My father, Tom, started in the hotel business almost 70 years
ago as a bell-boy in a 5 star hotel in Melbourne. He was aged
just 13 at the time. Over the next few years he worked his way
up through all areas of the hotel to eventually manage it, becoming
at the time he the youngest person to have ever held a liquor
licence in Victoria. In 1954, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the
II made her first visit to Australia and Tom made his first visit
to Gipsy Point.
That was the beginning of many fishing trips and annual family
holidays to Gipsy Point and Mallacoota Inlet.
In 1985 Tom, after many years of trying, finally managed to
acquire our piece of Paradise, the Gipsy Point Hotel. Since then
Australia's rural hotel industry has undergone many changes and
the Gipsy Point Hotel is no exception. It has been an evolution;
some would say a revolution. We have totally redeveloped the
old hotel and site over the past 30 years and as the facilities
changed, so did the name, each name change to reflect what we
provided to our guests. So the Gipsy Point Hotel became Gipsy
Point Hotel and Motel, then Gipsy Point Hotel and Apartments
then Gipsy Point Luxury Lakeside Apartments and finally, as the
last one was such a mouthful, just Gipsy Point Lakeside. The
thing that hasn't changed in all this time is our commitment
to our guests and to this wonderful corner of Australia.
Gipsy Point Lakeside owes its existence to Mum and Dad's vision
and passion for the hospitality industry and our family's shared
love for Gipsy Point.
A couple of years ago Tourism Australia discovered, what we
had all known since that fishing trip of 1954, that this is a
special place and the UNESCO listed Croajingolong World Biosphere
Reserve became the jewel in the crown of Australia's
Coastal Wilderness - one of only a handful of recognised
National Landscapes, which include Kangaroo Island, the Flinders
Ranges and the Great Barrier Reef. Being in at center of the
Croajingolong region, I like to think of Gipsy Point as the heart of
Australia's Coastal Wilderness.
Today, together with my brother John and I, Tom is still actively
involved in the hotel industry in Melbourne, but his passion
is still Gipsy Point. Mum and Dad have a tremendous passion for
life and people and spend a good part of each year at Gipsy Point.
Many who once visited Gipsy Point as guests are now firm friends.
Gipsy Point Lakeside is a love and a passion for our whole family.
We look forward to welcoming both new guests and old friends to
Gipsy Point Lakeside. Will do all we can to ensure your visit is
happy and memorable and hope that you fall in love with Gipsy Point,
just as our family did way back in 1954.
It truly is a special place, so as we say... 'Put a little
Gipsy in your Soul'.
Peter
Payne
