Concrete grain silos aren't necessarily the obvious home for a luxury hotel, but Peppers Silo Hotel in Launceston might just change your perspective on that. At the intersection of Kanamaluka/River Tamar and Cataract Gorge, enter four 35 metres tall brutalist structures built in the 1960s to store barley on Launceston's Kings Wharf, and you'll find guest rooms, a gym, a spa and dining amenities — all curved in line with the building's industrial geometry. The $25 million adaptive reuse, led by ARTAS Architects (design architect Scott Curran, interior designer Nicole Armitage), opened in 2018 and went on to win Commercial Architecture at the Tasmanian Architecture Awards the following year. A second, rectangular tower was added alongside the original silos, bringing the hotel to 108 rooms across the two buildings. Recycled stringybark and ironbark, salvaged from a former wool store on the site, turns up in furniture and joinery throughout, while steel artwork reproduces archival photographs of the silos in their working days — a building that wears its industrial past rather than erasing it. In the Gorge River Rooms and Premier Suites — the ones occupying the full diameter of a silo — private balconies frame views across Seaport, Royal Park and the river basin below. It's a location that puts you on the water's edge and within a short walk of Launceston's CBD, via the footbridge that connects the hotel to the rest of the city. Downstairs, Grain of the Silos has become one of the reasons to book a table here even if you're not staying the night. Food Director Massimo Mele — a Tasmanian who trained under Roberto Castellanni at Melbourne's Donovans, ran the kitchens across the thousand-cover-a-day Hugo's Group, and now also helms his own Peppina in Hobart — has built a menu around the same producers he champions across the state's dining scene. Executive Chef Thomas Pirker and his team turn that produce into a genuinely seasonal offering, and the restaurant picked up Gault&Millau's Best New Restaurant award within six months of opening. The hotel's sustainability credentials run deeper than the kitchen. Peppers Silo was Tasmania's first Sustainable Tourism Certified hotel, having stripped single-use plastics from its rooms, switched to a filtered water system served in reusable glass bottles, and redirected more than 24 tonnes of food waste from landfill through a local composting partnership. More than 60 local growers and producers supply the kitchen, accounting for over 90 per cent of what lands on your plate. At Silo Day Spa, there's a signature scent built specifically for the property — Serenity of the Silos, a blend of Mandarin, Lavender and Rosewood — plus a fully equipped gym for anyone determined not to skip a session on a Tasmanian weekend. And Archie, the hotel's resident black Labrador and self-described guide-dog-training dropout, handles the welcome committee. Images: Peppers Silo Hotel
