Is Australia’s original luxury eco walk still walking the sustainability talk after 30 years? Steve Madgwick finds out.
In 1992, the idea of paying big bucks to do your business in a self-composting dunny while on a luxury holiday in Australia would have seemed ludicrous to most people.
The proposer of this ablution revolution was Freycinet Experience, a luxury guided eco walk on Tasmania’s wild east coast; itself a novel concept back when even muttering the word sustainability painted you as a fringe-dweller.
Yet gradually, this small business’ off-the-grid methods and ethos became a template for high-end, lodge-based walks that bloomed across the Australian landscape, from Margaret River’s Cape to Cape to Norfolk Island’s Seven Peaks Walk.
Three decades later, in an age of greenwash, rapidly shifting sustainability benchmarks, and bloated Dubai-esque notions of luxury, how does this family-owned concern stack up and keep up?
“If you’re authentically adhering to being a sustainable-tourism eco venture, and you really want to be a custodian of the environment, then it is an ongoing challenge,” says Holly Masterman, daughter-in-law of co-founder Joan Masterman OAM. “It’s about constantly looking for what’s out there and asking what you can improve on. We haven’t got a carbon offset for the drive from Hobart at the moment, for example, and that’s something we should be looking into.”
At the heart of this four-day guided coastal walk is Friendly Beaches Lodge, the centrepiece of a collaboration between Joan and architect Ken Latona, who first worked together on Tasmania’s Overland Track huts, themselves partly inspired by the South Island’s classic multi-day walks.
In a testament to the lodge’s original off-the-grid design, Freycinet Experience received an Advanced Ecotourism accreditation – Ecotourism Australia’s highest rating – without any radical changes to structures that were built on the footprint of two old fishing shacks 30 years ago.
The solar system has been upgraded as technology has improved, and insulation has been added, but the fundamentals remain as they were: all waste is recycled, rainwater supplies the water and the surprisingly elegant composting toilets still let nature take care of your calls of nature (just add half a cup of sawdust).
It takes a knowing eye to find the unsigned tunnel of trees that leads upwards from sand dunes to the “Invisible Lodge” – intentionally designed so nothing could be seen from the beach, 100 metres below. Thirty years of bush regrowth on the 130-hectare private sanctuary and a gradual natural darkening of the buildings’ Tasmanian-oak exteriors contribute to the camouflage.
Inside, generous windows frame casuarinas, tea trees and banksias, and drag light into a space that simultaneously feels minimalist, rustic and luxurious. The central brick fireplace is the place to debrief at day’s end while indulging on Tassie cheeses and pinot noir. Next door, the cosy library room feels erudite and old-worldly. Infinity decks with no handrails, a corrugated roof, and rudimentary wooden door latches lend a pre-nanny state charm.
Big, conversation-launching works by Tassie artists such as David Keeling, Helen Wright and indigenous photographer Ricky Maynard hang boldly on wood-panel walls. In 2023, there are plans to launch an artist-in-residence programme, potentially reserving some walks for art buffs.
Originally the walking itinerary included two nights at deluxe standing camps dotted along the Freycinet Peninsula; paused back then because of the “enormous logistical commitment”, according to Joan. For now, walkers return to the lodge for all three nights.
The four-day (approximately 37km) route, which covers a varied cross-section of Freycinet National Park, is at the mercy of the elements. The track up to Freycinet’s second highest point, Mount Graham (579m), is off the cards after sustained rain, for example.
The Hazards stand tall over Coles Bay, a former whaling and fishing hub, three hours drive northeast of Hobart. The craggy line of granite peaks is the tail end of a geological “umbilical cord” that stretches across Bass Strait from Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.
Day one begins with a boat ride from Coles Bay to Schouten Island, off the peninsula’s southern tip. Schouten Passage hosts an almost Kaikōura concentration of sea life, its water thick with phytoplankton, its small rock islands animated with seabirds and Australian fur seals.
Schouten Island’s steep Bear Hill walk wends Tassie bush that is alive with the yellow wattlebird’s human-vomiting-like call and the grey fantail’s violin-like song. Over four days there’s a good chance to see one of the 15 pairs of white-bellied sea eagles that call Freycinet home, either patrolling high above or near their inter-generational nests, big enough for a couple of humans to nap in.
Schouten’s beach radiates a classic east-coast Tassie palette: bright orange lichened rocks, powder-white beach and intensely blue water. The motif crescendos at day-two highlight Wineglass Bay, chillingly named because its waters once ran red with the blood of slaughtered whales.
Throughout, Freycinet Experience guides take a custodial philosophy to the landscape, collecting washed-up debris and encouraging guests to carefully walk single file along soft sand, where shore birds are known to nest. Boots are washed to ensure Phytophthora doesn’t hitchhike to areas free from the soil-borne fungal pest.
An acknowledgement of country is performed, an affirmation of the fraught history of Tasmania’s east coast indigenous people, the Paredarerme (Oyster Bay Tribe). The guides point out “cultural living sites” (shell middens) and stones that are believed to have been used as tools, but crucially they don’t tell the indigenous stories of the country, which is the sole privilege of Palawa elders (the over-arching name for Tasmania’s indigenous community).
Tasmania’s foodie credentials have shifted from apples to epicurean since the 1990s, a golden age that spurned great wine, whisky, cheese and a new-found embracement of local produce from land and sea. However, Freycinet Experience’s challenge is to find local suppliers that align with its sustainable business model.
“You need to really research the ethics of a supplier,” says Holly, “find out how they do what they do. We don’t always get that right, but we’re always updating as new things come out locally.” Guest expectations are rightfully high, given the price of this premium product, and suppliers such as Freycinet Marine Farm oysters deliver, both in terms of quality and sustainability.
Ever-changing seasonal menus are anchored by recipes contributed by “talented cooks who have left their grandmother’s recipe here or a recipe from an amazing, off-the-beaten-track place they once travelled to”. Expect hybrid dishes, such as sustainably farmed wallaby rendang alongside stuffed peppers, to slide on to the long table each evening. In 2023, chef David Quon is giving the menu a “bush-tucker” tweak, utilising ingredients like pepper berry and wattleseed.
With octogenarian Joan stepping back from the day-to-day running of the business five years ago, the next Masterman generations – son Michael and (wife) Holly, and their son Isaac – are putting their spin on the matriarch’s founding principles. So, what can they offer a Kiwi already spoiled for choice with hikes at home and abroad?
Well, the Freycinet Experience Walk is not for hardcore, headstrong hikers (no more than 14km a day) but it engages closely and sensitively with the flora and fauna of a very special part of Australia. As Joan has said: “Never underestimate the restorative power of the Australian bush.”
Days spent walking along deserted white beaches, past lagoons flecked with black swans, and along wattle tree-shaded tracks. Always a chance of seeing a scurrying wombat, Tassie devil and echidna. At day’s end, the brave dip into the cleansing, wild Tasman Sea, knowing there’s a hot clawfoot bath waiting in a lodge that can’t even be seen from the sky above.
While most luxury travel businesses have barely started their race towards genuine sustainability, perhaps the judge of just how far the Freycinet Experience Walk was ahead of the game, is just how much it hasn’t changed since 1992.
GETTING THERE
Air New Zealand flies a twice-weekly direct service between Auckland and Hobart. airnz.co.nz
DETAILS
Prices for the four-day guided Freycinet Experience Walk start from A$3150pp, for departures until May 15, 2023, including transfers from Hobart, three nights’ accommodation, meals and drinks, and use of a daypack and waterproof jacket. Minimum four, maximum 10 people. freycinet.com.au
Israel briefly closed its airspace following US attacks on Iranian nuclear sites.