About & mission
Fifty years of campfires, first swims and found confidence.
Camp Drewe began with a simple conviction: every child deserves a week by the sea, and no community should be priced out of one. That conviction still runs the place.
Our story
Built by the community, kept by the community.
In the early 1970s, the Presbyterian churches of the Northern Rivers bought five acres of heathland at Lennox Head and opened a camp. The idea was never complicated: give young people a place where faith, friendship and the outdoors could do their slow, good work.
Today Camp Drewe operates as the Northern Rivers Conference Centre, within the Christian Youth Camps family. The buildings have grown and the bunkrooms have been rebuilt, but the measure of success hasn't changed — a kid who arrives nervous on Monday and doesn't want to leave on Friday.
- Operating on the same coastal site since 1972
- Part of the Christian Youth Camps (CYC) family
- Run by a small team with deep roots in the Northern Rivers
Our mission, plainly
What we're here to do.
To provide affordable camps and training programs where children, young people, families and adults can grow — in confidence, in community and in character — in a safe coastal setting at Lennox Head.
As a not-for-profit, we keep fees as low as we honestly can, and every surplus dollar is reinvested into the camp: safer facilities, better beds, and subsidised places for groups who could not otherwise afford to come.
- Welcome everyone. Schools, churches, clubs and families of every background.
- Keep camp affordable. Cost should never be the reason a child stays home.
- Care for the coast. Five acres of heathland held gently for the next generation.
- Grow good humans. Resilience, kindness and courage — taught by tides and team challenges.
Charity status
A registered Australian charity, in the open.
Transparency matters to us. Our registration, reporting and finances are public on the ACNC Charity Register, and we're happy to answer any question a group or parent might have about how the camp is run.
We are governed by a volunteer board, we report to the charities regulator every year, and no individual profits from the camp — it exists for the community, full stop.
The official details
- Legal name
- Northern Rivers Conference Centre
- ABN
- 90 262 010 918
- Regulator
- Registered with the ACNC (Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission)
- Charity size
- Small — annual reporting, financial year ending 31 December
- Who we serve
- Children (6–15), youth (15–25), adults, families and the wider community
- Address
- PO Box 36, Lennox Head NSW 2478
“Some kids find their people at school.Overheard at the campfire circle
The lucky ones find them at camp.”
Come and see what fifty years of camp can do.
Write to us — a real person reads every email, usually with a cup of tea and the surf report open.
enquiries@campdrewe.com.au