Hamilton Yoga Blog

David Morley is a longstanding Iyengar yoga teacher and practitioner in Newcastle who has been exploring yoga since the late 1980s. He has sustained his strong lineage with Iyengar Yoga, which is a worldwide renowned form of yoga developed by B.K.S. Iyengar.

David began his yoga journey in Newcastle, Australia, with a group of like-minded practitioners. In 1994 he began teaching his first yoga classes based on Hatha yoga, and first established this yoga school, previously known as Novocastrian School of Yoga, in 1996, leaving his electrical trade behind. 

In 1995, David started his Iyengar teacher training and completed the certification process in 1999 under the mentorship of senior Iyengar yoga teacher Pixie Lillas, one of the first Iyengar yoga teachers in Australia. Pixie Lillas had trained directly under B.K.S. Iyengar in Pune, India and was instrumental in bringing Iyengar yoga to Australia. David's training as a therapeutic and remedial massage therapist in 1995 is also a great asset for his teaching, informing his adjustments and general instructions to yoga students.

In December 1998, David travelled to India to study with B.K.S. Iyengar himself at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in Pune at the time of the 80^th birthday celebration of B.K.S. Iyengar. Again in 1999 and 2006, he visited the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune to study with Iyengar's daughter, Geeta Iyengar, and son, Prashant Iyengar. Over the years he attended several events in Australia hosted by Iyengar Yoga Australia with members of the Iyengar family. Recently, in February 2023, he was lucky to take part in the National Iyengar Yoga Australia Convention with Iyengar’s granddaughter, Abhijata at the Sunshine Coast, the first eagerly anticipated gathering of Australia’s Iyengar community after a 5-year break.

Since February 2000, the historic G.U.O.O.F. building next to Gregson Park at 21 Steel Street Hamilton, has been home to David’s yoga school, formerly the Novocastrian School of Yoga. During a brief business partnership between 2018 and 2022, the school's name was changed to Hamilton Yoga - Iyengar Yoga School.

From its home in Hamilton, this yoga school has grown into a true Novocastrian entity continuing its story as an accomplished Newcastle yoga studio with some refurbishments and ongoing improvements along the way, and loyal students returning for decades and welcoming many new students since. 

Hamilton Yoga is now the longest, continuously operating yoga studio in Newcastle, NSW, with David as owner and headteacher. David is rewarded with over 29 years of solid teaching experience and many close connections in the community, making him a respected and considerable figure in Newcastle and the Newcastle yoga scene.

David is thoroughly integrated into the community not only for tending a central Iyengar yoga centre in Newcastle, but also for his long and ongoing involvement with a local football club, volunteering there at management level and with maintenance jobs. In addition, David has strong connections with many musicians and artists through playing in bands, through his love and patronage of live theatre and his association with the German community through his German wife and bilingually raised children.

Hamilton Yoga – Iyengar Yoga School is an esteemed yoga studio in Newcastle with David offering Iyengar yoga classes here for nearly three decades. David Morley has been the owner and key teacher at this yoga school since it inception in 1996.