Burnham Beeches mansion: Wellness resort, glamping, Six Senses luxury hotel planned

Glamping, a wellness retreat and luxury hotel are planned for the historic Burnham Beeches site in Sherbrooke.

New plans have been unveiled for the Burnham Beeches site in Sherbrooke.

The latest plans for the historic Burnham Beeches estate in Sherbrooke have been revealed, with a luxury hotel, wellness centre, and glamping proposed for the site.

The Trenerry Consortium, which bought the site from celebrity chef Shannon Bennett earlier this year, has unveiled its development plan for the beloved site, home to a treasured art deco mansion that has sat vacant for decades.

The Consortium has appointed Six Senses, “the hospitality industry’s pioneer of sustainable practices” to operate the hotel at Burnham Beeches, along with proposed glamping tents, marking the brand’s first foray into the Australian market.

The Consortium said along with the restoration of the mansion and surrounding garden, it plans to establish a restaurant, wellness retreat, pool house and guest rooms at the site.

The historic art deco mansion at Burnham Beeches. Picture: John Gollings

“A Village Square will become the beating heart of the site, with The Hearth, The Barn, a Steak House, The Baker, Brew House and Providore surrounding the central gathering space,” the Burnham Beeches website said.

To help overcome the “enormous” cost of restoration of the mansion and limitations of the existing permit, the project team is proposing to introduce “a premium, non-permanent” glamping (five-star camping) offering, managed by Six Senses.

The owners said a heritage permit application currently sits with Heritage Victoria, “approval of which is essential to delivering the long-term conservation of the property, including the historic mansion”.

The Herald Sun reported in March that Trenerry Property, which paid $16.6m for the estate, said its priority was to appease Heritage Victoria which had made no secret of its concern that urgent maintenance of the mansion, saving the 1930s treasure from falling into further disrepair, had not been done.

A render of the proposed Burnham Beeches redevelopment.

Save the Dandenongs League vice president Carolyn Ebdon, also president of the Dandenong Ranges National Trust Branch, said the new owners seemed to have a more positive approach to working with Heritage Victoria.

“That gives us encouragement that finally the building is going to be treated with the respect it deserves,” she said.

“It’s been awful to think that it’s been allowed to fall into disrepair for roughly 30 years.”

Ms Ebdon said she was looking forward to attending an information session on Tuesday to look at the plans for the site.

The sprawling Burnham Beeches property was the former home of Alfred Nicholas, who co-launched pain relief product Aspro in 1917.

The art deco home on the site is known as the Norris building, named after architect Harris Norris.

Nicholas used Burnham Beeches as his rural retreat from 1933 and died at the property in 1937.

A community information session will be held at the Burnham Beeches mansion from 4pm – 6pm on Tuesday, November 15.