 |
 |
Natural State News
Issue 1 2007
TOPS IN TATLER
The UK's Tatler magazine recently included Hobart's Islington Hotel in its list of the world's best hotels.
The boutique hotel was once the residence of a Tasmanian premier but following a $3 million refit is now in Tatler's top 101 Hotels of the world.
Islington, circa 1847, is furnished with paintings and tapestries and other bespoke art. The building features many valuable works of art collected by the owners - two wealthy Australians based in Japan and Vietnam: David Meredith is a senior international advertising executive, John Goodyear a former partner in a major Sydney law firm.
There is a 24-hour houseman, a former footman to Queen Elizabeth, on site, a chef, marble bathrooms, flat-screen TVs, an acre of gardens, and views of nearby Mt Wellington from the conservatory-like eating area.
No prizes for guessing that general managers Nicholas Parkinson-Bates, 31, and wife Amy, 29, are chuffed. "To be listed up there with hotels like the Observatory Hotel in Sydney, which has won nearly every prestigious domestic and international award, is amazing," said Nicholas.
TASMANIA'S ENVIRONMENTAL LEAD
Tasmania's Minister for Tourism, Arts and the Environment, Paula Wriedt, recently announced the first "Green Class" Travel to Australia.
Green Class Travel fuses tourism with environmental protection and is an initiative set up in partnership with North American wholesaler Goway Travel. Its aim is to offset carbon emissions generated by visitors flying from North America to Tasmania.
For holidays to Tasmania purchased through Goway Travel throughout February 2007, Tourism Tasmania will offset the carbon emissions generated by the international flight through buying carbon credits - up to $100 per passenger. Travel must be completed between March 1 and October 31 2007.
The money donated from buying carbon credits will go toward green projects within Canada or the USA, depending on the travellers point of departure. Once travellers arrive in Tasmania they can further offset the impact of their travel on the environment by renting a car or motorhome from Maui or Britz Rentals.
Unveiled as part of Tourism Australia's G'Day USA marketing initiative, this innovation makes Tasmania, where more than one-third of the island is already protected as World Heritage Area or National Park, a destination leader in environmental protection.
More information: Shaun Rigby - 0438 021 936
TALL SHIPS SET TO SAIL 
Tassie's Wooden Boat Festival begins on February 9.
The festival has been on a rocket's trajectory since the first event in 1994 when 180 wooden boats graced Hobart's docks. In 2005 its vital statistics included about 40,000 visitors and 450 wooden craft, including two replica Viking boats from Denmark.
In 2007 there will be sailing and couta boats, rowing boats and vessels from Holland. Dutch captain Willem Janszoon may have been the first person to map and record the Australian east coast, and a replica of Janszoon's ship, the Duyfken, will appear at the festival. Also included will be a Shipwrights Village where the craft of wooden boat building will be demonstrated - follow the boat building process from the sawing of logs through lofting, roving and caulking.
Around 500 boats are expected to congregate in Constitution Dock and nowhere else in Australia will such an armada of wooden boats congregate.
www.australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au
HEALTH AND HEALING DREAMS
Flinders Island's Healing Dreams Retreat is running a Health Rejuvenation Week from February 19-27. A feature of the week will be the Ayurveda Rejuvenation with Dipika Delmenico. Ayurvedic means 'science of life. Treatments including warm herbal oil massages are a part of this 6000-year-old detoxification and restorative therapy.
Delmenico and the Healing Dreams team specialise in treatments that bring you purification and pleasure. Doubtless the raw beauty of Flinders Island is a considerable aid to the process.
FEMALE FACTORY PAST UNCOVERED
They may not be the BBC Time Team, but a group of archaeologists from around Australia and the United Kingdom are uncovering Tasmania's past at the Ross Female Factory.
The team, led by Dr Eleanor Casella from the University of Manchester, hopes to find artefacts and buried architectural features that help tell the story of the site and assist in future interpretation.
Built in the early 1840s, the Female Factory incarcerated female convicts from 1847 to 1854, when the convict transportation system ceased.
Today it is a protected Historic Site managed by the Parks and Wildlife Service and the Tasmanian Wool Centre at Ross.
The work may also highlight connections between the four convict female factories (Cascade, George Town, Launceston and Ross) and allow the multi-layered story of female convict history in Tasmania to be pieced together.
The results of the excavation will provide information to improve interpretation at the site in a project funded by the Tasmanian Community Fund.
Check the Events Tasmania website for upcoming events
For further information:
travelmedia.tourismtasmania.com.au
www.discovertasmania.com
www.eventstasmania.com