RARE TASMANIAN COASTAL ESTATE ON THE MARKET FOR MORE THAN $20 MILLION

A landmark coastal property on Tasmania’s East Coast has hit the market, with expectations of more than $20 million for the fully integrated vineyard, distillery and hospitality estate.

White Sands Estate, set across 250 hectares at Four Mile Creek, is being offered by owner-operator John White through Tom Ryan of Knight Frank and Josh Hart of McGrath.

It represents one of the largest privately owned coastal holdings on the East Coast, a region increasingly favoured by both domestic and international investors seeking long-term tourism and lifestyle assets.

The property’s credentials are formidable. It encompasses an operating brewery, distillery and vineyard with a cellar door and tasting room housed within a 3,254-square-metre two-level complex.

Accommodation includes 19 self-contained villas and larger group lodges, alongside multiple event spaces catering to weddings, conferences and corporate retreats. The estate also features manicured lawns, gardens and beachfront event locations with direct private access to Four Mile Creek beach.

Located along the Tasman Highway between St Helens and Bicheno, White Sands occupies a prime position on the East Coast tourism trail, within easy reach of Freycinet National Park, Douglas Apsley and Maria Island. It’s about 90 minutes’ drive from Launceston, making it an accessible yet secluded escape that draws consistent visitor traffic year-round.

Knight Frank’s Tom Ryan said the property’s combination of operational success, large-scale infrastructure and future potential made it an exceptional offering. “An opportunity of this scale simply doesn’t come to the market,” he said.

“We expect strong interest from both domestic and international investors, particularly given the global profile White Sands Estate has developed.”

While already operating as a successful hospitality and tourism venture, the property also offers significant potential for expansion.

“The large-scale site offers multiple future development pathways,” Ryan added. “That includes eco-tourism, resort or residential projects, as well as expanded events and commercial operations.”

McGrath’s Josh Hart echoed that sentiment, describing the listing as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure a fully operational coastal agritourism and lifestyle asset in a tightly held pocket of the East Coast.”

“It occupies a rare stretch of coastline with direct beach access and sweeping ocean views,” Hart said.

“This region benefits from strong year-round visitation linked to nearby icons such as Freycinet and Wineglass Bay, and there are very few large-scale holdings of this nature remaining.”

The East Coast of Tasmania has long been a magnet for tourism investment, prized for its dramatic coastal scenery, growing food and wine culture, and consistent visitor growth.

With strong domestic demand and increasing international visibility, assets like White Sands Estate are becoming increasingly scarce, and increasingly valuable.

The Expressions of Interest campaign for White Sands Estate closes at 2pm AEDT on Thursday, November 20.

For Jack Freeman, a compelling interior should not look as though it was completed in a single shopping trip.

The founder and designer behind FREEMAN & CO prefers rooms that develop through art, travel, commissioned furniture and objects collected over time. It is an approach that treats the home less as a decorative project and more as an evolving portrait of its owner.

“I am a true believer in collecting versus decorating,” Freeman says.

That distinction underpins the international practice he has built across private residences, hotels, property developments, yachts and private aviation. Its projects stretch from Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay and Toorak to Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean.

Although the locations and architecture vary considerably, the work is connected by a restrained design language. Natural stone, warm timbers and sculptural furniture establish the foundation, while art, bespoke lighting and individual objects give each interior its identity.

The objective is not to overwhelm a room with obvious symbols of expense. It is to create an environment that feels calm, layered and particular to the people living within it.

“The greatest luxury isn’t about excess,” Freeman says. “It’s about creating an oasis where you come home and feel immediately grounded — effortlessly chic and deeply personal.”

Collecting instead of decorating

Decorating can imply the completion of a room: selecting the required furniture, filling the available walls and producing a coherent finished image.

Collecting is less conclusive.

A collected interior has room to change as its owners travel, discover artists, inherit pieces or reassess how they use their home. Its character comes from the relationship between objects rather than adherence to a single brand or season.

That does not mean placing unrelated pieces together without discipline. The designer must understand scale, proportion, material and provenance well enough to create a dialogue between them.

A contemporary artwork might sit beside a historic piece of furniture. A precisely detailed new interior may be interrupted by an irregular object made by hand. Smooth stone can be balanced by timber, textiles or a patinated metal surface that becomes richer with age.

The tension between those elements is part of the appeal.

For Freeman, art is not an accessory to be added once the furniture plan is complete. It forms part of the architecture and atmosphere of the room from the beginning.

Lighting is considered in the same way. Beyond its practical purpose, a bespoke fitting can operate as a suspended sculpture, changing both the room’s composition and the way its materials are experienced after dark.

A design perspective shaped by travel

International travel plays a significant role in Freeman’s creative process.

Design fairs such as PAD Paris and Salone del Mobile in Milan provide opportunities to encounter emerging designers, established galleries, new materials and collectible furniture away from the filter of social media.

More spontaneous discoveries can prove equally important.

“Sometimes it’s the simple things,” Freeman says. “That piece found on a shopping trip with a client in Paris, stumbling across an artisan’s workshop, or a special memory that forms the narrative of the story.”

Objects selected during travel bring more than visual interest into a home. They carry an association with a place, maker or experience, giving the client a connection that cannot be reproduced by ordering an entire interior from a catalogue.

Freeman’s influences are international, but his projects are not conceived as replicas of Parisian, Milanese or Californian style. Each commission responds to its architecture, setting, natural light and the daily lives of its occupants.

A waterfront Sydney residence demands a different treatment from a Mayfair townhouse. A Caribbean estate shaped by brutalist architecture and reflecting pools calls for another response again.

The designer’s role is to absorb those references without allowing them to overwhelm the individual qualities of the property.

Designing the complete experience

FREEMAN & CO extends beyond conventional interior decoration.

The practice’s stated services include interior design and architecture, project management, property acquisition, development advice, concept design, documentation, furniture and lighting design, procurement and art curation.

That breadth allows the team to become involved before a room’s dimensions and finishes are fixed.

Early participation can be important at the top end of the residential market, where architecture, landscape, interiors, technology and art must operate as one environment. Decisions about ceiling heights, wall dimensions, sightlines and lighting can directly affect where art is installed or how custom furniture is proportioned.

The practice can then carry those decisions through to procurement and final installation, maintaining the design narrative as a project moves between architects, builders, specialist craftspeople, dealers and suppliers.

Its residential portfolio includes a South Coast retreat conceived as an escape from urban life, a Caribbean estate with reflecting pools, an East Coast-inspired Palm Beach residence and a Mayfair townhouse organised around an expressive drawing room.

The studio also says it has worked on highly tailored Sydney residences with values exceeding $100 million, although the private nature of such commissions means individual addresses and clients are not always disclosed.

A home that can keep changing

The risk in creating a perfectly resolved interior is that it can become too static — a composition that looks exceptional in photographs but leaves little room for life.

Freeman sees the home as something that should evolve with its owners.

“I love the evolution of design,” he says. “We are talking about people’s lives, and as they evolve, so too should their private sanctuaries.”

That evolution might involve adding art, reupholstering a significant piece, adapting rooms as a family changes or making space for objects gathered through future travels.

The original design needs to be strong enough to accommodate those layers.

This may be the clearest expression of Freeman’s approach to luxury. It is not simply access to rare stone, collectible furniture or commissioned craftsmanship. It is the creation of a personal environment whose meaning deepens rather than diminishes with time.

Fact box

Designer: Jack Freeman

Role: Founder and managing director

Practice: FREEMAN & CO

Base: Australia, with international projects

Project locations named by the practice: Point Piper, Vaucluse, Circular Quay, Toorak, Palm Beach, the NSW South Coast, Mayfair, Bel Air and the Caribbean

Sectors: Private residences, hotels, residential developments, private aviation and superyachts

Services: Interior design and architecture, property development, project management, property acquisition, documentation, furniture and lighting design, FF&E procurement, interior dressing and art curation

Design philosophy: Collected, personal interiors shaped by art, craftsmanship, travel and enduring materials

Website: free-man.co

RARE TASMANIAN COASTAL ESTATE ON THE MARKET FOR MORE THAN $20 MILLION

A 250-hectare beachfront vineyard, distillery and resort on Tasmania’s East Coast has been listed for sale, marking one of the most significant lifestyle and tourism opportunities to emerge in the State in years.

Jack Freeman believes the most compelling interiors are not decorated, but collected. The FREEMAN & CO founder creates layered, personal spaces shaped by art, travel and craftsmanship.