Tarraleah comes of age

According to Qantas' in-flight magazine, Tasmania's Tarraleah Lodge is now "one of the best 65 new hotels in the world" as stated by the UK's Conde Nast Traveller magazine.

Pre-children, in that blissful year of not working after selling my business, Gaylene and I stayed there while travelling around Tassie.

At the time, Tarraleah was a mini ghost town. The Tasmanian Hydroelectric Authority (The Hydro) had all but shut down the town.

A handful of homes were still occupied, the shop was struggling, but the lodge was operating - well sort of... The guests (us) lost out to the owner's daughter over the single TV, and dinner was unremarkable. But...the view over the valley was remarkable, as was the sight of the hydro pipes plunging over the edge of the escarpment just metres from the lodge.

At the time, I marvelled that an entire town seemed to be unwanted and up for grabs.

Some years later I heard that it had be bought by a religious group to run as a church camp.

But now the privilege of staying at Tarraleah, within a short jaunt of many prime trout fishing rivers, will apparently set us back a princely $990 per night (meals included - they'd want to be wouldn't they?).

Oh for the want of some money when the timing is right...