Great Lake Hotel forced to close after water pipes burst in big freeze

The freezing weather in Tasmania’s Central Highlands has taken a toll at the Great Lake Hotel in what is their peak season. Read what happened.

A dusting of snow at Great Lake Hotel in Tasmania's Central Highlands. Picture: Facebook

The award-winning Great Lake Hotel is counting the cost of the big freeze, which caused water pipes to burst, severely damaging rooms.

As it heads into its busiest time of year, and after a big advertising campaign, hotel owner, James Johns, is hoping the bistro will re-open on Saturday morning but it could be weeks before the rooms are repaired.

He said the water supply to the main accommodation burst in five places and pipes would have to be replaced.

“We’ve got seven of our rooms now out of action, the king sized rooms that have ensuites, so we are left with non-ensuite fishing cabins and two family rooms,” Mr Johns said.

“We’ll lose about $20,000 worth of worth of accommodation and sales from the bistro directly associated with that.

Great Lake Hotel rooms suffered damage after water pipes burst.

Great Lake Hotel rooms suffered damage after water pipes burst.

“The (insurance) assessor apparently is not being appointed till Monday, so I would suggest that at best we’re probably looking at six weeks to repair the damage.

“We’ve just embarked on a come and stay and experience the Tasmanian spirit by the fire type campaign and through the middle of July, August and September is when we get most of our snow and when we tend to get a lot more bookings.”

The hotel at Miena was built in 1983 and was bought by Mr Johns five years ago and has undergone extensive renovations.

“This is on par with the coldest we’ve had but two winters ago we had a whole week where we were colder than (Antarctic) Davis Station.

“It’s just fatigue in the in the metal systems because they’re all copper pipes, they’re not the new flexi pipes.

“Essentially the whole of our accommodation wing will need to be stripped out because it completely destroyed the rooms with the ceilings falling in.”

The Great Lake Hotel has been going from strength to strength and in 2022 and 2023 won the gold award for Tasmania’s best hotel and tavern, as well as the best grey nomads hotel in Australia.