16 Apr 2025
Words John Miller Informer

Glamp It Up

About 40 minutes’ drive south of St Helens on Tasmania’s eastern shoreline lies an area of rugged beauty in almost perfect isolation. It was here at the Chain of Lagoons in 2016, on a weed-infested former sheep farm facing the brooding Tasman Sea, that Melbourne couple Lynne Wilton and Paul Bunn decided to build their holiday home.

Grand Designs Australia tracked the build over the course of a year. The couple lived in a caravan that had seen better days while turning this isolated wilderness into a home. It was as off-the-grid as off-the-grid could be: no water, no power, no sewerage, no road.

Once the house was completed in 2019, the couple decided to stay put. Their holiday home became their permanent home.

“Tasmania has a magnetic pull,” says Lynne, who is the fifth generation of her family to have lived there. “It draws you in.”

Wanting to work from home, the couple conceived a secondary purpose for the eight hectares they were sitting on. If the remote, desolate beauty of the surrounding landscape and views down to the Freycinet Hazards mesmerised them, perhaps others would be entranced too.

Lynne was in the process of selling the property investment business she had built for the last 12 years in Melbourne’s South Yarra. Paul had already retired several years earlier from a 30-year career as a project manager with Telstra.

“The house was finished almost at the same time the business settled,” says Lynne. “We decided to stay and earn some money. That’s when we came up with the glamping idea.”

The couple spent a year realising their masterplan: four permanent luxury villas, nine temporary glamping tents and two communal facilities — a bathroom for ablutions, a barn house for dining. Little Beach Co. (“Co” for “community”) opened in 2021.

Lynne and Paul spent $1.3 million making their residence a model of sustainability: rammed earth walls and timber floors had thermal qualities to reduce heating and fit the aesthetic of the surrounding landscape. For the glamping experience, the couple applied the same careful thought to the kind of experience they wanted to offer guests.

“If you have excess land and want to do something, people think, ‘We’ll chuck up a few tents to get some extra money,’” says Lynne. “But between the bathhouse, the barn and the tents it was a $1.5 million investment … infrastructure, sewerage, the works.”

Having never developed a glamping experience before, many of Lynne and Paul’s efforts were trial and error until they found what worked.

“We did some testing with the tents on the ground … that was pretty provincial,” says Lynne. “We ended up building wooden platforms for the tents to sit on. It wasn’t cheap; about $7,000 a platform. This preserved the tents and kept them warmer.”

“With the tents, you have to adapt to your surroundings. Tasmania’s east coast is notorious for intense winds. Our tents are cyclone rated. We’ve probably had one issue with them in four years, and they’ve been put to the test many, many times. But it’s always a work in progress. We’re in the process of getting bespoke tents made. A combination of three different premium tents that combine the best elements of all of them.”

For Lynne and Paul, it was not just about considering guests’ safety and comfort but the environment as well. The site includes 400 metres of coastal rocky frontage with its own kelp forest.

“Paul and I take very seriously that we’re custodians of this space,” says Lynne. “We wanted to tread lightly and have a low environmental impact. And to attract like-minded guests.”

The couple’s eco-friendly measures extended to everything, from the same rammed earth they used to construct the house through to plant selection and water usage. 

Little Beach Co.’s initiatives have been recognised by the Tasmanian Government which will feature them in an upcoming marketing campaign for sustainable tourism. 

“We’re an old sheep farming block, so we’ve had a lot to contend with in terms of weed eradication of Gorse and Spanish Heath and have focused on landscaping the shape and form to enhance the beautification,” says Lynne.

“For the plants, we’ve stuck to the palate, ‘What grows goes.’ It’s heartbreaking when you plant something, nurture it and the salt air gets to it, or the wallabies eat it. 

So, we’ve learned to go with what grows naturally … Blue Gums, Banksias, Lomandra and Kunzea. We’ve planted 1,680 plants and shrubs since we’ve bought the property. The palate may be a little boring, but we’ve fallen in love with it.”

For electricity, all tents have sub-boards that draw from the main board, as well as solar power. Guests can choose either. For water conservation, the couple installed shower timers: five minutes for summer, six minutes for winter.

“We calculated the trucks would do 26,000 kilometres a year just bringing us water,” says Lynne. “Our competitors have one to two trucks coming a week. We have only a couple a year.”

“We’ve had one bad review from a guest, who gave us three out of five, as a result of our timed showers … a shame because it brought us back to a 4.6 rating on Airbnb, but we’re almost back to five stars again with recent reviews! Paul and I take our duty of care very seriously.”

Little Beach Co. is now heading into its fourth summer of operation. The site used to open to guests in September, but the couple discovered the spring winds can be fierce so they now open in October and close at the end of April. 

The couple found the income generated outside these months wasn’t worth potential damage caused by the strong winds to the site’s assets.

Little Beach Co. is essentially a four-person operation. Lynne and Paul have only two employees who between them work 60 hours a week, with an additional person working part-time doing maintenance and groundskeeping.

The $1.5 million spent on building the glamping business has proved an excellent return on investment Lynne says the nine tents have been more profitable than the villas, selling for $265 in low season and $385 in high season. 

However, the villas are the icing on the cake, Lynne says. They run all year around, with great depreciation of the asset and capital growth — a winner.

So, what makes a deluxe glamping experience? 

“Glam. It’s got to be glamorous!” says Lynne. “We’ve spent a lot of money on fit-out and soft furnishings. Don’t skimp. Buy well. Make it nice and have it looking perfect!”

“You have to work out what star rating you want to be. For us, that was five stars. That doesn’t happen by chance. You need to plan it. It’s also important to understand your customer. Ours is aged 28 to 48 and adults only. Our guests want everything to be absolutely immaculate. They want perfect.”

The couple splurged on throws, cushions and mattresses. Little Beach Co. commissioned Snooze to make bespoke Madison Times Square mattresses for each tent that cost about $7,000 each.

“I would have three comments a day, ‘Oh my god, I love that mattress,’” says Lynne.

Guests share a bathroom but once behind the locked door it becomes a sumptuous private exclusive area that Lynne describes as “adult chic”: stoned carved granite basins, deluxe tapware, double-headed showers.

“When we were designing our glamping business, we read reviews of other glamping sites 

and saw guests waiting with their towel and soap outside the shower block,” says Lynne. “We didn’t want our guests having to do that.”

For cuisine, Lynne and Paul have gone top of the line. Cape Grim Beef goes into a dry-ageing meat fridge to enhance flavour: eye fillets for 10 days; scotch, ribs and tomahawks for 28 days. 

RSPCA-qualified salmon, all washed down with a selection of premium wines from one of the best cellars on the east coast.

Guests do, admittedly, have to work a little for their meals; an intentional decision by their hosts.

“At the end of the day if people are glamping, they’re out for a camping experience,” says Lynne.

Little Beach Co. guests order their meals via a QR code between 10am and 3pm. 

The order pops into the kitchen, where Lynne, a trained chef, and Paul prepare it. At 6 pm the meal is ready for collection for guests to cook on coal flames, a hot plate or grill. Mains are accompanied by a selection of sides: French potato bake, salad with vinaigrette, French bake sourdough and baguettes, vegan caramelised pumpkin.

Going forward, Lynne and Paul hope to extend their glamping offering. They’ve lodged a DA for another four villas to be built alongside the existing four and a 12-site RV park to be nestled among the landscaping.

Their parting advice for glamping wannabes?

“It’s not about, ‘Let’s throw a few tents out in the yard and earn some extra income,’” says Lynne. “It’s about, do it once, do it right.” END