Setting up boutique accommodation could have cost the Robinsons the land their family has farmed for more than 150 years in north-west Tasmania.

But after a bumpy start during the pandemic, their careful venture into agritourism is in full swing.

Called The Cove, the Robinsons opened a resort on their farm near Devonport, utilising a windswept hill overlooking Bass Strait.

Owner Kim Robinson said the idea had grown from a conversation with one of her sons.

“So we were sitting up at our son’s deck … looking down and he said, ‘We should do some glamping down there,'” she said.

“It’s just grown and grown into what it is today.”

The glamping idea was quickly abandoned after the Roaring Forties westerly winds wreaked havoc on the tents.

They were replaced with a set of luxury cabins complete with outdoor bathtubs, spa facilities, little penguin viewings, and farm tours.

Mrs Robinson said construction began in 2020 before they opened in 2021 — right as Tasmania’s borders slammed shut due to the pandemic.

“Luckily locals supported it, and now the borders are open for nationals and internationals,” she said.

With multiple awards under their belts, a planned expansion currently sitting on a council desk and plenty of bookings, the Robinsons were confident their gamble had paid off.

‘Never the farmer’

When asked how the family found time to farm and run the new business, Mrs Robinson was quick to point out she had never been in a tractor.

“I was only the farmer’s wife, never the farmer,” she laughed.

Her husband, Bruce Robinson, works full-time on the surrounding land but helps out when he has a spare minute between farming cattle and growing peas, potatoes, poppies, carrots and pyrethrum.

Mrs Robinson said her husband was originally sceptical about the agritourism idea, but was willing to try something new if she presented a good business case.

“He’s very conservative, Bruce, so he was more worried about the amount of money that we would spend, the debt, how we’d pay it back, the success of the business.”

She said he financed the project without any outside help.

“He always said if it didn’t go well, he’d put a ‘for sale’ sign on the fence going down the highway,” Mrs Robinson said.

“He’s very, very proud of it. The feedback we’ve had, he can’t be anything but.”

No ‘for sale’ signs necessary

Mr Robinson shrugged when asked if he had been worried about the risk of financing the project.

“It is what it is,” he said.

Not a single “for sale” sign has appeared and the farm looked set to carry on to the next generation.

“I’d hate to see the farm ever sold,” Mrs Robinson said.

“Our adult children don’t want that either.

“I hope their children become part of it one day … if they don’t we’ll probably haunt them.”