Our commitment to sustainability
Why do we use the words eco luxe?
In the age of green-washing, does eco mean anything anymore?
Sure, we have incredible views of Meander Valley and kooparoona niara.
The cottage is hand-built from natural materials, well insulated, and furnished with handmade, vintage and antique finds. We use certified fairtrade linen that’s sustainably grown and manufactured.
Yes, we support local creatives and feature original artwork in the cottage.
Absolutely we’re right on the doorstep of some the world's most outstanding wilderness. Tassie is one of only two places on earth that meets seven UNESCO criteria for outstanding universal value. That’s pretty awesome.
But did you know that of the 54 acres Cedar Cottage Meander sits on, 50 is dedicated to native forest regeneration?
Protecting critically endangered habitat in perpetuity
This property is home to critically endangered Eucalyptus ovata forest, a favoured habitat of Tassie devils, grey goshawks, quolls, wedge-tailed eagles, swift parrots, and a wide range of small endemic marsupials, reptiles, amphibians and insects.
Ovata forest is recognised as an ecological community of national environmental significance and our forest shares a direct boundary with the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
We’re working with the Tasmanian Land Conservancy and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to place a conservation covenant on the property for current and future generations.
This will extend the protection of neighbouring World Heritage areas to bushland on our property. Our next door neighbour has an existing covenant, and between us we can create a connected, private conservation reserve for critically endangered habitat and the creatures that make their home in it.
We’ve recently set up trail cams to monitor our native wildlife, we’ll feed this data back into state and federal systems, like the Natural Values Atlas, and hopefully contribute to our collective understanding of Tassie’s natural values.
Organic stewardship
We use permaculture and organic gardening practices in our veggie garden, like companion planting, planting for diversity over high yield, and intermixing pest-repellant, flowering and edible plants. We grow flowers to attract native bees and encourage pollination.
We try to obtain heritage seed stock, the more local the better, and collect seed for germination.
Our garden bed frames are made from recycled untreated hardwood and other recycled materials. We use non-organic herbicide sparingly for spot-management of significant weeds in areas of native bush. We dead-head thistles and other weeds rather than poison them. We do admit that agapanthus planted by previous generations could do with some dynamite. Boiling water works a treat on small weeds growing over pathways.
We use materials like shell grit to manage slugs and snails, and pyrethrin spray for other hungry critters. We have a healthy population of ladybugs, frogs, birds and skinks.
We fertilise with compost, local alpaca poo (black gold) and liquid seaweed extract. We mulch with local pea straw and use sawdust—byproduct from a nearby sawmill—on garden paths.
The large lawns around the property are useful fire breaks, these are not watered and provide food for our abundant marsupials and insect-eating monotremes.
Cedar Cottage Meander is a Land for Wildlife member.
Smart resource management
We are a registered private water supplier and our natural spring-fed water is treated by a UV sterilisation and filtration system using zero chemicals. Our drinking water is lab tested regularly.
The cedar hot tub uses ozonator technology, UV sanitation and silver/copper ionisation to minimise the use of chlorine and bromine.
The tub is insulated to retain heat and reduce energy consumption. We recycle the waste water on our garden.
We use a septic system for grey and brown water.
Our firewood is sourced from fallen trees on our land, or from wood harvested by locals on nearby land.
We sort and dispose of all rubbish and recycling by hand. We take this to the local refuse tip and sometimes browse the tip shop for fun finds.
Food waste goes into one of our many compost bins. The compost feeds the garden and nourishes the soil.
We deal with green waste on site.
Our guest toiletries and goodies are free from single-use plastics, we clean and refill containers between stays.
We use eco cleaning products and donate old guest towels to animal shelters.
Still okay linen is given away and re-used.
Thinking globally and acting locally
We take this to heart and recognise that business and community are kinds of ecosystems too.
We support local, sustainable Australian businesses and, yes, we pay more. We’d much rather invest in premium, high quality ammenities that directly support our local economy. We work with businesses, organisations and individuals who share common values such as sustainability, workers rights and appreciation of craft.
We are a signatory to the Glasgow Declaration and are involved in the One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme.
We volunteer on the board of our local tourism association.
It’s our responsibility to give back to our community; each year we sponsor and/or donate to organisations who are making a difference in Tassie and abroad.
So far we have:
Been a proud gold sponsor of the Meander Valley Art Award
Supported community arts by sponsoring a music event at the Meander Hall
Donated to the Meander Progress Association to help purchase local church buildings and grounds for community use
Donated monthly to Just Cats, a volunteer no-kill shelter and cat rescue/rehoming non-profit
Donated to our local volunteer fire service, who generously passed on the funds to BlazeAid
Donated to various organisations like Doctors Without Borders and to campaigns for threatened Tasmanian wilderness areas like Takayna - the largest intact temperate rainforest in the Southern Hemisphere with important Tasmanian Aboriginal heritage and sites of continuous living culture
Donated to the Over the Rainbow Charity Gala, raising money to send care packages to parents and families who have lost children in pregnancy, childbirth and infancy
Participated in the Meander Area Residents and Ratepayers Association Inc., who successfully campaigned for the old Meander primary school site to remain as a community-owned asset and operate as a Neighbourhood House
This is our home, our community and our environment.
Sustainability isn’t just a point of difference for us, it’s a way of life.