12 Of Australia's Greatest Luxury Lodges

Over the past decade these 12 luxurious lodges and hotels have changed the where and the way people stay in Australia (in no particular order) …

1. One&Only Hayman Island, Queensland

Hayman Island has been a much-loved holiday destination since the ’50s and last year the iconic resort became an even better version of itself when it reopened as One&Only Hayman Island.

The international resort brand raised the luxe stakes after a complete overhaul of the Hayman Island experience, starting from the moment of arrival, with airport pick-up by luxury private launch (seaplane or helicopter options also available).

The $80-million refurbishment resulted in more spacious suites with a sophisticated new look (including beach villas with private plunge pools, pool suites with swim-out access and ‘standard rooms’ with views out to the Coral Sea) and reimagined dining options (such as teppanyaki, beachfront dining and a casually chic poolside café).

There’s also a 24-hour butler service to cater to guests’ every whim at the touch of a button. Tough life, eh?

Can hotel pools get much sexier than Hayman Island's? — Can hotel pools get much sexier than Hayman Island’s?

2. Saffire Freycinet, Coles Bay, Tasmania

Saffire Freycinet is a special-occasion-type place, where you go to completely escape (the only traffic you’ll see is the occasional passing fisherman).

Inspired by its stunning natural environment on the Freycinet Peninsula, the design is contemporary yet cosy, made from timber, stone and leather, while the panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows take advantage of the breathtaking views of Coles Bay and out to the Hazards.

Guests want for nothing, with the room tariff including (almost) everything: five-course degustations, local wines and premium spirits, wi-fi and a credit to the day spa.

There’s also a unique range of signature experiences: ‘Connection to Country’ walk, Tassie Devil encounter (as part of the Save the Tasmanian Devil program) and wine tours.

But despite its plush villas, outstanding inclusions and world-class service, it’s also homey and unpretentious – modern day luxury in a nutshell.

Saffire Freycinet on Tassie's east coast. — Saffire Freycinet on Tassie’s east coast.

3. Berkeley River Lodge, Kimbereley Coast, WA

For daily grinders, completely switching off is the ultimate luxury. And with no road access (guests arrive by air) and limited phone and internet reception, Berkeley River Lodge is the epitome of that.

Located on the remote Kimberley coast, this stunning lodge is made up of 20 luxury free-standing villas, seemingly floating among rugged sand dunes 65 metres above the ocean, all command 180-degree views of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf or the Berkeley River and the rugged red gorges below.

Upon arrival, staff will tailor-make an itinerary of experiences for you: swim in crystal-clear pools under waterfalls, heli-fish in remote spots, cruise down the majestic Berkeley River, take gourmet picnics on Mt Casuarina, drive 4WDs along vast stretches of beach, watch sea turtles nest, or perhaps just lay back and enjoy the twilight cinema on the pool deck under the outback sky. Divine!

4. qualia, Hamilton Island, Queensland

Voted numerous times as Australia’s best resort by the readers of AT and several other publications, including Condé Nast Traveler who named it the World’s Best Resort in 2012, you may have expected the idea of qualia as the crème de la crème of luxury lodges to have petered out by now.

But with Gordon Ramsay, Oprah and Toni Collette counted as guests, a Relais & Châteaux stamp of approval, and a spot in the Luxury Lodges of Australia group, qualia has held its coveted crown as the darling of Australian luxury.

Inside the looming gates is an exclusive collection of villas impeccably designed to let the jaw-dropping views and raw sensuality of nature take centre stage.

Beyond-the-norm activities include scenic helicopter flights, heligolf, luxury boat beach drop-offs with gourmet picnics, as well as an oasis of a day spa and exquisite dining with celebrity chef Alastair Waddell at the helm. qualia, darling, you can’t put a foot wrong.

5. Cicada Lodge, Katherine, NT

A remote oasis of luxury set in the Nitmiluk National Park, with a unique outlook overlooking Katherine Gorge, Cicada Lodge couples fine dining with first-class accommodation.

But it’s the lodge’s connection to the indigenous community that sets it apart from other luxury lodges.

Yes you’ll find Bulgari toiletries and be offered Champagne on arrival, but it’s also about gaining a true understanding of the local Jawoyn people’s way of life through accompanying cultural experiences.

There are helicopter flights to see ancient rock art that’s otherwise inaccessible, some of which is thought to be over 30,000 years old, and classes in traditional weaving, weaponry and bush craft.

And to cool off you can always take (another) helicopter to culturally-significant waterholes in the wilderness.

With a huge push to employ local people, this is a one-of-a-kind luxury outback experience that is well and truly part of the beautiful landscape it’s in.

6. Pretty Beach House, NSW Central Coast

During its two-and-a-half-year hiatus, the recently reopened Pretty Beach House has been restored to its former beauty, and then some.

The house sits up high on an escarpment nestled among angophoras and gum trees, overlooking the pristine beaches of the Bouddi National Park. It is the epitome of understated luxury in all of its Australian coastal glory.

Its refurbishment has seen a complete rebuild of the main guest house and an additional pavilion was added; the house now sleeps an intimate number of eight guests.

The interiors are simply lovely in earthy tones to reflect the tranquil location, with premium soft furnishings and bespoke pieces (multi-million dollar Australian art by the likes of Sidney Nolan, for instance).

Three of the four pavilions have their own private plunge pools; the penthouse suite its own spacious verandah with a day bed and gas fireplace overlooking the escarpment.

Service is impeccable, but relaxed, with the aim to make guests feel like they’re at home (a very plush home, that is).

Meals are all taken care of by multi-award-winning chef Dean Jones, with his signature modern Italian cuisine.

Partake in a private cooking class, taste the rare and fine wine in the cellar, indulge in spa treatments, or leave the cosy cocoon of the house for a while and explore the surrounding Bouddi National Park with a guided hike, mountain bike or luxury yacht.

You can even hop on a helicopter and head to the Hunter Valley for some wine tasting there. Because nothing feels more like home than a private helicopter tour, right?

7. Bay of Fires Lodge, North East Coast Tasmania

Exclusively used by those partaking in the four-day guided Bay of Fires Lodge Walk (part of the Great Walks of Australia), the Bay of Fires Lodge is the exceptional alternate to camping.

Set on a hilltop, 40 metres above the spectacular coastline of the Bay of Fires, the lodge is the only building for 20 kilometres, providing complete seclusion. Made up of two long timber and glass pavilions and local timber and pine, the lodge was built to ensure minimal impact on the environment and to blend into the landscape.

With a large lounge and open fire, a cosy library, a dining area where guests feast on fresh, local produce and fine Tasmanian wines, guest rooms with comfortable beds and – hooray! – showers with hot water, the Bay of Fires Lodge encompasses simple pleasures that are a real luxury when walking along this rugged stretch of coast.

8. Spicers Clovelly, Sunshine Coast

Spicers Clovelly , part of the Spicers Retreats group, is a French provincial country-style guest house hidden away in the Sunshine Coast hinterland town of Montville.

This place oozes romance, from the suites with sweeping country views through cute bay windows, contemporary European décor and cosy soft furnishings, to the elegant Carrara marble bathrooms with Appelles products and heated floors.

But the pièce de résistance is The Long Apron, the intimate on-site restaurant awarded two chefs’ hats in the 2015 Australian Good Food and Travel Guide Chef Hat awards for its inventive European-inspired cuisine.

The dining room is inviting with French provincial-style chairs, a cosy fireplace and crisp, white tablecloths.

But on warm days guests can sit out on the sun-drenched terrace and enjoy the beautiful gardens dotted with grand figs, jacarandas, and groves of magnolias and gardenias. A true love nest.

Spicers Clovelly Estate, Sunshine Coast Hinterland.

9. Kingsford Homestead, Barossa Valley

Located on a 91-hectare sheep station on the edge of the Barossa Valley, Kingsford Homestead has been the home of a wealthy 19th-century pastoralist, the set of McLeod’s Daughters and since 2009 an ever-so-elegant, but oh-so-Australian boutique getaway.

Listed on the State Heritage Register and Register of the National Estate, the building has been wonderfully preserved.

It has a Georgian-style sandstone exterior, thought to be made from stone brought over from Edinburgh, Gothic-style cedar staircase and stone cellar housing a Gothic timber buffet.

This exclusive stay caters to just 14 guests in seven individually styled suites, all of which boast plush beds with fine linen and L’Occitane bathroom products.

The food is a highlight here, too, with a menu of good ol’ country flavours alongside matching local wines, which you can also taste in the historic cellar.

But our favourite feature is the glorious outdoor clawfoot bush bath, which sits in a secluded corner of the property. And it fits two… wink, wink.

10. El Questro, Kununurra, WA

Apparently the name El Questro doesn’t have a meaning, but we think it should stand for ‘wild luxury’.

Located 110 kilometres west of Kununurra, in the middle of a colossal 405,000 hectares (most of which has never been explored!), guests travel 58 kilometres by highway and the rest on the famed 4WD adventure track, the Gibb River Road, to get here.

And they’re not disappointed when they finally arrive. Clinging to a cliff-top, El Questro Homestead has incredible vistas of the rugged Chamberlain River and Gorge, and boasts beautifully elegant rooms: our favourite feature is the outdoor baths (can you tell we have a thing for outdoor baths?), which are perfect to soak clean the red, red dirt of the outback.

Staying here is all about the experiences – horse trekking, bird-watching, a day soaking in the Zebedee Thermal Springs, fishing tours, a Chamberlain Gorge cruise, tours to ancient caves or at one of the many waterfalls on the property that have only recently been discovered, photography excursions, or a helicopter ride to a remote waterhole… you name it and the El Questro staff can organise it for you.

Despite its final frontier location, the food and wine is plentiful and sophisticated, with superbly fresh and organic ingredients from the neighbouring Ord River Valley and the state’s abundant coastlines and farmlands.

Enjoyed on the verandah, as a gourmet picnic somewhere on the property, on the Homestead lawn, under the stars or by the roaring open fireplaces, meals here are just as much an occasion as the incredible experiences on offer.

11. Longitude 131, Uluru

This is a real bucket-list place. Not simply because it’s located in the country’s most spiritual of places, the inimitable World Heritage-listed Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, but because Longitude 131° allows complete immersion in the place, with a healthy dose of luxury to boot.

It is the closest accommodation to Uluru; 15 luxury tents, elevated atop rust-red dunes with unrivalled views of the majestic rock through the tents’ glass walls.

Glamping at its finest, the tents pay homage to the pioneering history of Australia, mixing classical colonial and contemporary furniture as well as king-sized beds, complimentary mini bar, oversized rain showers, and all the techy things needed in this day and age.

But once again it’s the exceptional experiences here – sunrise camel tours, Uluru by motorcycle, bush tucker tastings, alfresco fine dining – that really make this stay out-of-this-world special.

Longitude 131, Uluru. Photo courtesy of Tourism NT.

12. Bannisters, Port Stephens

Channelling the same designer stylings as its Mollymook cousins, Bannisters Port Stephens opened last year: a retro beach motel transformed into boutique digs with 78 rooms, four luxury suites, a penthouse and an infinity pool.

There’s a Rick Stein Restaurant too, of course.

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Just 15 years ago, Federal Mills was a very different place. Once among the most significant industrial sites in Victoria, the historic woollen mill was one of a dozen that operated in Geelong at the industry’s peak in the mid-20th century, helping the city earn its title as ‘wool centre of the world’. But by the 1960s global competition and the rise of synthetic fabrics led to the slow decline of the industry, and Federal Mills finally shuttered its doors in 2001. Within a few years, the abandoned North Geelong grounds had become makeshift pastoral land, with cows and goats grazing among the overgrown grass between the empty red-brick warehouses. It was a forgotten pocket of the city, all but two klicks from the bustle of the CBD.

Geelong cellar door wine bar — Geelong has shed its industrial identity to become an innovative urban hub with reimagined heritage spaces. (Image: Ash Hughes)

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Today, the century-old complex stands reborn. The distinctive sawtooth-roof buildings have been sensitively restored. An old silo is splashed with a bright floral mural, landscapers have transformed the grounds, and the precinct is once again alive with activity. More than 1000 people work across 50-plus businesses here. It’s so busy, in fact, that on a sunny Thursday morning in the thick of winter, it’s hard to find a car park. The high ceilings, open-plan design, and large multi-paned windows – revolutionary features for factories of their time – have again become a drawcard.

Paddock Bakery andPatisserie — Paddock Bakery and Patisserie is housed within the historic wool factory. (Image: Gallant Lee)

At Paddock , one of the precinct’s newer tenants, weaving looms and dye vats have been replaced by a wood-fired brick oven and heavy-duty mixers. Open since April 2024, the bakery looks right at home here; the building’s industrial shell is softened by ivy climbing its steel frames, and sunlight streams through the tall windows. Outside, among the white cedar trees, families at picnic benches linger over dippy eggs and bagels, while white-collar workers pass in and out, single-origin coffee and crème brûlée doughnuts in hand.

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

Paddock Bakery can be found at Federal Mills. (Image: Gallant Lee)

“A lot of people are now seeing the merit of investing in Geelong,” says Paul Traynor, the head of Hamilton Hospitality Group, which redeveloped Federal Mills. A city once shunned as Sleepy Hollow, and spurned for its industrial, working-class roots and ‘rust belt’ image, Geelong has long since reclaimed its ‘Pivot City’ title, having reinvented itself as an affordable, lifestyle-driven satellite city, and a post-COVID migration hotspot.

And the numbers stand testament to the change. In March 2025, and for the first time in its history, Greater Geelong became Australia’s most popular regional town for internal migration, overtaking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Current forecasts suggest Geelong will continue to outpace many other Australian cities and towns, with jobs growing at double the rate of the population.

Tourism is booming, too. The 2023-24 financial year was Geelong and The Bellarine region’s busiest on record, with 6.4 million visitors making it one of the fastest-growing destinations in the country. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the city’s prime positioning at the doorstep of the Great Ocean Road, Geelong’s tenacity and cultural ambition stands out.

As Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, Geelong is swiftly shaking off its industrial past to become a model for urban renewal, innovation, sustainability and creative communities. The signs are everywhere, from the revitalisation of the city’s waterfront, and the landmark design of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, to the growing network of local designers, architects and artists, and the burgeoning roster of festivals and events. That’s not even mentioning the adaptive reuse of storied old industrial buildings – from Federal Mills, to Little Creatures’ brewery ‘village’ housed within a 1920s textile mill – or the city’s flourishing food and wine scene.

The rise of a food and wine destination

Restaurant 1915 is housed within a restored former boiler house. (Image: Harry Pope/Two Palms)

Traynor credits now-closed local restaurant Igni, which opened in 2016, as the turning point for Geelong’s hospo industry. “[Aaron Turner, Igni’s chef-patron] was probably the first guy, with all due respect, to raise the bar food-wise for Geelong,” he says. “People now treat it really seriously, and there’s clearly a market for it.” While Igni is gone, Turner now helms a string of other notable Geelong venues, including The Hot Chicken Project and Tacos y Liquor, all within the buzzy, street art-speckled laneways of the CBD’s Little Malop Street Precinct. Many others have also popped up in Igni’s wake, including Federal Mills’ own restaurant, 1915 . Housed within the cavernous boiler house, 1915’s interior is dramatic: soaring, vaulted ceilings with timber beams, exposed brick, a huge arched window. The share plates echo the space’s bold character, playing with contrast and texture, with dishes such as a compressed watermelon tataki, the sweet, juicy squares tempered by salty strands of fried leeks, and charred, smoky snow peas dusted with saganaki on a nutty bed of romesco.

The Woolstore , one of The Hamilton Group’s most recent hospo projects, opened in February. It occupies a century-old riverside warehouse and exudes a more sultry, fine dining ambience. Much like Federal Mills, the blueprint was to preserve the original brickwork, tallowwood flooring and nods to the building’s former life. That same careful consideration extends to the well-versed, affable waitstaff as well as the kitchen. Head chef Eli Grubb is turning out an eclectic mix of ambitious and indulgent mod Oz dishes that deliver: strikingly tender skewers of chicken tsukune, infused with hints of smoke from the parrilla grill, and glazed with a moreish, sweet gochujang ‘jam’; nduja arancini fragrant with hints of aniseed and the earthy lick of sunny saffron aioli; and golden squares of potato pavé, adorned with tiny turrets of crème fraîche, crisp-fried saltbush leaves, and Avruga caviar, to name but a few stand-out dishes.

Woolstore menu — Woolstore’s menu is designed for sharing.

Breathing new life into historic spaces

On the city’s fringe, hidden down a winding side road with little fanfare, lies a long-dormant site that’s being gently revived. Built from locally quarried bluestone and brick, and dating back to the 1870s, the complex of original tin-roofed mill buildings is lush with greenery and backs onto the Barwon River and Buckley Falls; the audible rush of water provides a soothing soundtrack. Fyansford Paper Mill is one of few complexes of its time to survive intact. It feels steeped in history and spellbindingly rustic.

“We were looking for an old industrial place that had some charm and romance to it,” explains Sam Vogel, the owner, director and winemaker at Provenance Wines which moved here in 2018. When he first viewed the building with his former co-owner, it was in such a state of disrepair that the tradie tenant occupying the space had built a shed within it to escape the leaking roof and freezing winter temperatures. “To say it was run down would be an understatement,” he notes. “There was ivy growing through the place; the windows were all smashed. It was a classic Grand Designs project.”

Provenance Wines moved to Fyansford Paper Mill in 2018. (Image: Cameron Murray Photography)

The team has since invested more than a million dollars into their new home. Where paper processing machinery once sat, wine barrels are now stacked. Vaulted cathedral ceilings are strung with festoon lights, and hidden in plain sight lies a shadowy mural by local street artist de rigueur Rone – one of only three permanent works by the artist.

While the award-winning, cool-climate pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay naturally remain a key draw at Provenance, the winery’s restaurant is a destination in itself. Impressed already by whipsmart service, I devour one of the most cleverly curated and faultlessly executed degustations I’ve had in some time. It’s all prepared in a kitchen that is proudly zero-waste, and committed to providing seasonal, ethical and locally sourced meat and produce under head chef Nate McIver. Think free-range venison served rare with a syrupy red wine jus and a half-moon of neon-orange kosho, shokupan with a deeply savoury duck fat jus (a modern Japanese take on bread and drippings), and a golden potato cake adorned with a colourful confetti of dehydrated nasturtiums and tomato powder, and planted atop a sea urchin emulsion.

handcrafted pieces — Bell’s handcrafted functional pieces on display.

The complex is home to a coterie of independent businesses, including a gallery, a jeweller, and its latest tenant, ceramicist Elizabeth Bell, drawn here by the building’s “soul”. “There’s so much potential for these buildings to have new life breathed into them,” says Bell, whose studio is housed within the old pump room. “Even people in Geelong don’t know we’re here,” she says. “It’s definitely a destination, but I like that. It has a really calming atmosphere.”

A Melbourne transplant, Bell now feels at home in Geelong, which offers something Melbourne didn’t. “If this business was in Melbourne I don’t think it would’ve been as successful,” she notes. “It’s very collaborative in Geelong, and I don’t think you get that as much in Melbourne; you’re a bit more in it for yourself. Here it’s about community over competition.”

12 of Australia’s greatest luxury lodges