After working in hospitality for seven years, Miss Garwood said she was ready to branch out on her own.

“I’ve been brought up in a family that owns a business so I do see the rewards, but I also see the hard work that goes into it and I’ve had full support from my family and friends,” she said.

After spending many hours working nights and Christmas Days, Miss Garwood said she was faced with the decision of getting out of the industry, or pursuing a bigger dream.

Yacht Club Fifty Five opened on Tuesday last week, after a labour of love to renovate part of the building.

“We’ve done quite a bit to the building, we’ve raised the decorative beams, raised the ceiling height and given it a bit of TLC which it needed, but trying to keep the history involved as well,” Miss Garwood said.

She said the name for the restaurant was another step towards preserving the yacht club’s history.

Miss Garwood said it was the 13^th oldest yacht club in the world, and she believed it was oldest in the southern hemisphere.

The club moved to the premise at Park Street in 1955, a date which inspired the name Yacht Club Fifity Five.

The next step on her venture will be a juice bar, with a development application currently before the City of Launceston.

If approved, the venture will be called Juice Bar Fifty Five and will serve juice, smoothies, smoothie bowls and coffee, underneath the current restaurant.

Yacht Club Fifty Five is one of a number of local businesses expanding with a development application before the council. 

City of Launceston general manager Robert Dobrzynski said in the calendar year to date, January 1 to November 8, 579 planning applications were approved valued at $136,599,278 across the municipality.

“This is on top of $282 million worth of development, comprising 1229 planning applications, approved in the 2014 and 2015 calendar years,” he said. “In other words, the council has approved $418 million worth of development across the city in the past three years.”