Hunter Street Waterfront · Five-Star · #1 in Hobart
MACq 01 Hotel
Australia's first storytelling hotel - 114 waterfront rooms each named for a Tasmanian icon and curated by a writer rather than a designer.
Australia's first storytelling hotel - 114 waterfront rooms each named for a Tasmanian icon and curated by a writer rather than a designer.
Australia's first storytelling hotel - 114 waterfront rooms each named for a Tasmanian icon and curated by a writer rather than a designer.
MACq 01 opened in March 2017 on Pier 1 of Hobart's Hunter Street waterfront, on the site of the colony's earliest commercial wharves. The building is a Circa Morris-Nunn-designed five-storey timber-and-zinc structure that explicitly does not mimic the heritage warehouses next door - the brief from Federal Group (the Tasmanian-owned hospitality company behind Wrest Point and Saffire Freycinet) was an unmistakably contemporary building that would still belong on the wharf.
The defining concept is the storytelling programme. Every one of the 114 rooms is named for a Tasmanian historical figure - William Lanne, Truganini, Mary Reibey, Errol Flynn, Charles Darwin (who arrived in Hobart Town on the Beagle in 1836), the bushranger Martin Cash, the 19th-century photographer J.W. Beattie - and is fitted with a curated set of personal artefacts, contemporary art, and a printed biography that runs the figure's story. The hotel maintains a staff team called the Master Storytellers, who run three complimentary daily tours: the hotel itself, the Hunter Street precinct, and a walking circuit through Hobart's CBD behind the waterfront.
The 114 rooms run across nine categories. Waterfront Kings (32 square metres) and Premium Kings (38 square metres) are the standard rooms; the Captain's and Honeymoon Suites on the upper floors are the headline units, with the corner positions and the wide Mount Wellington / Derwent River views. Bathrooms throughout have rain showers and Appelles amenities; soft furnishings are Tasmanian wool throws and bespoke timber bedheads referencing the figure each room is named for.
Old Wharf Restaurant on the ground floor handles the waterfront dining brief - a tightly Tasmanian menu, with the wharf-mooring oysters, the Bruny Island sashimi, and the Cape Grim grass-fed beef. Evolve Spirits Bar, with more than 200 Tasmanian whiskies, is the most decorated whisky bar in the southern hemisphere. The Pier 1 position next to the MONA Roma fast-ferry pier and four minutes' walk to Salamanca makes MACq 01 the single best-positioned hotel in Hobart for a guest who wants the city and the museum on the same trip.
MACq 01 reads as well to a solo traveller as a couple - the storytelling concept means every room is, in a real sense, a piece of curatorial writing rather than an interchangeable hotel room. The Waterfront King category is sized for one; Evolve Spirits Bar takes single covers seriously; the Master Storyteller tours are run for parties of one without comment; the position lets you walk to MONA, Salamanca and the CBD without a car.
A Hobart anniversary at MACq 01 is the answer for couples who want the waterfront and the story. The Honeymoon Suite - corner position, deep tub, the widest Mount Wellington view - is the milestone booking; the Captain's Suite handles the regular anniversary brief; Old Wharf's chef's-table dinner and the after-hours Evolve whisky flight are the textbook evening.
MACq 01 is the rare luxury Hobart hotel that takes the family booking seriously. Connecting Premium King rooms handle families of four; the Storyteller tours are the un-museum-like Tasmanian-history primer that families with school-age children remember; the MONA Roma ferry pier next door turns the museum trip into a fifteen-minute boat ride; Old Wharf does the Tasmanian-produce kids menu without irony.
18 Hunter Street
7000 Hobart
Australia
Salamanca Place 8 minutes; Hobart CBD 4 minutes; MONA Roma ferry pier next door; Hobart Airport 20 minutes by car
114 rooms and suites (each named for a Tasmanian icon)
Waterfront Kings from A$420/night
Premium Kings from A$520/night
Captain's Suite from A$980/night
Honeymoon Suite from A$1,250/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Opened 2017; designed by Circa Morris-Nunn Architects; Federal Group flagship
Old Wharf Restaurant (waterfront dining)
Evolve Spirits Bar (200+ Tasmanian whiskies)
Daily complimentary storytelling tours
Master Storytellers in residence
Federal Group ownership (Wrest Point, Saffire)
MONA Roma fast-ferry pier adjacent
From A$420/night. Headline suites and the named categories book three to four months ahead for the high-season weekends; six months for the peak periods on the local calendar.
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