Great Lake Hotel owner says goodbye to life of cold comfort

One of Tasmania’s landmark hotels has changed hands with the previous owner saying “it is time to do other things”.

The Great Lake Hotel in Tasmania's Central Plateau has new owners. Picture: GREAT LAKE HOTEL

AFTER 15 years in charge, Great Lake Hotel owner Kaylee Hattinger says she will take countless happy memories with her as she prepares to move on.

The famous hotel, in Tasmania’s Central Highlands, has been sold after two years on the market.

The new owner will take over in September and Ms Hattinger said she expected it to continue operating as a hotel.

“I have a grandchild coming at the end of August, and I decided a few years ago that I needed to restructure life, because the life of a publican is pretty difficult, it’s a seven day a week as an owner/operator of a small business,” Ms Hattinger said.

“For the last 15 years, I’ve dedicated to the Highlands and Miena and building my business, and we’ve done a great job and it’ll be a sad day for us when we go, but it is time to do other things.”

Posted by Great Lake Hotel. Tasmania on Monday, 27 May 2019

Ms Hattinger, who will continue living in Tasmania, said she would miss the people and the weather the most. The hotel receives regular dumpings of snow in winter, and survived a bushfire which threatened the property in January this year.

She said the hotel had built strong camaraderie with the local community and connected to the rest of the world through its Facebook page with more than 45,000 followers.

2trucks stuck on bakers tier. Through traffic is being stopped at Bothwell. Our staff are stuck there so we won’t be opening till they can get to work. Will notify updates as soon as I know something

Posted by Great Lake Hotel. Tasmania on Tuesday, 28 May 2019

Ms Hattinger will take plenty of great memories with her when she leaves.

“Being Collingwood supporters, we’ve had some great Collingwood grand finals here, some not so happy but some very happy, particularly when we beat St Kilda,” she said.

“The Wolfe Brothers played here before [they] were famous, so we’ve had some great band nights up here, [and] we’ve had some awesome snow-person building competitions.”