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Natural State News
April 2010
Winter of Festivals
The first ever Lumina – A Winter of Festivals will take place from late April to August 2010 and Tasmania will host more than 100 festivals and events in locations all over the state.
Lumina – A Winter of Festivals will feature popular current and new events including the Targa Tasmania; epicurean festivals Savour Tasmania and Tastings at the Top; musical extravaganzas Festival of Broadway and Festival of Voices; AFL football at Aurora Stadium and two events making their debuts in 2010, the Australian Shakespeare Festival, the first national Shakespeare festival to be held in Australia according to the organisers, and the Junction Arts Festival which will feature theatre and dance, opera, and visual arts (The 47 events will by turns be engaging, fun and mostly free).
The Winter of Festivals also includes a wide range of smaller community festivals and events. At LuminaTasmania.com visitors to Tassie can browse the line-up of winter events by date, region and genre and also plan and book accommodation and travel arrangements.
$30million extension to open in September
The $30million extension to Hobart’s historic Grand Mercure Hadleys Hotel (circa 1830s) will be completed in late September (2010).
The extension will add 128 suites (to the existing 71), a-la-carte restaurant and cafe. New conference facilities, including a new grand ballroom (which will increase conference capacity by 600 people) will remain faithful to the hotel’s heritage theme. In addition, the old stables will become a wedding centre with its sandstone walls and timber beams remaining in place.
The new suites will feature turn-key facilities to connect adjacent rooms. One room will be configured much like a traditional hotel room while the other will have self-contained facilities including a kitchenette. The two rooms, once con-joined will become a small apartment and be perfect for families.
Individual suites will have plasma TVs in the lounge and the bathrooms as well as touch-screen lighting, wireless broadband and environmentally friendly aircon.
The new suites in Hadleys will cost from $229 per couple per night for a room with a city and harbour view – the views extend over the top of parliament house to Hobart’s marinas and to the Derwent Bridge. The 9th floor two-storey penthouse with exterior deck, hot tub and 63m² of floor space will cost from $900 per night.
Hobart-born Katrina Little is the hotel’s GM and took on the Hadleys’ role specifically to preside over this significant financial investment in Tasmanian tourism.
www.grandmercurehadleyshotel.com.au and (03) 6223 4355
Stablemate for Avalon
Tasmania’s Avalon Coastal Retreat near Swansea, won the Deluxe Accommodation award at the 2009 Qantas Australian Tourism Awards. The owners of the property have built a stable-mate nearby. 
Rocky Hills Retreat opened in February (2010). It has views of Maria Island, Schouten Island and the Freycinet Peninsula. The 250-acres of bush about the property provides the underrated modern luxuries of quiet and absolute seclusion.
Rocky Hills’ very best features might be soaked up in the huon pine bath tub out on the deck. The retreat also has a fully-equipped kitchen, king-size bed, sumptuous orange couches and an extensive library of books and DVDs.
If guests are feeling inspired they can wander to the property’s art studio and become lost in either drawing, painting, sketching, knitting, reading or just sitting by the fire.
Rocky Hills Retreat costs $400 per couple per night (Sunday to Thursday) and $500 per couple per night for Friday and Saturday nights. The tariff includes full gourmet breakfast provisions and a glass each of Louis Roederer champagne and the use of the property’s Waterford Crystal champagne glasses.
Brett Torossi (0418 35 88 68): bretttorossi@ozemail.com.au and
Alison Wallace (1300 36 11 36): stay@avaloncoastalretreat.com.au
Social Media
Tourism Tasmania has launched a site where visitors to Tassie and the island's residents can post stories, pictures and videos about their time in the state as well as a Facebook page and Twitter updates to follow the latest happenings in Tasmania.
Users of the site can also comment on others' posts. It is anticipated the site might also become a place for impending visitors to check out travel tips and interact with friends and fans of Tasmania.
http://experiences.discovertasmania.com
Fine Photography
Bushwalker turned photographer Wolfgang Glowacki has a new exhibition in April at the Salamanca Collection in Hobart. He is the first photographer to have an exhibition there. The exhibition of fine art photography will run from the 2-27April.
Vine Finders
Wine Australia has touted Tasmania as the 'most exciting wine area in Australia'.
VineFinders (vinefinders.com.au) utilises GPS navigation and on-line mapping technology to provide directions and maps from a home or a hotel to any of 350 Tasmanian vineyards, cellar door, wineries, cideries, breweries and distilleries - from Flinders Island to South Bruny, and from near Stanley in the North-West to the more popular wine regions – such as the Tamar Valley and Pipers River Regions in the north, and down the East Coast to the Coal River Valley, the Derwent and Huon areas in the south.
The online database can be searched by name, region, town, or postcode. The site can display just cellar doors (and find their opening hours), or just breweries, or those locations with restaurants, or accommodation.
The project has strong Tasmanian connections, with one or other of the partners based in Tasmania throughout the eight years development of the comprehensive database of over 5,300 locations Australia-wide.
Managing partner Dick Friend has been in the business of promoting Tasmanian wine for 20 years through editing wine newsletters, marketing individual vineyards, and managing industry bodies.
www.vinefinders.com.au and Dick Friend: 0419 503 198
Whyte Hill
The Whyte Hill Lookout near Waratah, in western Tasmania, opened in March. There are actually two lookouts with fantastic views over the Tarkine and the Savage River National Park. The interpretation panels include information on some of the region’s great characters. The lookouts are on the road to Savage River and Corinna and one of them has access for the disabled.
Rather helpfully, the Tarkine Interpretation Centre and Gallery in Waratah opened at the same time. The gallery is in the renovated community hall. This should prove a great place to stop before any forays to the lookouts and into the Tarkine proper.
The lookout and the gallery are free.
Media Contact:
Sonia Rendigs at Media Moguls: (03) 9836 2167
sonia@mediamoguls.com.au
Download: High-resolution images from Tourism Tasmania's Visual Library.
Check the Events Tasmania website for upcoming events:
www.eventstasmania.com
For further information:
travelmedia.tourismtasmania.com.au
www.discovertasmania.com