Turning trash into treasure: Tasmania's Pumphouse Point gets modern-day hotel makeover

To think that Pumphouse Point was almost sentenced to "wrack and ruin", as its owner operator Simon Currant puts it. The failure of several attempts – including an early one by Tasmanian tourism leading light Currant – to reinvent the historic site for modern-day hotel use almost had the authorities ready to deign it a lost cause.

Then back along came self-confessedly "stubborn" Currant with his Plan B, and now Pumphouse Point is not only up and running, but enjoying more than 90 per cent occupancy since opening in January.

Initially, Currant had a six-star resort in the Saffire Frecynet ilk in mind for Pumphouse Point, a striking abandoned 1940 hydro station on Lake St Clair inside Tasmania's World Heritage area. Then the GFC struck and Currant was forced to go back to the drawing board. He's grateful he did. "I don't know, maybe there was some kind of divine intervention here, but now it's absolutely compatible use with the beautiful surrounds."

The end result is an elegantly simple 18-room retreat across two buildings, beautifully furnished but designed to enhance visitors' relationship with the pristine nature outside, rather than ensconce them away from it, taking advantage of the spectacular views from most angles.

Currant explains: "You've got a naturally spectacular World Heritage national park. Couple that with heritage buildings that are architecturally extraordinary because their form never set their function. I mean what hydro station needs bay windows seven metres tall? So we've got shared table dining and interaction between guests, but the most important thing is engagement with the environment. Buildings and beds are necessary, but just a vehicle because you want to be in this environment."

Currant and his small management team are evidently driving the vehicle well: the TripAdvisor reviews are off the charts.

Doubles from $240. See pumphousepoint.com.au.