Development application for new $12.5m tourism hub at Spring Bay, Triabunna, lodged with Glamorgan Spring Bay Council

UPDATED: A LONG-awaited development application for Graeme Wood’s Spring Bay Mill site has been lodged with the Glamorgan Spring Bay Council.

Graeme Wood at the former Spring Bay Mill site at Triabunna.

A LONG-awaited development application for Graeme Wood’s Spring Bay Mill site has been lodged with the Glamorgan Spring Bay Council, and includes 20 accommodation rooms, a restaurant and “associated services.”

Spring Bay Mill general manager Stuart Loone said Mr Wood would discuss the plans for stage one of the project once they had been through the approvals process.

He said they were “thrilled” the development application had been lodged.

“We’re taking great care to ensure that we adaptively re-use existing buildings.”

Mr Wood announced plans to lodge a development application for a 40-room hotel, conference centre and restaurant two years ago, with a price tag of $20 million. No application eventuated at the time.

Mayor Michael Kent said he believed the development was now worth about $12.5 million, and that there would be scope for expansion later on.

He said he expected the documents to be out for public consultation within the next few weeks.

“I suspect we will be trying to get it (through council) this side of Christmas,” he said.

Cr Kent said he was “ecstatic” that there was movement at the site.

“That’s a huge opportunity for people within the Triabunna district and/or the East Coast of Tasmania,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier.”

MORE: TRIABUNNA MILL PLAN BACK IN THE MIX

East Coast Tourism chief executive Ruth Dowty said the development would help draw people to the Triabunna area.

“We are very pleased to see that the development application has gone in and therefore that it won’t be too long before work commences on the site,” she said.

“For a variety of reasons it’s been a while, but that’s what it is and we’re just delighted that we’ve got to the position that we’re in now. I think it could make a very significant difference (to the East Coast), particularly for that Orford-Triabunna region.

“I’m sure that there will be some clever people who are already going to be starting to mull over ideas for what they can do as business opportunities off the back of this.”

The mill was sold to Mr Wood and entrepreneur Jan Cameron in 2011. Ms Cameron later sold her interest in the site.

Originally published as Development application for new $12.5m tourism hub at Spring Bay, Triabunna, lodged with Glamorgan Spring Bay Council