A Stylist's Guide to TASMANIA

The island state celebrates its wild nature with luxurious accommodation, delicious local fare, original wares and quirky diversions.

- Sibella Court

Sleep:

PUMPHOUSE POINT

For an exceptional sense of place and breathtaking landscapes, you cannot go past multi-award-winning Pumphouse Point, Lake St Clair. The drive to the destination sets the tone for your stay as eucalypts, ferns and native wildflowers among a changing forest scape prelude the lake and its small driftwood beaches. Then, before long, glimpses appear of the 1930s pumphouse that seems to be floating on the water’s surface.

Greeted at check-in inside the caretaker’s cottage, my companion and I were ferried across to The Pumphouse, with baggage, by so-called ‘flume buggy’. On the way we took the opportunity to learn about the history of where we were about to stay. The culmination of developer Simon Currant’s vision and designed by architectural firm Cumulus Studio, the renovated pumphouse of the former hydroelectric station now houses a hotel. The drama of staying there is hard to go past, and to wake up in the middle of a lake is quite magnificent. There’s a magical feeling to watch the ever-changing weather that shifts rapidly around the lake as seen from the expansive windows. It is a clever design of space; a marriage of old and new.

There’s also the option to stay at The Shorehouse or The Retreat (complete with open-air bath!). Dinner is a communal affair, with a daily changing menu championing locally sourced protein and produce. Go early for an honesty bar experience and to mingle with fellow guests, taking in the reverse view, looking across the lake to The Pumphouse itself.