Tired of big city life Justin and Cyndia moved from Melbourne in 2003 when they bought The Waterfront Wynyard motel. Many years on they are still welcoming guests to their little riverside motel in Tasmania. Rescuing this mid-century motel has been a joy (mostly!) and we along with our amazing team strive to provide a ‘property with personality’ that ticks all the accommodation boxes
Our Sustainability Focus
We strive to do good, not bad, with our motel across all aspects of operations. We have undertaken accreditations with Star ratings who check in to see that we are performing at a level that is commensurate with the values and ethos of good business, and sustainable operations. Specifically, you will see signs that we are doing things to support our environment, in the room, such as using eco-friendly plastic bags and partnering with sustainable toilet paper giant, “who gives a crap.” We have shifted to an e-compendium, to reduce the need for updating paper based compendiums on a regular basis. These are being phased out of the rooms. We were the first to introduce and provide high speed electric vehicle chargers. Recently, we installed batteries to work with our solar system, to help us operate off the grid as much as we can manage, reducing our carbon footprint. Great for our power bill, and great for the environment. So a win win!
We also support our local community through sponsorships, donations, accommodation in kind for our local groups. We can’t support everyone every year, but we try to share the love around. We recruit a range of people, including those from neurodiverse backgrounds, to give them an opportunity to enjoy the experience of work and contributing to a bigger team. We partner with organisations like Vincent Industries, who support people with a range of disabilities, by outsourcing production of our lolly bags. The lolly bags you get on departure- we can thank the team at Vincents for doing a sterling job of getting those bags exactly right. (Apparently this the most coveted job in the place!) We print and sell biodegradable articulated penguin key rings, the funds from which support the operations of the penguin centre in Burnie. We also sell locally made handcrafts for no commission, to support our local artists.
Justin and I also volunteer across a range of industry and community groups- which is all about making things better in the wider scope of tourism across the region and in our local communities. We support young people in their first jobs, making sure they get a great start to the world of working, learning skills in communication, organisation, and all-around greater confidence. We believe, that being in our community as a tourism operator is an important responsibility, that goes beyond just providing a bed for the night. We believe it’s about being a good member of the community, sharing the benefits of this fantastic industry with others, helping to facilitate opportunities, and community social connections.
We are detailing this, as apparently it’s good to do so. But to be perfectly frank, we just get on and do these things, not really giving it another thought. On reflection, though, perhaps it is better for you, our guest, our customer, to understand who you are supporting when you stay with us. We don’t always get it right, but we do try, and we aim to be the best we can be. So I guess, in this sense, it is better that you understand what makes us tick, and why we do what we do, and what’s important to us. Hopefully, it’s something that resonates and is important to you too!
