Mt Field: Stage 1 of $5.5m Retreat just weeks from completion
An Upper Derwent power couple say they field requests almost daily to host events such as weddings and meditation retreats. It’s not currently possible, but will be under their rapidly developing plans.
Tasmania
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The couple behind a proposed $5.5m retreat on the doorstep of one of Tasmania’s most popular national parks, featuring 19 accommodation ‘pods’ for couples and families and a 100-seat conference centre, hope to welcome their first guests by Easter.
New Norfolk residents Rachel and Greg Power, who purchased Waterfalls Cafe and Gallery in the Mount Field National Park visitor centre a decade ago, revealed their plans for a new 1.7ha Mount Field Retreat in February this year.
They originally purchased the Lake Dobson Rd block nine years ago, with the concept gestating ever since.
However, it could be as soon as Easter that it hosts its first guests, with Stage 1 of the development – four single-bedroom accommodation ‘pods’ – just weeks from completion.
Ultimately, the $5.5m retreat will host 19 pods, five of them luxury couple’s retreats, two of them two-bedroom family units, and a 100-seat conference centre.
“We are fielding daily questions about events,” Ms Power said.
“Last week I had to say, sorry, we aren’t set up for weddings yet. The week beforehand, sorry, no place for a meditation retreat.”
Ms Power said that despite Mount Field National Park receiving almost as many visitors as Cradle Mountain, she believed investment, both public and private, in local facilities had lagged behind its more famous sibling.
“The facilities haven’t changed much in 10 years,” she said.
“There’s been very little investment in the national park, a few upgrades here or there.
“Mount Field is Hobart’s backyard, that was proved to us during Covid. We were seeing Hobartians three or four times a month when their relatives came down for a visit (as overseas travel was banned).
“Everyone has a connection to the park.”
Ms Power said the retreat would be a “gamechanger” for the Upper Derwent Valley.
“It takes the region from a daytrip to a destination,” she said.
The proposed conference centre was the “key to the whole thing” as it would provide the additional benefit of local jobs, especially on-the-job training for unskilled workers, an area Ms Power feels passionately about.
“Our cafe hires about 10 staff a year as seasonal workers, a lot of people returning to the workforce, people facing barriers to employment,” she said.
“As much as 80 per cent of our staff find continuing employment after their time with us.”
The next stage of the development will see an additional eight accommodation pods installed, as well as work commencing on the conference centre.
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