In 1884, Italian-born entrepreneur Angelo Giulio Diego Bernacchi – also known simply as Diego Bernacchi – stepped onto the east coast’s Maria Island with a mission to turn it into a centre for industry and tourism.
Within just three and a half years, he had built thriving silk and wine-making industries. Meanwhile, the island’s old convict settlement, Darlington, was repurposed and expanded to house his workers and their families, as well as tourists.
On Saturday, 23 July 1887, the Launceston Examiner reported:
“It is intended to at once erect a coffee palace or hotel for the convenience of visitors, a good many of whom already visit the island.”
In the end, a coffee palace* and a hotel were built.
The hotel – ‘creatively’ named the Grand Hotel – was completed first, opening its doors in March 1888. It could accommodate up to 30 people and had drawing, billiard, dining, and sitting rooms.
When the Coffee Palace was opened in October 1888, it gave people an alternative to eating and drinking at the Grand Hotel. It had two dining rooms and a sitting room at the front, with living quarters and a kitchen at the rear.
Palace to Museum
Although Diego Bernacchi’s enterprises on Maria Island got off to a good start, they gradually declined and had all failed by 1930. Bernacchi himself died in 1925.
Several farms were subsequently established on the island, and the Grand Hotel and several other buildings that Bernacchi had built at Darlington were dismantled and removed between the 1930s and the 1950s.
The Coffee Palace was one of the few buildings that remained, and it was soon repurposed as a boarding house for visitors to Maria Island.
The boarding house eventually closed, and after Maria Island was declared a national park in 1972, the Coffee Palace building became a museum. It currently features interpretive displays that tell visitors about Maria Island’s convict era, Bernacchi’s various endeavours, and the island’s cultural heritage.
It’s free to visit but you’ll need a national parks’ pass to access Maria Island and indeed a pleasant boat ride from Triabunna.
* Coffee palaces were a type of hotel that sprang up across Australia in the late 1800s as part of the temperance movement’s aim to steer people away from drinking alcohol.
Tas That Was is a column that includes:
- anecdotes of life in Tasmania in the past;
- historical photographs of locations in Tasmania; and/or
- documentaries about locations in Tasmania.
If you have an anecdote or photograph you’d like to share with us, please send it to [email protected].
Callum J. Jones is passionate about telling stories. He studied English, History and Journalism at the University of Tasmania and lived in western Sydney from 2022 to 2024 while working as a journalist for Professional Planner, a leading online publication for financial planners. Callum has written for Tasmanian Times since 2018 and has also been published in a range of other outlets, including Quadrant and the BAD Western Sydney anthologies.
