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THE BUILD

CREATING GLAMPING HEAVEN IN TASMANIA

This was the site before we started ‘the build’, after we cleared it of feral growth, but otherwise a blank canvas …

Our aim was to create a ‘Luxury Hotel under Canvas’ in this glorious rural setting

which would be true to its setting, resembling an Australian post-WWII Bush Camp

while optimising the magnificent riverfront location and valley and mountain views

When we purchased the property, the entire riverbank and the orchard were a tangled mass of huge feral hathorne, gorse and blackberry, and the flats were heavily compacted by sheep, and full of doc and other weeds.

So clearing and systematically eradicating these pests was the first big job.

The first riverfront prototype ‘bush’ tent went up. Welcome a tent later named ‘Treetops’

And the foundations of the lodge began, using a wonderful Australian invention – mega anchors.

These amazing anchors lock our buildings in place without using cement. They can be removed at any time, the building removed, and the land is totally undisturbed.

Secured by rods drilled into the ground at counter balanced angles, these anchors are not going anywhere

Floods came … twice! We were pleased to see that even ‘hundred year floods’, came nowhere near our tents.

and the massive trees held the banks together …. but we were worried about the wombat which lived amongst this massive root complex.

and just to be certain, we dredged out the drains in the orchard.

So, throughout the wet, work continued

After all the clearing of gorse, blackberry and hawthorne that we had done on the riverbanks, we started re-seeding the banks, and planting native clumping grasses.

The glamour of the Arabian Nights soft drapes were added to the tent

the riverfront pods of the Lodge began to take shape

and rough sawn cladding was added to resemble a farm shed at home in its environment

OK … rather posh looking farm sheds!

Looking forward to sundowner drinks on that deck.

Some more tent sites were selected …. imagine waking to those views

The bathrooms arrived – yes, the bathooms!

And these are the high-tech bathroom specifications ….

… drawn on a paper towel !!

After the wet, the ground gradually became firm enough for the heavy equipment to come in to dig the sevices in

After the Christmas/NewYear close down, work commenced again, only to find that a mother red-breasted wren and her two chicks had taken over the third pod …. so work on that has been delayed until the little ones (here ever so cleverly camoflaged) have fledged.

A great day for solving Big Boy 3D jigsaw puzzles

….. and more frames and tent flies start appearing against the skyline

because the water table is so high, the tanks have to be dug deep underground to stop them from popping up …

…. and this results in some seriously deep trenching for drainage around the tanks

The tent walls are up, and the bases are being rodded and nailed down

Container loads of furniture start arriving …

and create a buzz as they are unwrapped!

The plumbing is completed, and the bathrooms start going in … yes, that’s them … the bathrooms! Look how dry everything is now. Can’t believe we have had the wettest spring and summer – you would never know it now!

The concrete floors are then pumped into the bathrooms.

Now this might not sound like a very eco-friendly process, but it is. By pouring concrete inside the tanks we not only create the waterproof floor dictated by the health Dep, but also the weight of the concrete secures the tank to the ground without us having to permanently impact the environment with cement foundations.

As the Winter rains started, our priority is to get the boardwalk in so that there is always easy access for work to continue between tents and The Lodge.

To minimise our impact on the landscape, the boardwalks simply ‘sit’ on the grounds, and the water connections sit neatly under them… and so easy to access!