The Examiner reported in January 2014 that Mr Sherrard was expected to take over operations at the site, but the process was delayed due to the change of state government last March.

Mr Sherrard will officially take the reins from Thursday, and said on Saturday that it was ‘‘essential’’ that the Tasmanian Heritage Registered site remained accessible to the public.

Mr Sherrard bought the Rutherglen Village site across the road from Entally Estate in September 2013, and has been developing that site.

‘‘The fact that we purchased the property across the road and we purchased additional land there as well makes it easier to make this a more commercially viable operation,’’ he said.

‘‘On its own, Entally Estate would be very difficult to make a sustainable commercial operation ... but because we’ve got the place across the road ... that’s going to offer a full range of activities which will combine with this.

‘‘Both will be a destination for tourism and for locals as well, we want to make sure that we have facilities here for the community in a number of different ways.’’

Mr Sherrard said he hoped the two properties would form a unique function centre, and he was considering other options for the site.

Lyons Liberal MHA Guy Barnett said the long-term lease included a number of performance measures for both the state government and Mr Sherrard.

‘‘[The] Parks and Wildlife Service will continue to fund maintenance for the site for the next three years and will also work with the proponent on an audit of various heritage item collections which have accumulated at the site over the years,’’ he said.

The site has been operated by the PWS since the previous lease was surrendered by the lessee in 2010.

The Friends of Entally volunteers will continue to work on the estate, and the Youth Futures program and TasTAFE horticultural program will also remain.