How Australia's first casino hotel came to be

Wrest Point's history is unusual for a hotel: it is tied to a public vote, it changed Tasmanian tourism, and the building is now on the Tasmanian Heritage Register. We have kept to two kinds of source — the hotel's own history page and, clearly labelled, secondary sources such as Wikipedia and ABC News.

Timeline

• 1839An inn is built on the site by William Chaffey, according to the hotel. (Wikipedia gives 1836 for the Traveller's Wrest Hotel; sources disagree.)
• 1936–39The estate is bought by Arthur Drysdale, who creates the Wrest Point Riviera — per Wikipedia, opened 5 December 1939 in streamline moderne style, designed by Colin Philp and David Hartley Wilson.
• 1956Federal Hotels buys the Riviera (Wikipedia: March 1956). The hotel's history page says the purchase made the Federal Group part of Tasmanian history.
• 1968Tasmanians vote in a statewide referendum on a casino licence for Wrest Point (14 December; Wikipedia records 56% in favour). The hotel's page says Tasmanians voted for the development.
• 197310 February: the Gala Opening of Wrest Point Hotel and Casino, televised across the country (hotel). The Point Revolving Restaurant and the Birdcage Bar date from the same year.
• 1984A purpose-built convention and entertainment complex opens on site (Wikipedia).
• 2017The Tasmanian Heritage Council lists Wrest Point on the Heritage Register (ABC News, 25 August 2017).
• 2018–2023A staged renewal reported at about $65 million: The Point, Tower rooms, the Boardwalk, the casino, Longhorn and the Birdcage, then Water Edge and the Motor Inn (Wikipedia, citing ABC reports).

The family behind it

The hotel tells the Federal Group's story from the 1800s, when Melbourne businessmen formed the Federal Coffee Palace Company; the palace was renamed the Hotel Federal in 1924 and became, in the hotel's words, the cornerstone of the group. Greg Farrell senior, a former chairman, honeymooned at Wrest Point with his wife Dolores and later drove the casino development. The hotel quotes him calling it "the greatest hotel site in the world — right on the shore of the beautiful Derwent Estuary with the backdrop of Mount Wellington." The connection passed through three generations of the Farrell family.

The tower

The hotel describes the Wrest Point tower as Tasmania's tallest building. Wikipedia adds the detail: 17 storeys, 64 metres, a twelve-sided prism designed by Sir Roy Grounds, with the revolving restaurant at the top. When ABC News reported the heritage listing in 2017, it quoted a Facebook commenter calling the tower an old "hair roller" — the kind of nickname a building only earns by being impossible to miss.

Why it mattered

The hotel's history page credits the 1973 opening with bringing new investment, more flights and new confidence in Tasmanian tourism. The Heritage Council's reasons, as reported by ABC News, were along the same lines: recognition of the role the place played in the development of Tasmania's tourism and hospitality industry.

What survives from the Riviera

Look for the Derwent Room — art deco styling and an original fireplace in the old Riviera building — and the Portlight Bar, which the hotel says was part of the Riviera Hotel and later Regines nightclub. The Water Edge rooms sit in what the hotel calls the Riviera wing.