A UNIQUE tourism development proposed for the East Coast would be the only accommodation in the world where guests can sleep within a penguin colony on an island.

The Freycinet Island Penguin Camp and Environmental Sculpture Park, on privately owned Picnic Island at Coles Bay, will house up to 10 guests who will sleep in cabins at the water’s edge, dining in a communal birdhouse facility and watching as penguins and shearwaters return to their burrows in the evening.

In addition, the arts community and emerging artists will collaborate to create a sculpture park for day visitors.

Paths will be constructed around the island to protect the burrows and artworks will be installed along the paths.

Clem Newton-Brown, of Melbourne, is a planning barrister and former Victorian MP who bought the island 10 years ago.

The island is a couple of acres in size with about 1000 penguin burrows on it.

media_camera A little penguin on Picnic Island.

“Penguins are a huge driver of international tourism. For example in Victoria, PhillipIsland gets hundreds of thousands of visitors every year and half of those are international and a large majority of those are Chinese.’’

There are about 6000 islands in Tasmania but only nine are freehold.

“The others are a bit remote but this is incredibly located, in that it’s 800m offshore from the thriving tourist town of Coles Bay.

“You’ve got Saffire [resort] on the other side of the bay and just around from one of the best beaches in the world, Wineglass Bay.”

Mr Newton-Brown has five years’ experience in Tasmanian tourism and owns accommodation on Flinders Island.

media_camera Former Prahran MP Clem Newton-Brown. Picture: BRENDAN FRANCIS

He has done all the environmental impact studies including Aboriginal heritage, waste management and flora and fauna.

Mr Newton-Brown said he hoped images of the island with The Hazards range in the background would become as iconic as photos of the hut at Dove Lake in front of Cradle Mountain.

The project will cost about $500,000 and Mr Newton-Brown has applied for a Federal Government Tourism Demand Driver Infrastructure Program grant to complete the sculpture park.

Originally published as Cabin plan for penguin colony