Unleashed Tassie locals run for the hills

The buzz is back. Tables are set, rooms made up and the mountains, plains and waterfalls are calling for the tread of hiking boots.

Cradle Mountain Lodge general manager Tim Buckton at nearby Dove Lake: ‘We are absolutely amazed at the amount of business that we’re currently picking up’. Picture: Peter Mathew

The buzz is back. Tables are set, rooms made up and the mountains, plains and waterfalls are calling for the tread of hiking boots and the click of camera shutters.

Tasmania’s $3bn tourism trade, dormant for almost three months amid coronavirus lockdown, is springing back to life, albeit in curtailed form.

While state borders remain shut to most arrivals, from 3pm on Friday Tasmanians were free for the first time since lockdown ­to travel anywhere in their state to stay overnight in accommodation or to camp.

It was the green light tourism operators had been urging for weeks, and long cooped-up Tasmanians responded, with strong bookings for popular haunts in the weeks ahead.

Philippa Harrison, managing director of Tourism Australia, said she was expecting it to be a busy holiday weekend throughout the country.

“Our recent consumer research shows that over 60 per cent of Australians are keen to travel around Australia once restrictions begin to ease, which is what we are now seeing,” she said.

“I think we’ll see a lot of the pent-up travel frustration from the recent weeks of lockdown starting to get released this weekend, and many Australians jumping into their cars, hooking up their caravans and trailers and heading out to reconnect with their backyard.”

“We are absolutely amazed at the amount of business that we’re currently picking up,” said Tim Buckton, general manager of Cradle Mountain Lodge, an institution of 50 years’ standing. “I’m shocked. We can’t actually keep up with the phones. As soon as the Premier (on Tuesday this week) announced the restrictions changing earlier, the phones just went nuts. There’s a bit of a buzz. We’re really happy to see so many Tasmanians supporting us and coming out for a weekend or a couple of days. Some weekends we are nearly already full — the entire lodge.”

The lodge, which reopens from June 12, has seen slumps before, including the 1989 pilot strike, 2007-09 global financial crisis and 2003 SARS outbreak, and appears well placed to weather the current recession.

A $10m renovation has been recently completed and there is relief and excitement that people will finally see it. And from June 15, the public will once again be able to catch a shuttle bus from the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre to the popular Dove Lake, although car access will remain closed.

Amid the relief at unrestricted intrastate travel resuming, there remains a note of caution from the tourism industry, which directly and indirectly contributes 10 per cent of Tasmania’s gross state product. Weekday trade, linked mostly to interstate and overseas visitors, remains depressed. “That’s where we’re obviously still significantly down compared with any other year,” Mr Buckton said.

The easing of restrictions from Friday meant he had been able to reactivate the jobs of half his 101 workers, who had been on JobKeeper. A return to full staff levels was dependent on the reopening of borders.

With visitors from outside the state making up roughly two-thirds of the tourism trade, the industry is eagerly awaiting Premier Peter Gutwein’s decision on border reopening, to be announced in early July. “For now, the positive note for us is the absolute thrill from seeing Tasmanians so passionate about supporting local businesses,” Mr Buckton said. “That can be infectious”