddenly I have all the time to notice just how scenic the retreat is.

Spread across 4.4 hectares of steep cliffs and soaring eucalypts, Billabong is set around, well, a billabong. Perched high on stilts on one side is an utterly photogenic round meditation room with floor-to-ceiling windows; suspended on the other side of the water is a large open-air yoga pavilion.

There's not even a hint of wind as I walk around the billabong today, its waters still like a sheet of glass. That is until the retreat's resident ring-necked duck prances in from nowhere, followed by her posse of equally flighty and even cuter ducklings, shattering the high-pixel reflections of the meditation room and the yoga pavilion on the billabong's surface into ripples - all to the soundtrack of laughing kookaburras, whistling cockatoos and squawking galahs.

You can go for a wander like me, or simply take in the show from your balcony. Accommodation ranges from private rooms with shared bathrooms in Harmony Cottage to recently renovated treehouses with ensuites. I have checked into one of the brand-new Deluxe Cabins. Perched high on the cliffs, they feature large balconies with standalone bathtubs overlooking the billabong.

At the centre of the retreat is a pool, a spa, a dining room, the retreat's main wellness studio with soaring ceilings and expansive windows, and an outdoor sitting area with bean bags, couches and a roaring fireplace. It is here that I meet Sarah Loveband - the retreat host this weekend - shortly after checking in. "Billabong is a relaxed retreat," Sarah tells the group of 37 wellness seekers - mostly women - who have signed up for the two-day experience. "During the next couple of days, I'll lead a number of meditation, yoga and mindfulness classes, but you can do as little or as much as you please," she says in her soothing voice, adding some ground rules: keep your volume down (others might be meditating); avoid smartphones in common areas (others might be seeking an off-grid experience); and absolutely no cigarettes (we're in the middle of a national park).

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Over the next two days, I throw myself into this world of wellness, attending a number of yoga classes, some of them conducted on the "floating" open-air pavilion with the boisterous duck and her brood for company; learning meditation techniques in different positions - sitting, lying, even walking; and enjoying a memorable massage at the spa from Gumrang, a qualified acupuncturist, who uses principles of acupressure to kneed my knots away. "You may occasionally feel some sharp pain," she tells me before the massage. "But you'll thank me for it tomorrow." And she's right on both counts.

And then there's the food: colourful, nutritious and utterly delicious. Everything at Billabong is vegetarian, free of refined sugar and as vegan, organic and wholesome as possible. "We try to keep it interesting," says executive chef Adam Lord. "We don't want people to go away and say we had lots of lentils, or all we had was pumpkin. We like to mix it up, show different cuisines and different styles."

Tonight the table is brimming with about a dozen dishes - from a Moroccan tagine with black chickpeas, turnips, eggplant and zucchini, flavoured with sumac, paprika and turmeric, to an "off-piste" Waldorf salad.

Over the course of the weekend I also meet a range of people who are here for different reasons. There's Jacqueline, an experienced yoga teacher, who's loving every minute of following instructions for a change rather than giving. "Sometimes we all just want to be, not do," she tells me while queuing for a meal in the retreat's dining room with an open kitchen, where the chef and his staff fill our plates.

There's Elena who's attended a seven-day silent retreat in India and is here for a refresher. "When you go back to your busy professional lives, you gradually tend to forget the things you learn at a place like this, so I occasionally come here for a refresher."

There's 18-year-old Emily, who's been coming here since she was 12 with her mum Cath. "It's been the best thing for Emily, to have awareness of her body, health and her sense of self," says Cath.

As for me? I signed up for this retreat because I was having an incredibly busy life and desperately seeking a full stop at the end of a very long sentence. I didn't get the digital detox I set out to have when I arrived here - that flight of fancy lasted just five hours. Social media 1, digital detox 0.

But - at Billabong - I got my full stop. And I am ready to string together the next sentence.

Getting there: Billabong Retreat is a one-hour drive from the Sydney CBD and just over an hour from Sydney airport.

Staying there: Midweek, shared-bathroom accommodation is from $300 per person per night and incudes meals and all wellness classes.

Explore more: billabongretreat.com.au

The writer was a guest of Billabong Retreat.