What you’re signing up for
A session at Goathouse Sauna involves high heat in a small room, wet floors, hot stones on the stove, and optional cold or contrast water in the outdoor baths and showers. Surfaces get slippery. People get light-headed. Cold water is a shock on purpose. By booking and attending, you choose to take part in that activity.
Main risks
- Heat stress — overheating, dehydration, dizziness, fainting, nausea, or worse if you stay in too long or ignore how you feel.
- Cold / contrast water — sudden cold can stress the heart and circulation; it can also make you gasp or lose footing.
- Slips and falls — wet concrete, timber, bath steps, and the sauna floor. Walk, use the handrail, and take your time in and out of the baths.
- Hot stones and stove — burns from the rocks, heater, or ladle. Water on the stones only; nothing else on or against the heater, and no part of your body on the stones.
- Shared space — other guests, uneven outdoor ground, low light in the evening.
Check with a doctor first if you’re unsure
Do not use the sauna or cold plunge if it isn’t right for you. Talk to your doctor before booking if you have (or have had) any of the following, or anything similar:
- Heart disease, irregular heartbeat, recent heart attack, or heart failure
- Uncontrolled or serious blood-pressure problems
- Pregnancy
- Serious respiratory illness, epilepsy, or conditions that affect heat or cold tolerance
- Recent surgery, acute illness, infection, or fever
- Any advice from a clinician to avoid heat, cold, or strenuous activity
No alcohol or recreational drugs before or during a session. Alcohol and heat are a bad mix — please don’t sauna after drinking.
Your responsibility
- You decide whether you’re fit to take part. If you’re unsure, don’t book — or cancel and ask your doctor.
- Leave the heat or water the moment you’ve had enough. Dizzy, queasy, too hot, or simply done: step out. Cool down between rounds. Drink water.
- Supervise anyone under 16 who joins you. Kids read heat differently — call it early on their behalf.
- Follow the house rules on the home page (towel on the bench, quiet after dark, leave it tidy).
- Tell us if something looks unsafe when you arrive.
Not medical advice
Nothing on this website is a diagnosis, prescription, or personal health recommendation. Research-informed copy on the home page is general information only. Your health decisions are yours.
Liability for recreational services
Goathouse Sauna provides recreational services — sauna and related contrast water — for enjoyment and wellbeing, with inherent physical risk.
To the extent allowed by law, including under section 139A of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) and section 5N of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW), we exclude and limit liability for death or personal injury arising from our failure to comply with a consumer guarantee that would otherwise apply to the supply of those recreational services.
That exclusion does not apply where the law says it cannot — including for significant personal injury caused by reckless conduct on our part, as those Acts provide. Guarantees that cannot be excluded still apply.
You acknowledge that you participate at your own risk, that you have had a reasonable opportunity to read this page before booking, and that you accept the activity’s risks as described here.
House reminders (short)
- Wet feet, slow feet — use the handrail and bath step.
- Go gently the first time; cool down between rounds.
- Ladle water gently onto the stones only.
- Sit on your towel; shower before your first round if you can.
- Last session finishes by 9pm; leave it as you found it.