Australia’s most unique boutique hotels

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Everyone loves a unique boutique hotel.

So emerge from the bland world of cream-coloured walls, “fusion" ideals and homogenised designs Xeroxed from one town to the next, and let Craig Roberts lead you through some of our favourite places to stay that aren’t just a pit stop for shut eye.

Canopy Treehouse

Climb to the top of the forest and stay there.

The Canopy offers secluded tree house accommodations in ancient rainforest

With neighbours like tree kangaroos and green possums, it’s hard to say no.

 

But this treehouse southwest of Cairns is no ordinary Swiss Family Robinson affair of slapped together timbers on the shoulders of tree limbs, but luxury living 30ft off the floor.

 

Details: Hogan Rd, Tarzali, Qld. (07) 4096 5364.

Thorngrove Manor Adelaide

It’s hard to define Thorngrove Manor.

The retreat features towers, turrets and imaginative décor

There’s no front door. No single room is the same size or shape, nor does the place hold a single piece of furniture or decoration that’s the same.

 

With spiral staircases, split levels, sandstone turrets, four-poster beds and manicured lawns, it could be a medieval castle, an English manor or something from the set of Merchant Ivory. Whatever it is, Thorngrove is designed for maximum privacy with guests unable to happen upon each other.

Experience another world, and century…

There are plenty of pros and cons to this place. Pro: you won’t need a parole hearing in order to leave. Con: you’ll be picking up the tariff, not the good people of South Australia. Pro: there’s a toilet in your room.

 

Con: it’s right next to your head, so best not to be shy. The equilibrium tips over when the following are taken into account: it comes with an internal exercise yard, mess hall restaurant, gaol tours and a set of gallows!

Experience a unique romantic and escapist retreat

Details: Glenside Lane, Stirling, SA. From $695 per night. (08) 8339 6748.

Mt Gambier Old Gaol

There are plenty of pros and cons to the Mt Gambier Old Gaol.

The only gaol you will be sad to leave once your stay is over

Pro: there’s a toilet in your room. Con: it’s right next to your head, so best not to be shy.

 

Details: Margaret St, Mt Gambier, SA. 1800 626 844.

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Carriageway Barrington Tops

Were all the old red rattlers like this? I doubt it.

 

Had someone said back in the ’80s that a smelly, decrepit, graffiti-strewn train carriage would be turned into high luxury, you’d have been committed.

 

That someone actually thought to do it, then sandwiched it between WHA Barrington Tops and the Hunter Valley defies logic. But here we are.

 

Details: Clarence Town Rd, Dungog, NSW. (02) 4992 1388.

Arts Factory Lodge Byron Bay

For that inner hippie in all of us, Arts Factory is the original backpackers of Byron Bay and the beating heart that reminds us what Byron was, before boutique hotels and yuppies set up shop on the beach: a getaway from modern life, modern people and modern ideals.

The property was originally created in the 70’s by hippies and local and international artists

Check out the vibe as you sleep in a Tee Pee or a surf shack, visit the lounge cinema, get lost on a bush tucker tour or just hang with the eclectic mix from around the globe that migrates through Byron on any given day.

 

Details: Skinners Shoot Rd, Byron Bay, NSW. From $28 per night. (02) 6685 7709.

Underground Motel White Cliffs

Usually living in the shadows of her more famous cousin in SA, White Cliffs proves there’s life underground elsewhere than in Coober Pedy.

Experience life underground

Underground Motel is a rabbit warren of ever-expanding dugouts that will have little ones running amok for hours mind-mapping the place. After a long drive it’s a subterranean oasis in the otherwise scorched tundra of the Strzelecki Desert.

The huge underground complex with 30 underground rooms and 2 above ground rooms

Details: White Cliffs, NSW. (08) 8091 6677.

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Palace Hotel Broken Hill

Its location and architecture don’t mark it out as anything special.

Magnificent murals at the Palace Hotel in Broken Hill

Neither, necessarily, does its history (though bits of Priscilla were filmed here). What makes it unique hides inside, on the walls. Formerly Mario’s Palace, this left-to-ruin outback masterpiece is being regenerated room by room by the delicate hands of locals. The interiors are covered in murals painted by a wandering Aboriginal miner in exchange for rent, and each surface is adorned with a different story.

 

Details: Argent St, Broken Hill, NSW. (08) 8088 1699. The Palace Hotel interiors are covered in murals painted by a wandering Aboriginal miner in exchange for rent, and each surface is adorned with a different story.

A Few Extra Weirdos

Q-Station, Manly NSW

Formerly a disease-riddled quarantine station, now a cracking hotel with nighttime ghost tours and some of the most secluded views across Sydney Harbour.

 

Lighthouses!

There are plenty. You can hire white ones, big ones, square ones, round ones, little ones, red ones, ones on islands, on cliffs, with shipwrecks, with seals or penguins and you can view them all at

 

Coober Pedy, SA

From the five star Desert Cave to the weirdest of the weird, Crocodile Harry’s Underground Nest, it doesn’t matter where you lob, you’ll eventually end up underground here.

 

Fire Station, Adelaide

Sleep in a fire station with a working fire pole and a working order 1945 bright red fire truck in the bedroom.

 

Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn

The iconic Kakadu hotel turned 21 this year. Its croc design was the result of a comp to come up with something representing the NT that would be instantly recognisable – from the air anyway.

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How a $1 deal saved Bendigo’s historic tramways

    Megan Arkinstall Megan Arkinstall
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    The passionate community that saved Bendigo Tramways has kept the story of this city alive for generations.

    It was an absolute steal: a fleet of 23 trams for just $1. But such a fortunate purchase didn’t happen easily. It was 1972 when the Bendigo Trust handed over a single buck for the city’s historic collection of battery, steam and electric trams, which had transported locals since 1890.

    inside the historic Bendigo Tram
    Bendigo Tramways is a historic transport line turned tourist service. (Image: Bendigo Heritage)

    The city’s tram network had been declared defunct since 1970 due to post-war shortages in materials to upkeep the trams and declining passenger numbers as motor vehicles were increasing. However, determined locals would not hear of their beloved trams being sold off around the world.

    The Bendigo Trust was enlisted to preserve this heritage, by converting the trams into a tourist service. The Victorian government approved a trial, however news spread that the Australian Electric Tramways Museum in Adelaide had acquired one of the streetcars for its collection.

    a tram heading to Quarry Hill in 1957
    A tram on its way to Quarry Hill in 1957. (Image: Bendigo Heritage)

    An impassioned group rallied together to make this physically impossible. Breaking into the tram sheds, they welded iron pipes to the rails, removed carbon brushes from the motors, and formed a blockade at the depot. The community response was extraordinary, and a $1 deal was sealed.

    A new chapter for the city’s fleet

    the old Tramways Depot and Workshop
    The old Tramways Depot and Workshop is one of the stops on the hop-on, hop-off service. (Image: Tourism Australia)

    Today, Bendigo Tramways welcomes some 40,000 passengers annually, operating as a hop-on, hop-off touring service aboard the restored trams. Fifteen of the now 45-strong fleet are dubbed ‘Talking Trams’ because of the taped commentary that is played along the route. The trams loop between Central Deborah Gold Mine and the Bendigo Joss House Temple, which has been a place of Chinese worship since 1871, via other sites including the old Tramways Depot and Workshop.

    a Gold Mine Bendigo Tram
    The fleet comprises 45 trams that have been restored. (Image: Visit Victoria/Robert Blackburn)

    Keeping things interesting, throughout the year visitors can step aboard different themed trams. Tram No. 302 becomes the Yarn Bomb Tram, decorated both inside and out with colourful crochet by an anonymous group of locals.

    During the festive season, Tram No. 15 operates as a tinsel-festooned Santa Tram, and the big man himself hides out somewhere along the route for excited children to find. And on selected dates, the adults-only Groove Tram runs nighttime tours of the city, accompanied by local musicians playing live tunes and a pop-up bar.

    the historic post office turned visitor centre in Bendigo
    Visitors can hop on and off to see the city’s sites such as the historic post office turned visitor centre. (Image: Tourism Australia)

    As well as preserving the city’s history, however, the continuation of the tram service has kept the skills of tram building and craftsmanship alive in a practical sense. Bendigo’s Heritage Rail Workshop is world-renowned for restoring heritage trams and repurposing vehicles in creative ways.

    Locally, for example, Tram No. 918 was transformed into the Dja Dja Wurrung Tram with original Aboriginal artworks by emerging artist Natasha Carter, with special commentary and music that shares the stories and traditions of Bendigo’s first people. You can’t put a price on preserving history. Nonetheless, it was a dollar very well spent.