Ever wondered what it might be like to own a whole town? Well, now’s the chance to find out with an entire rural settlement in Tasmania for sale.
Halfway between Hobart and Queenstown in the Central Highlands, Tarraleah was founded in the 1930s when the Hydro Electric Commission saw it as the perfect site for a pioneering power station.
Roads, a water supply and sewerage system, a dam, an electricity plant and houses were all built to accommodate the workforce and it became a bustling little town. After the infrastructure for the hydro project was completed, however, the workers left and the place fell into decline.
“It’s basically been empty now for 40 years,” said Ed McKay of real estate agents Peterswald, which now has Tarraleah’s 147-hectare estate on its books for sale, complete with a Development Application, part-way through the local council, to build a whole new town on the 90 hectares zoned residential.
“It’s an amazing place and could be an incredible asset. These days, the only people who go there are tourists as it’s such a beautiful area and is a perfect escape.”
The community development scheme would allow 71 home sites to be established among the rolling hills, the Tarraleah Lake, the Tarraleah and Tungatinah forest reserves and a nearby nine-hole golf course.
At the moment, the land has only an award-winning luxury lodge where holidaymakers stay for between $600 and $700 a night, two restaurants, two function centres, a gate house that’s served in the past as a spa, a cafe, a shop, an art gallery and various other accommodation. The Highland Caravan Park with 32 powered sites takes in guests from $20 a night.
Most visitors travel to Tarraleah – 120 kilometres from Hobart and 150 kilometres from Launceston – for the escape to nature, the bushwalks, the mountain-biking, the wildlife, the fly-fishing in the lake stocked with brown trout, the kayaking and water sports, or for a round of golf on a course that’s at the highest altitude in Australia.
It’s now on sale via an expressions-of-interest campaign in the price ball park of $12 million for the whole kit and caboodle, the land and the existing properties, including that main luxury lodge.
“The current owner bought it in 2005/2006 with a vision of creating a tourism destination,” said McKay. “There’s plenty of accommodation there from the lodge, some three and four-bedroom houses and the caravan park, and the whole gamut in between.
“During the summer, there are plenty of tourists, and there’s 31 staff to service all the attractions, so that’s a thriving business. But with the remnants of the former town, it would be possible to either develop the housing or demolish it and build new homes, or sell off the land sites. There are lots of possibilities.”
Buyers would have three clear options: developing its appeal to tourists further and creating more rooms and activities; selling off land sites for people to build homes or shacks so they could spend their weekends there; or taking on the community development scheme, which is in the final stages of being presented to the local council.
“Councillors have been out and look as though they’re ready to give that development scheme a green light,” said McKay. “But we didn’t want to push it all the way through council in case the purchaser wanted to go in a different direction.
“Equally, it could be turned into a premier tourist destination for its food and wine, or as a wellness retreat, or as an adventure sports hub. There’s simply so much untapped potential.”