Luxury Lodges of Australia will celebrate its 15th anniversary next week having formed in January 2010 and launched on 27 May 2010. This week in Sydney, some of the founding partners marked the occasion with a special event for media, including LATTE, hosted at Bangarra Dance Theatre on the waterfront at Dawes Point.
Penny Rafferty, Executive Chair GAICD, Luxury Lodges of Australia was joined by
James Baillie of Baillie Lodges and Founding Chairman of the member-owned association, alongside Phillipa Harrison, now Managing Director of Tourism Australia but then a Founding Member in her prior role with Hamilton Island.
The association was formed to raise global awareness of Australia’s new breed of experiential luxury travel.
Rafferty, who has guided the association since its formation, was formerly the general manager at The Louise in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, a property then owned by American businessman, Jim Carreker. Initially starting out with 15 members*, the collective has evolved, and has been used as a model by Tourism Australia to launch into the Experiences space.
Luxury Lodge of Australia comprises 20 members – Arkaba (SA), Bamurru Plains (NT), Bullo River Station (NT), Capella Lodge (NSW), El Questro Homestead (WA), Lake House & Dairy Flat Lodge (VIC), Lizard Island & The House (QLD), Longitude 131º (NT), Mt Mulligan Lodge (QLD), On Board (TAS), Pretty Beach House (NSW), quaila (QLD), Saffire Freycinet (TAS), Sal Salis (WA), Silky Oaks Lodge (QLD), Southern Ocean Lodge (SA), Spicers Peak Lodge (QLD), The Louise (VIC), True North and True North II (NT), and the most recent additions – Orpheus Island Lodge and Pelorus Private Island, both on Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef.
“Many people don’t realise how much of a collaboration Luxury Lodges of Australia is,” Rafferty said at this week’s event.”Ultimately, what we’ve been focused on is not just about selling and not just about building brand awareness, but about building trust.” Rafferty emphasised the collective’s relevance to the future, noting:
“At a time when the world feels a little crazy, uncertain, rising anxiety, economic constriction, fear, lots of competition globally, and a lot of positive impact requirement and desire with travellers growing across the world for that, we have this incredible opportunity for Australia to be an antidote to everything that people are running away from, and also, people are running to.”
“That sense of connection with nature and how that relates to a sense of activity to global appreciation of local luxury competency.”
“The halo effect – 20 lodges, 350 experiences, 4,000 Australian business that come together to create that really rich tapestry of travel.”
James Baillie, Founding Chairman of Luxury Lodges of Australia, reiterated Rafferty’s comments, saying the group began as a “collective” all centred on one common goal.
“It was 20 years ago this year that Hayley and I got approvals for Southern Ocean Lodge, and that for us was an incredible milestone.”
“When we first started no one even really knew what lodges were. It wasn’t even really a space.”
“We opened Southern Ocean Lodge two weeks after having our fourth child and lived and breathed what became, and I think I can safely say now with no arrogance, an icon of Australian tourism.”
“But what we didn’t know the opening of Southern Ocean Lodge would also spur the development of other experiential and luxury properties and experiences in Australia, and it aligned,
whether by chance or planning, with a movement around the world to this style of tourism where luxury wasn’t about hotel rooms with pink marble and gold taps and 10,000 butlers… but it was really about less is more and leaving with some level of enlightenment.”
“It wasn’t just about a bed, but the bed needs to be super comfortable and amazing, but it was about a sense of place and delivering so many facets from the local area and drawing on that landscape, whether its that the providence of the food and wine, whether its the great stories around the incredible environmental location or the adventures that you can have there.”
Baillie described the collaboration of Luxury Lodges of Australia as a pioneer for the local industry when attending PURE Experiences in the early days in Marrakech. “That was so defining for us, that as a collective we could do a lot more.”
He referenced comments from Rafferty explaining the collective was centred on “mateship”.
“That’s something I think Australians do really well. We’re collegiate, but even as competitors we can be mates, and we can have a great time together, whether its on the international circuit, whether it’s here in Sydney, and its about the greater good.
“And what we did in this space was we partnered with each other and really developed the whole concept of luxury experiential tourism in Australia.”
Phillipa Harrison, MD of Tourism Australia, lauded the group’s initial assembly in 2009 under Carreker, Rafferty and Baillie who created the constitution for Luxury Lodges of Australia and brought the group together. She described Rafferty as a “crucial player” in the collaboration.
“Penny has this incredible ability to think strategically but also wear out her shoe leather.”
“There’s nobody that I know in the luxury space in Australia who knows more about it, or has more credibility, because she does the hard yards as well. She’s still going to all the trade shows, meeting with our partners and media. For me, she is the point of connection for luxury in Australia,” Harrison remarked.
“Luxury Lodges of Australia really helped us define what Australian luxury is.”
“Anyone who was in that foundation story will talk about the sense of place. We all were very different properties but we all had the one common aspect which was all about where we were located and the experience of that and all the luxury pieces that came with it.
“Mine was the Great Barrier Reef, James’ being on Kangaroo Island, and Penny’s being the wine in the Barossa – they were all very different but they all had a common thread, and that was about getting people to really experience the place in a really beautiful and really privileged way.”
Harrison explained that Rafferty helped Tourism Australia define and set up the programs that appeal to the the luxury traveller these days.
“Back then, all of the luxury lodges were passion projects. James had a passion project. Jim had a passion project. I worked for Bob Oatley, and at the time everyone laughed when he spent $100 million on a property on Hamilton Island. But look at qualia now. It’s a beautiful legacy piece, not just for the Oatley family, but also for Australia.”
“And with Luxury Lodges of Australia, there are all these incredible properties. Many were passion projects by incredible owners.”
Harrison said there’s a real need for more boutique sized properties, “not bigger ones, because I feel they feed into what is special about Australia, and unashamedly, we copied the Luxury Lodges of Australia model at Tourism Australia. “We now have the Signature Experiences collective that are exactly the same sort of model. The collectives are run by industry and partner with Tourism Australia, are focused around people’s passions and interests when travelling – and all of that stemmed from that moment 15 years ago in the Barossa, that we’re celebrating today.”* Luxury Lodges of Australia’s Founding Members were:Arkaba Station, Flinders Ranges; Bamurru Plains, Top End; Bedarra, Great Barrier Reef; Capella Lodge, Lord Howe Island; Cape Lodge, Margaret River Wine Region; Lake House, Daylesford; Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef; Longitude 131, Ayers Rock/Uluru; qualia, Great Barrier Reef; Sal Salis, Ningaloo Reef; Southern Ocean Lodge, Kangaroo Island; Spicers Clovelly Estate, Sunshine Coast Hinterland; Spicers Peak Lodge, Scenic Rim South East Queensland; The Louise, Barossa Valley; Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa, Blue Mountains. Meanwhile Saffire Freycinet and True North joined within weeks of LLOA’s launch.Lead image: Phillipa Harrison, Tourism Australia; Penny Rafferty, Luxury Lodges of Australia and James Baillie, Baillie Lodges | Photo: LATTE.
