The shore and slope at Chaster Creek, where summer accommodation has operated since before the First World War and the lodge burned once already, in 1929.
Where Bonniebrook sits, and the other places we attend
around Gibsons. Every name on the map is a link.
Where Chaster Creek reaches the Strait of Georgia
Bonniebrook is the shoreline and the slope behind it at the mouth of Chaster Creek, north-west of Gower Point along Gower Point Road and Ocean Beach Esplanade. The beach is Bonniebrook Beach. The regional district's Chaster Park is on it at 1577 Ocean Beach Esplanade, reached from Highway 101 by Pratt Road and then Gower Point Road, with parking on the left after the small bridge over the creek. Bonniebrook Heights Road climbs the slope above.
This is Sunshine Coast Regional District Electoral Area E, outside the Town of Gibsons. There is no municipal water utility here and no town bylaw department. The nearest fire hall is not the main one on North Road but the department's satellite hall, the Cliff Mahlman hall at 1226 Chaster Road, which is the reason this western shore is covered at all.
People have been coming here for the summer since before the First World War
Bonniebrook Lodge stands at 1532 Ocean Beach Esplanade. It is described as almost 100 years old and the oldest and longest running accommodation provider on the Sunshine Coast. It was called the Gower Point Lodge in the early 1900s and was run by the Chaster family, who built cottages, cabins, the lodge and a dining area; guests came from Vancouver by steamship and were met by lodge staff in rowboats. The original lodge was lost to fire in 1929 and rebuilt by the Vernon family.
The Elphinstone community plan gives the lodge a tourist commercial designation and its own Development Permit Area No. 6, requiring new development to be consistent with the heritage character and form of Bonniebrook Lodge and designed to appear relatively small in scale. Seasonal occupancy on this shore is not recent. A share of these houses have stood empty from September since the lodge's first summers.
A fire on Bonniebrook Heights Road reached four houses
On Saturday 7 October 2023, just before 8 a.m., a house in the 1400 block of Bonniebrook Heights Road caught fire. One house was destroyed completely and three more were damaged. Thirty-three firefighters attended: the Gibsons and District department as the primary, with four from Roberts Creek and six from Sechelt Fire. The house was occupied and the family was woken by a smoke alarm.
The alarm was the only reason they were able to get outside in time.
Acting Assistant Fire Chief Chris Facchin, Coast Reporter, October 2023
Fire Chief Rob Michael said that although there was a complete loss on one structure, there were significant saves on the others.
The lots on that slope are close enough together, and the ground steep enough, that a fire starting in an empty house reached three occupied ones. It took three departments to hold it there. A smoke alarm woke somebody in that house. In an empty one it sounds to nobody.
Chaster Creek carries three hazard designations at once
The community plan records that Chaster Creek was the site of three lumber mills between 1900 and 1930 and now holds the most valuable riparian habitat in Elphinstone, at Chaster Park. It supports chum and coho salmon. The plan applies Development Permit Areas 1, 2 and 3 to it, for protection of fish habitat and to mitigate geotechnical hazards, which means the coastal flood designation, the creek and ravine designation and the steep slope designation all apply to the same ground. Area 2A imposes a 30-metre setback from the streamside natural boundary on every creek.
In November 2021 the regional district ran a state of local emergency for most of the month, Chaster Park was closed, and evacuation alerts were issued for listed civic numbers on Ocean Beach Esplanade, the road the park and the lodge are on. The rain gauge along the shore at Gower Point recorded at least 376 millimetres that month.
The regional district's fire protection commission noted in October 2024 that insurers may treat a property without a hydrant nearby as semi-protected. No hydrant map is published for Area E, and the count for this stretch is not on record.
What a check at Bonniebrook covers
The well pump house and pressure tank, or the service connection and its shut-off at the lot line
The furnace running at its set temperature, or the building drained and the water off
Supply lines, the hot-water tank, and the ceiling below any room with plumbing
Smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms tested, and batteries replaced on a stated date
Brush, stored firewood and overhanging limbs cleared back from the walls and the roofline
The bank, the stairs and any retaining structure between the house and the beach
Culverts and the driveway surface after heavy rain on a creek-side lot
Every door, window, shed and gate closed and latched, and each lock turned
A dated photographic record of every point above, emailed on the day of the visit
Insurers in British Columbia generally make cover on an empty house conditional on heating-season inspections by a competent person, with a maximum gap that is four consecutive days in a good many wordings, unless the supply is off and the system emptied. The gap is fixed by your policy, not by custom. Read it.
What it costs
A scheduled check at Bonniebrook is
$55 a visit, plus
$10 travel. The travel charge is the same
everywhere between Gibsons and Egmont. There is no minimum term and no joining fee.
See the full price list.
Where these facts come from
Every figure, date and quotation on this page was taken from one of these. They are
listed so you can read them yourself.
