Justin Hemmes leads Australian motel revival from Narooma to Torquay and the Gold Coast

The “great” Australian motel, let’s be honest, was the hotel’s slightly embarrassing cousin — cheap, cheerful and with all the designer nous of bland brickwork and the lingering scent of nicotine.

It came with a bedspread, a kettle and the very real sensation the carpet had witnessed several nefarious acts. Cut to now and the motel has not only discovered linen and lighting but a strong sense of self-respect — these former low-rise boxes being bought, stripped, sharpened and made desirable again. Pools are being revived. Rooms are being redesigned. Bars are appearing where reception desks once dispensed keys and questionable advice. Across Australia — particularly along the east coast’s waterside hamlets — many old properties are being revived by a new generation of owners who understand nostalgia and are looking to lean into something more modern, unfussy, social and properly designed (even if that means keeping the bricks).

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It was in June this year that billionaire CEO of Merivale Group, Justin Hemmes, swung open the doors of The Whale — a debut accommodation project for his hospitality group (that boasts approximately 100 pubs and restaurants) and which is peerlessly parked overlooking the Wagonga Inlet in the New South Wales coastal town of Narooma.

“When we started reimagining the old Whale Inn motel, the idea was pretty simple — to create a beautiful place where people could stay and experience great hospitality and everything that makes Narooma so special,” Hemmes tells ROAM. “We undertook a full renovation while keeping the original bones of the 70s motel and the wonderful intricacies of the design — and I hope we’ve done its beauty justice. There’s something wonderful about these older properties when they’ve been part of a place for a long time, and people are drawn to that, so we kept the things that gave it its character, like the original pool with its retro shape, rather than stripping them out and starting fresh.”

It’s a play that’s seemingly worked. Many can now locate Narooma on a map. We’re told winter occupancy rates were strong. Even the Germans have landed — eager to experience the 18-room property’s muted 70s designs that wink to a soft-focus 70s Ibiza.

“Yes, we’ve had an influx of internationals through — the Germans and the Chinese,” says The Whale’s general manager Erin Proud, who holds a CV that spans London’s Savoy, Raffles Beijing, luxury US properties Fairmont Grand Del Mar and Rosewood Miramar Beach.

She says the lure of this southern stretch of the NSW south coast was driven by the property and the rare chance to rejuvenate.

“I truly love seeing buildings that had past lives be reimagined. And that’s something that’s happening here; to be the current custodian of something that’s had different incarnations and different iterations I find really fascinating because there’s always a story, there’s always some links that you can bring from the past through into the present.”

The present is served by the return of Dan Hong’s Queen Chow Cantonese diner (a former pre-reno pop-up) and chef Clayton Wells (Sydney’s Automata) acting as executive chef across the property’s various menus.

As for the local community response? “They’ve definitely embraced it,” states Proud. “And they’ve embraced the team and the service and everything that goes into it. Justin sees this as something that’s giving back to the community — it’s a gift to Narooma. Because having a site like this also means we’re providing opportunity to come and to work, we’re giving back in that way too.”

The motel began in America in the 1920s, its name a neat contraction of “motor” and “hotel”, created for a new breed of traveller with a car, a tank of fuel and somewhere else to be. Australia adopted the idea after the Second World War, as car ownership exploded and the road trip became a national ritual. By the mid-1950s, motels were appearing along highways and holiday routes, offering the revolutionary luxuries of private bathrooms, parking at the door, air-conditioning and, occasionally, a swimming pool. They boomed through the 1960s and 70s, went brown (or colonial) in the 80s and become the unofficial stay of Australian road travel.

“I vividly remember quite a modern motel in the mid 1970s in Mildura. I was a kid, I would’ve been maybe five, and I remember sleeping against the brick wall and scratching up my face on the brick wall, and it had a colour TV in the room. We didn’t have one at home — and that’s part of it as well, watching TV in bed in a motel seemed very, very exotic in those days.”

Ross falls into a memory that could well double as the spec script for Fawlty Towers.

“Motels were quite glamorous in their own wonky way and in those days. They always had a bar of some sort and a dining room and you turn up and the guy who’d meet you at the door or in reception, half an hour later he’s pouring drinks at the bar and then he’s your waiter and then he appears to go and talk to the chef, but he probably was the chef.”

As for his take on the modern iteration and the seeming return of the motel? “I think it’s important that the idea of the motel remains — and I think for the new audience, or people who, you know, would like beds that aren’t wonky and tiles that aren’t 70 years old and give you tinea, they work really well.

“They’re keeping the essence of it, but they’ve updated the rooms and it’s now a much more comfortable stay. Sure the purists want things to remain the same, but I think everything evolves.”

Davis points to the pain of renovation but also the unique reward aligned to such revitalisation. “Ultimately we just felt it really important to try and preserve some foundational architecture in key areas like on Torquay’s The Esplanade. This is a town that received such a sugar hit of tourism and permanent population post COVID — Torquay’s got a real life to it now. I wouldn’t say it’s being overdeveloped, but there’s a lot of new development and so we wanted to preserve this piece of the past. It’s tortuous how difficult it can be, but it’s so much more rewarding.”

The now 16-room hotel boasts a giant four-bed penthouse and an already applauded on-site restaurant overseen by chef Jo Barrett. While the design tips to its name and the surfie roots of the town, there’s a sense of warmth and authenticity in its ways, far removed from the metro-led kook show it could have been.

“Ultimately, there’s a soul to it, and if we can harness the energy and give it a refreshed identity, well, we’re finding that it has a huge amount of positive meaning to our customer and the community . . . This was a place that both locals and tourists previously loved and it felt really obvious for us to preserve what was there already.” Davis and Robinson aren’t done with motels. Not yet. They’ve just opened The Roy (formerly the Rainbow Sands Resort) on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and are also elevating a second Victorian outing, the mid-century and adventure-led The Warby (previously the Warburton Motel) in the Yarra Ranges. “Buying motels in regions often allows you to put your foot on some of the best land in town. They’re well located, close to the beach or the best that the region has to offer. And so locationally, they allow us to access those areas and then positively impact those areas significantly — help increase enthusiasm, energy and local connection by renovating something in the regions.”

Jason Raine decided to “roll the dice” on buying a motel in 2019. With a background in construction he was chasing a less physically taxing job and his wife Eliza came from hospitality.

The pair took over the Palm Trees Motel — now The Mysa — on Palm Beach on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

“We closed it down for two years to completely renovate — we gutted the entire place, took the roof off and were able to also salvage a lot of the pre-existing materials in terms of timber and tiles and bricks that we reused in the build.”

They also maintained the building’s original 1960s motel facade.

“We felt that the Gold Coast at the time, and still now, was losing a lot of its architectural history. I think it’s important that we to hang on to these things.” The revamped Mysa is a tightly-held modern motel of just seven rooms and a pool. “We can accommodate 16 guests and people can hire the entire place out with a bunch of friends and fill up the seven rooms exclusively.” Raine says his guests seek “something boutique and small, they don’t want to be staying somewhere with 300 others; they just want a seamless and easy check-in and then to kind of be off on their own.”

As for the recent surge in the adaptive reuse of Australian motels? “Anyone obtaining a motel these day, well, it’s extremely rare that they’re not pouring some life into it and doing a great job — hats off to anyone renovating a motel. I actually feel we’re kind of all standing together at the moment, everyone’s taking a lot of pride in what they’re doing and guests are showing up for it too.”

whalenarooma.com; surfhotel.com.au; modernisterbooks.com; themysamotel.com

Five More (Reimagined) Motels To Try

Dolphins Motel, Mollymook, NSW An original 1950s motel that recently reopened with 10 mid-century styled rooms and a spacious three-bedroom apartment with kitchen and private deck — all a one-minute meander to the beach.

dolphinsmollymook.au

Halcyon House, Cabarita Beach, NSW The east coast OG — the former Cabarita Beach Hideaway Motel converted back in 2015. Great pool, great food and a faultless location right on the sand.

halcyonhouse.com.au

Kyneton Springs Motel, Kyneton, Vic Individually curated rooms and a truly retro update complete with Palm Springs signage — an hour from Melbourne.

kynetonspringsmotel.com Barossa Palms Motel, Barossa Valley, SA A neatly updated 60s gem held deep in wine country that also pours a side of wellness. barossapalms.com

The Sunseeker, Byron Bay, NSW Who said 80s bricks can’t be cool? A thoughtfully reimagined property of 22 rooms that holds design — and California — in its heart.

thesunseeker.com.au