The Spring Bay Mill is a sustainable events venue, located on the east coast of lutruwita/Tasmania in Australia. This unique and innovative venue aims to showcase the region’s natural beauty and rich history while promoting sustainable tourism and transforming the area into a thriving cultural hub by combining historical preservation, environmental sustainability, and community development.

The location of the venue holds a rich history, once an ancient Aboriginal site, a gathering place for people to feast and celebrate culture, it turned into the world’s largest wood chip mill since the 1970’s. Severely impacting the surrounding environment, with approximately 100,000 from the surrounding forests in southern Tasmania being clear-felled every year. In 2011, philanthropist Graeme Wood purchased the mill and set to put a stop to logging in southern Tasmania once and for all and return the site to its former glory.

The decision to create an events venue, by up-cycling the industrial infrastructure into state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor spaces, was made with the intention of returning the site to a place where people can gather again. And to demonstrate that through regenerating landscapes, we regenerate ourselves.

What sets the Spring Bay Mill apart is its dedication to sustainability and community support. With their commitment to be carbon negative, using renewable energy sources, composting, and recycling programs, and low-waste practices. Additionally, the venue aims to offer support to the local community by providing job opportunities and growth.

With its earthly design features and luxuriously handcrafted timber blades, the Fanco Wynd exudes natural beauty and was the natural fit for this regenerative project.  Linking to both the natural world and the sites history as a lumber mill, the Wynd is not just about aesthetics—in many ways it is a microcosm of the values of the project as a whole. It blends modern sustainable machinery with a storied human element through its efficient DC internals and its hand crafted timber blades.

Projects like the Spring Bay Mill represent more than just impressive modern architecture, they exemplify an image of the future; a future that reconciles with its past and connects with its history, in a timeless and elegant way.

At Fanco we recognise the importance of projects like these and recognise that to design for good and to really improve our environment, we must take a holistic approach that respects what has been before as much as what is to come.

Project name:
Spring Bay Mill – Ridge Quarters

Architect:
Gilby and Brewin Architecture

Builder:
Dillon Builders (on-site) with AJR Construct (prefabrication)

Photography:
Adam Gibson 

Fanco products:
Wynd DC Ceiling Fans