TASMAZIA FOUNDER BRIAN INDER
One of the state’s most loved family attractions celebrated a major anniversary in November, a 40-year milestone woven through lavender, labyrinths and laughter. Laura Inder reveals the story behind the dream of her late husband Brian: a tale of vision, community and destiny. F orty years ago, on a quiet stretch of rolling countryside in Promised Land beneath the shadow of Mount Roland, an idea took root – literally. A dream planted by a man with an eccentric imagination and a determination to breathe life into a region that was losing its young people to opportunity elsewhere. That dream became Tasmazia, a place where generations of families have laughed, gotten lost, found themselves again, and – quite often – headed home exhausted and smiling. Today, Tasmazia stands as one of Tasmania’s most iconic family attractions: nine mazes, quirky buildings, the Village of Lower Crackpot, a good café (and its famous array of pancakes), and thousands of handwritten memories etched into guest books. But behind the bold yellow directional signs and the sound of children squealing when they realise they are actually lost, sits a quieter
story: a story of love, risk, reinvention, and a belief that life can always begin again. It was the late Mr Inder, Tasmazia’s founder, who first imagined carving joy into a paddock. But the journey of Tasmazia cannot be told without Laura, who met Brian on a bus tour through Europe and eventually crossed the world to help build something extraordinary. The unlikely love story began in London – neither expecting romance, let alone a future together. But Laura remembers the moment Brian stepped onto the bus like a scene from a film. “My mother had invited me to accompany her on a tour of Europe, and our bus pulled up at Victoria Cross Station and the driver said, ‘we’ve got one more passenger to pick up.’ On hopped this person that had a little tweed jacket, and he had a red plaid little carry case and a walking stick and a tweed cap,” Laura recalls fondly. “I thought, ‘Oh, he looks interesting. I have to get to know him’, not realising what was going to happen. “It was a bit of a whirlwind thing, I suppose, because after a couple of weeks on the bus, I remember I
19 Tasmanian Hospitality Review December/January Edition
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