The North-East’s warm, dry weather may have brought visitors in floods to Bridestowe Lavender Estate during January, but purple fields as far as the eye can see are the result of 12 years hard work.
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Owner Robert Ravens this season had been a “remarkable” one.
“The quality of the flowering has been the best in the 12 years we have owned the farm,” he said.
During December 2018 and January 2019, about 58,000 people walked through the farm’s purple haze of flowers at Nabowla, with about 2200 visitors on peak days.
Visitor figures for January alone are up 38 per cent on January 2018, and Mr Ravens estimated total visitors for the 2018-19 financial year to be about 85,000.
“Underlying the trend was a very solid growth in mainland and international visitors, which we estimate to be 18 per cent year-on-year, with locals making up the difference,” he said.
An increase in visitors was always part of the plan, with years of work now reaping rewards in stakeholder response, but a spike this size was better than expected.
“It’s about Tasmanians coming back to the farm. We targeted our nearest and dearest and the more we can get Tasmanians to come back and bring their friends, the better,” he said.
The season is winding down, with the last of the lavender oil distillation completed on Monday.
Bridestowe Lavender Estate now has six months of production planned to restock.
“Our warehouse is empty,” Mr Ravens said.
The down time will also be spent coming up with new ideas for next season, which Mr Ravens hoped would include more collaboration with other North-East businesses.
“It’s a challenge because we don’t have a critical mass of population on our doorstep, so we have to be novel and quirky throughout the year, like our ice cream.”
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