SEA STACKS GENERAL MANAGER SUE GILBERT
Rising gently from the rugged edge of Bicheno, where land meets sea at Peggy’s Point, a development more than a decade in the making is finally at completion. Sea Stacks Bicheno is not simply a place to stay, it is a project shaped by patience, purpose and a quiet determination to do things differently. T he story begins long before construction crews arrived on site, dating back to 2002 when the former Silver Sands Hotel was purchased by Tasmanian millionaire and Kathmandu founder Jan Cameron with an intention that was, at the time, deliberately undefined. The site itself, not the ageing buildings that occupied it, was the prize. Perched on a unique peninsula, it was a parcel of land that demanded care rather than exploitation. From the outset, the vision was not to maximise yield, but to protect what was already there. It was this decision that would shape everything that followed. “There was a very clear desire to purchase the site to protect it from overdevelopment,” Sea Stacks General Manager Sue Gilbert says. “The landscape was so special and so unique, and there was a real
concern that if it wasn’t secured, it would be sold and developed at scale. The goal was always to create something that enhanced Bicheno, but also respected and protected the site.” Silver Sands continued to operate for more than a decade as plans slowly evolved. Concepts were refined, tested, challenged and, at times, completely reworked. It was not until around 2015 that a clearer direction began to emerge, leading to a pivotal decision in 2018 to build three prototype structures at nearby Douglas River. Those initial Sea Stacks at Denison were never intended as a finished product. Instead, they were almost a live experiment, an opportunity to test not just design, but how people would feel within the spaces. “What we did in the ensuing years was just sort of look at those three buildings, work out what guests loved about them and worked out which design and layout – because they were each slightly different – was the most popular,” Sue says. “We wanted to find which was the one that resonated most with the guests, and also the ones that we, I suppose from a caretaking position in how we look
9
Tasmanian Hospitality Review August/September Edition
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator