Lavender legacy’s humble beginnings

•  Bridestowe Estate celebrates 100 years of operation.  

By Daisy Baker
August 17, 2022

Bridestowe Estate’s purple fields of lavender are now an internationally renowned tourist attraction with an estimated 650,000 plants, but it all started out with the humble Denny family, five lavender clones, and an ambitious dream.

At more than 260 acres, it’s the world’s largest privately-owned lavender farm.

When Charles Denny and his family migrated to Tasmania in 1921, he had a dream of producing the world’s finest lavender.

In a bid to realise the dream, they established Bridestowe Estate with their first plantings at North Lilydale. 

By 1924, the new crop had enough flowers to distil oil and send a test sample to London for analysis.

Testing found the oil was completely camphor free and of equal quality to French oil.

The Dennys relocated to Nabowla just over 25 years after their first planting.

Here, Charles’ sons Jock and Tim had the opportunity to increase their plantings and production.

With the help of a globally famous geneticist from Germany, the Dennys selected the first five clones, which were bred for increased yield, fragrance and reduced camphor.

Bridestowe “Myra” was selected as a high yielding clone with nearly twice the oil availability.

Three additional clones were selected (Bridestowe “Elizabeth”, Bridestowe “Ann” and Bridestowe “Jennifer”) to blend with Bridestowe “Myra” to enable the famous “Yardley” fragrance to be created.

A fifth clone, Bridestowe “Philippa” was selected for its intense blue colour and great fragrance. 

It was used for dried flower and is now the basis of Bridestowe “Culinary Lavender”.

100 years on, these varieties are still used on the farm, the majority of which is Bridestowe “Myra”.

The Dennys observed that by planting in curved rows they could make the most of rainfall and reduce erosion.

So they abandoned the traditional European practice of growing in straight rows, adopting the now iconic curved rows.

They also chose to grow from cuttings rather than seed, which gave them greater control of the lavender oil quality, helping them produce a fine and consistent product.

Bridestowe Estate managing director Robert Ravens said the Denny family reengineered the entire practice of growing lavender.

“Everything that was done at Nabowla was unique – from mechanical harvesting to modernised distillation, the contouring to genetic selection,” he said.

“All these things were leading edge.”

The adoption of automated harvesting meant they could quickly respond when the flowers reached their peak, which improved oil quality and yield.

Mr Ravens said the Denny family’s innovative practices live on at Bridestowe today and have been implemented globally.

“They made an impact globally. Tim Denny particularly changed the shape of the essential oil industry globally,” Mr Ravens said.

“His distillation process, which we still use, was leading edge globally. 

“What we do at Nabowla is copied everywhere now. His contribution was astonishing really.”

When Tim Denny retired in 1989 the Estate went into corporate ownership.

Growing an agrotourism experience

The farm came on the market in 2006 and Mr Ravens saw an opportunity to restore the farm to its previous glory.

They set out to grow it as a benchmark for agrotourism, where tourists could see lavender being harvested, distilled, and utilised in a variety of personal care and food products.

“Our mission was never to change anything but to return it to what it was in the 1950s,” he said.

“The façade, what the public see, is really the same.”

With transport costs high, the new owners quickly realised it could not be a profitable business solely producing lavender oil.

“We realised without income stream from tourism, the business wouldn’t survive,” he said.

They started out with bookings through tour agencies like ATP, welcoming busloads of 40 people at a time to the farm.

Mr Ravens said visitation “exploded” from 2009 onwards.

“We were astonishingly fortunate with residents of Hong Kong and Singapore, to start a flow of visitors into northern Tasmania.

“Bridestowe Estate is widely regarded as the face of Tasmania, and Australia really, in China.

“The lavender ice cream has become a statement of Tasmania. It became a mecca for Chinese tourism but also spread to the rest of the world.”

A plush creation known as Bobby the Bear, made with excess dried lavender, gained international attention.

After a number of Chinese celebrities were seen on social media with the purple bear, tourists came thick and fast to get one for themselves.

As demand grew astronomically, Bridestowe’s owners had to limit purchases to one bear per customer.

Pre-covid Bridestowe Estate was attracting around 85,000 visitors per year and since border have reopened post covid lockdowns, numbers currently sit around 30,000 per year.

“So there’s a long way to go but we think this year will show us what the future looks like.”

Mr Ravens said they are now getting traction from the Indian tourist market.

Bridestowe now produces roughly a tonne of lavender oil and one tonne of dried flowers each year. 

Mr Ravens said Bridestowe Estate holds a special place for many locals.

“The thing that fascinates us is how it resonates with Northern Tasmania. That farm is really part of the community,” he said.

“It’s part of the culture; that’s a really remarkable thing.

“I think people really care about its future which is wonderful.”

Their focus going forwards is preserving the farm, while enhancing the quality of the tourist experience.