Bark Hut Inn to undergo $1m renovation with help from Roadhouse to Recovery grant cash

NEW owners of the iconic Bark Hut Inn are about to undertake a $1m renovation, after a recent surge in tourism boosted business confidence

NEW owners of the iconic Bark Hut Inn, 116km from Darwin along the Arnhem Highway, are about to undertake a $1m renovation, after a recent surge in tourism boosted business confidence.

Renovation at the Bark Hut will include the creation of 50 new powered camp sites, 12 extra accommodation units, two new camp kitchen barbecue areas, upgrades to two ablution blocks and a the installation of a jumping pillow for kids.

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Owner of the Bark Hut Inn Grahame Wilcox and Shannon Mentiplay from Lazy Lizards. Picture Katrina Bridgeford.

It comes as the owners of the Bark Hut, Grahame Wilcox and Shannon Mentiplay, were among the first to receive grant funding from the Territory government’s Roadhouse to Recovery fund.

Designed to assist regional and remote wayside inns and roadhouse operators undertake infrastructure projects to attract visitors and improve their experience, the Roadhouse to Recovery scheme provides grants worth up to $150,000 with a co-contribution from business.

Owners of the Bark Hut will put in $885,000 of their own cash into the refurbishment, with the $150,000 to come from the grant scheme.

“Since the lockdown ended and everything, Territorians have been out,” Mr Wilcox said.

“Now we just need to get the rest of the country here.”

Mr Wilcox and Ms Mentiplay also own the Lazy Lizard in Pine Creek, where a surge in tourists have led to record trading for the business.

They say it’s driven by the Territory government’s popular tourism voucher scheme, a good wet season filling the waterways, and also fishos hunting the elusive million dollar fish.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the Roadhouse to Recovery scheme was about giving tourists “more reasons to stop during their trip and more reasons to stay.

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“In the age of the coronavirus crisis, bucket list road-trips have gone to the top of the list – and we are capitalising on the Territory’s growing drive tourism market,” he said.

Justyn Hateley, dealer principal at caravan business Jayco Darwin, said he was anxious at the beginning of the pandemic in February and March last year about what would happen to the business.

But business surged once the Territory opened up and the yard was “basically sold out” at one point, with Territorians driving sales.

Originally published as Bark Hut Inn to undergo $1m renovation with help from Roadhouse to Recovery grant cash