Jacinta Young checked into a tired motel on Tasmania’s West Coast as a stressed and exhausted executive. By the end of her stay, she was thinking about buying it. Here, she shares how one sunrise over Macquarie Harbour led her, in her mid-50s, to take the biggest risk of her life and transform Risby Cove into a 12-suite luxury retreat.
By Jacinta Young
The first time I stayed at Risby Cove, I arrived as a guest. By the end of that stay, I was contemplating becoming its owner.
At the time, I was a stressed and exhausted executive. I had spent years working in senior property roles, juggling major projects, constant demands, competing priorities and a family. Like many women, I had become very good at carrying a great deal and simply getting on with it.
Risby Cove itself was very different then. It was a tired, well-worn motel-style property that had seen better days. I certainly didn’t love the accommodation. It was the place.
A sunrise at Risby Cove that changed everything
One morning, unable to sleep, I woke early, made myself a cup of tea and stepped onto the deck of what is now one of Risby Cove’s Cove Pavilions. The sun was rising over Macquarie Harbour. I sat watching the morning light move across the water, casting shadows over the old burnt-out jetty as fishing boats bobbed quietly in the cove. I could hear the gentle waves and birdsong as I breathed deeply that extraordinarily fresh West Coast air.
And then something happened that I have never forgotten. For the first time in a very long time, I felt completely calm. The noise and anxiety that had become such a normal part of my life seemed to disappear. In their place was an overwhelming sense of peace and connection: to the harbour, the history, the landscape and something perhaps harder to explain. I remember sitting there thinking how extraordinary it was that a place could make me feel so different.
Later that same day, I discovered Risby Cove was for sale. Suddenly, I looked at the tired motel around me differently. I didn’t see what it was. I could see what it could become.
Straight away, I imagined creating a place where other people could arrive carrying the stresses and demands of their own lives and experience something of what I had felt that morning. Somewhere they could stop, breathe, reconnect and simply be.
I wanted to create a beautiful place to stay, certainly, but I wanted it to be about much more than accommodation. I wanted people to experience the harbour, the wilderness, the history and the extraordinary sense of stillness I had discovered.
That was the beginning of my vision for Risby Cove. And within days, I had signed the papers.
Starting again in my mid-50s
My background wasn’t in hotels. I had spent much of my career in property and development, working on major Tasmanian projects including the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, The Hedberg performing arts precinct and other significant university developments.
I understood buildings, development and the enormous number of things that have to come together to turn an idea into a place. Hospitality was another matter entirely. And there is a considerable difference between being responsible for somebody else’s multimillion-dollar project and putting your own money, heart and future into one.
I was also in my mid-50s. There is often an assumption that by this stage of life we should have things figured out: that the big risks, career changes and adventures belong to our younger selves. I didn’t feel that way.
Instead, I had reached a point where I wanted to take everything I had learned over my career and use it to create something of my own. I wanted to build something I genuinely believed in and give back to the island I love.
So, in my mid-50s, I bought an ageing motel in one of Australia’s most remote tourism destinations and embarked on what would ultimately become a redevelopment of more than $7 million. There were certainly days when I questioned my sanity. But I never questioned the place.
I didn’t want to create just another luxury hotel
Risby Cove sits on Macquarie Harbour, at the edge of the UNESCO-listed Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Its story stretches back to 1889, when the site was home to the Risby Brothers’ sawmill. Timber, water, industry and the extraordinary characters of Tasmania’s West Coast are embedded in its history. I wanted to preserve that.
My vision was never to create a beautiful hotel that could just as easily have been in Sydney, Melbourne or somewhere overseas. I wanted guests to wake up and know, unquestionably, that they were in Tasmania.
Today Risby Cove has just 12 luxury suites, each individual. Some sit beside the harbour with cedar hot tubs; others have hot tubs immersed in the rainforest. There are fireplaces, underfloor heating, private decks and beautiful bathrooms designed to reflect the textures and movement of the harbour. But the parts I love most are the parts with stories.
Huon pine salvaged from Strahan’s original 1890s wharf has been given another life as our bar and kitchen pass. Tasmanian artists fill the walls. Tasmanian furniture makers and designers have created pieces specifically for the property. The old Piner’s Hut has been restored and is now an intimate private dining experience for two.
Our exterior deliberately retains something of the strength and industrial character of the old sawmill, while inside I wanted warmth, softness and calm: the same feeling I experienced sitting on that deck all those years ago. Eventually, three words came to describe what I was trying to create: A Living Story.
Sharing the Tasmania I love
Risby Cove is luxurious, but my definition of luxury has changed. For me, true luxury isn’t simply an expensive room. It is access to something rare.
It’s sitting at the end of a private jetty with someone you love while the light changes over Macquarie Harbour. It’s eating Tasmanian seafood almost within sight of where it came from. Or it’s discovering a whisky, gin or pinot made by someone passionate about this island.
It’s travelling high into the mountains around Mt Owen and then descending underground into an historic mine for a miner’s crib lunch. It’s kayaking on a still harbour, cycling through Strahan’s history, watching wildlife after dark or standing on Ocean Beach as the sun disappears over the Southern Ocean.
Most of all, it is having enough time to stop. That matters to me because that is what Risby Cove first gave me.
Risby Cove: more than a hotel
Risby Cove has also become very much a family story. My son Sebastian is now the General Manager and has been deeply involved in bringing the vision to life. My youngest son, Ryan, has become a jack of all trades and pitches in wherever needed, but his true passion is creating extraordinary guest experiences.
Working with your children isn’t always without spirited debate! But there is something incredibly special about creating something together and watching the next generation begin to put its own mark on it.
We are Tasmanian owned and operated. We aren’t a large hotel group with hundreds of rooms and a corporate manual telling us how every interaction should happen. Our philosophy is that hospitality should feel personal rather than procedural.
Guests have travelled a long way to reach us, often driving for hours through mountains and rainforest. I want them to feel, when they finally arrive, that somebody has been expecting them.
Resilience, reinvention and taking the risk
Looking back, I think Risby Cove has become much more than restoring a hotel. It has also been a story of resilience and reinvention.
I’ve faced challenges during my career, in my personal life and throughout this project. There have been times when bringing Risby Cove to life has demanded every bit of determination I possessed. Perhaps that is also why I have been drawn to the work of the many women artists represented throughout the hotel. There is a strength and individuality in their work that resonates deeply with me.
Women are sometimes given the impression that as we get older our world should become smaller and our appetite for risk should diminish. My experience has been almost the opposite.
When I bought Risby Cove in my mid-50s, I wasn’t looking to slow down. I was ready to do something that was entirely my own. I entered an industry I had never worked in, took one of the biggest financial risks of my life and embarked on an enormous redevelopment in one of the most remote towns in Tasmania. And I discovered an entirely new chapter of my life.
There have been difficult moments, mistakes, sleepless nights and plenty of times when things didn’t go according to plan. But there has also been an extraordinary sense of purpose in taking an idea that began with a quiet moment on a deck overlooking Macquarie Harbour and turning it into something real.
If there is one thing this experience has taught me, it is that there doesn’t have to be an age by which the biggest adventures of your life have already happened. Sometimes the next chapter can be the one you never expected to write. For me, that chapter is Risby Cove.
Coming back to that morning
Risby Cove reopened on 1 January 2026.
Every now and then, particularly early in the morning or at the end of the day, I stop and look across Macquarie Harbour. The old burnt-out jetty I watched on my first visit is still part of the view. Fishing boats still bob in the cove. The weather still moves unpredictably across the harbour and the birds certainly haven’t become any quieter. But almost everything else has changed.
Sometimes I think about that exhausted woman sitting alone with her cup of tea on that very first morning. She thought she had simply found somewhere beautiful to rest. She had no idea that she had found her future.
My hope now is that people who come to Risby Cove experience a little of what I felt that morning: beauty, stillness and a connection to this extraordinary place that lingers long after they leave.
I didn’t fall in love with a hotel. I fell in love with a place, with the way it made me feel, and with the possibility of sharing that feeling with others. Buying it was probably not the most sensible response. But it may have been one of the best decisions I have ever made.
Jacinta Young is the owner of Risby Cove in Strahan and CEO of Allure Tasmania. A former senior property and development executive, she has been the custodian of Risby Cove since October 2023 and led its redevelopment into a 12-suite luxury retreat, which reopened on 1 January 2026.
More Information About Risby Cove
Address: 44 The Esplanade, Strahan, Tasmania 7468
Tel: +61 3 6471 7572
Reservations: risbycove.com.au/book
Website: risbycove.com.au
Rates: Suites from $695 per night in high season, including breakfast. Low-season stays (1 June to 31 August) are up to 30 per cent off.
Getting there: Strahan is about four and a half hours’ drive from Hobart, or you can fly in with Par Avion. Risby Cove is 700 metres from the Gordon River Ferry Terminal.
More Tasmania: Eagles Nest II, a luxury hideaway near Cradle Mountain and why Tasmania seriously turns it on in the off-season
