Developer Allure Tasmania wants to build 33 luxury waterfront villas at Primrose Sands

Residents at Primrose Sands and Connellys Marsh have held a public meeting over concerns about a proposed luxury resort overlooking tranquil Susans Bay.

Primrose Sands tourism development application

Visual and environmental impact, traffic, water, waste and general disquiet about over-development have galvanised a group of residents against a resort proposed at Primrose Sands.

Allure Norfolk Bay would include a central reception/restaurant building, a sauna and massage centre and 33 luxury king-bed villas.

The property would occupy a 2.7km waterfront strip on the farming property Riverside, which overlooks Susan Bay and Connellys Marsh.

Around 120 people attended a concerned residents’ meeting at the Primrose Sands community hall on Wednesday.

The crowd included people from Primrose Sands and Connellys Marsh, and several members of Sorell Council.

Community spokesman Michael Roach said people at the meeting raised a range of issues.

“There’s certainly a high level of disquiet about the proposal,” he said.

“It’s astoundingly audacious to think that a single developer can develop 2.7km of coastline, and to see for it negligible benefit at all from a socioeconomic perspective.”

“This is a really good example of a bad development.”

Dr Roach said the proposal was concerning overall because it was along an undeveloped coastline on the edge of Crown Land reserve.

“How can you have private access across public land?,” he said.

“There has been no attempt whatsoever to undertake a consultation process.”

Primrose Sands tourism development application

A statement provided to the Mercury by Allure Tasmania CEO Jacinta Young said the company was a new locally-owned, solely Tasmanian and emerging luxury lodge brand.

“Consistent with its vision to provide visitors an authentic and uniquely Tasmanian experience, Allure has spent more than four years refining its master plan to ensure that the development does not compromise the region’s natural beauty or the laid-back rural lifestyle that locals hold dear. Maintaining natural tranquillity, uninterrupted views, and the continued operation of the property’s working sheep farm were all key planning considerations,” the statement said.

“Guest villas will nestle unobtrusively along the foreshore of Norfolk Bay and will be designed to melt into their surroundings, echoing both the colours and forms of nature and the region’s traditional holiday shacks. Styled as either boathouses or beach houses, according to location, the villas will offer unpretentious luxury in an authentic farm context. Privacy for guests and neighbours will be ensured by extensive plantings of native bushland species, which will supplement the existing vegetation that already screens the proposed development from the nearby towns of Primrose Sands and Connellys Marsh.”

The statement said development at Norfolk Bay would depend on the success of its sister development, Allure Cape Raoul.

The Cape Raoul development was lodged in 2020 and approved in 2021, but construction has not started.

The statement said Allure Cape Raoul was undergoing final approvals, with construction due to begin later this year.

Allure Norfolk Bay is open for public comment until March 26.