About Breath
Breath began with a piece of land.
Ninety-six acres of forest climbing towards kunanyi, a mountain-fed creek running through the property, and a feeling of being somewhere genuinely removed from the everyday, despite being so close to Hobart. The vision for Breath grew from wanting to share that feeling.
There is something about being in the bush that changes your pace. The sounds become quieter, you notice more, and time seems to stretch a little. Breath was created around that simple idea: to make a place where people can step away for a while and let the surroundings do the rest.
The name came from that feeling too. A pause. A moment to slow down. To breathe.
Breath is privately owned and independently operated. The owner lives on site too, and being able to care for this place and share a small part of it with others is what makes Breath meaningful.
When you leave, we hope you take a little of that quiet with you.
About Me / My Story
In 2021, I set off on a big lap around Australia. I spent only six weeks in Tasmania, hardly enough time to truly take it all in. But it was more than enough for this island to completely capture my heart. I'm Ben, and this is the story of how that trip led me here.
I still remember my very first drive up ‘the mountain’, what locals call kunanyi / Mt Wellington. As I came into Fern Tree and rounded the final corner before the village, I was met by an old gum tree that overlooks the winding road. It feels like a quiet guardian, welcoming people as they journey up the mountain and into the wild. Even now, every time I drive past, I am taken back to that first experience of this magical place. If you come to Breath, you’ll know you’ve arrived when you see the tree welcoming you too.
Something shifted in me that day. For the rest of my journey around Australia, I knew I had to come back. Over the next two years, I returned to Tassie again and again, and each time I found myself drawn back to Fern Tree. Eventually, through a story too long to tell here, I found an incredible piece of land. 96 acres of native Tasmanian bushland overlooking the mountain, leading down to an ever-flowing creek.
Most of the property is protected under a conservation covenant, ensuring it will remain a sanctuary for the plants and animals that call it home, now and for generations to come. This was deeply important to me. I feel a responsibility to care for and protect the wild places we still have left.
“We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife. If we save our wild places, we will ultimately save ourselves.” Steve Irwin
I wanted to protect a place like this. Not simply own it, but to care for it and to share it.
Throughout my life, I’ve tried to create spaces where people feel understood, safe, and connected. Spaces where they can slow down enough to reconnect with themselves and remember what matters. In a world that rarely pauses, these kinds of places are hard to come by in the everyday.
There are many incredible places in nature, but they can often take real time and effort to reach. I wanted to cultivate something quiet, private, and genuinely accessible. Here, you can feel a world away, even though Hobart is only 15 minutes down the road.
It wasn’t just the landscape that drew me in. The feeling of this place needs to be experienced to be understood. The cool mountain air moving through the trees. The quiet bubble of the creek over moss-covered stones surrounded by ferns. Mist rolling through the valley in the early morning. Silence broken only by the birds. It is a place that naturally, gently, slows you down.
Breth carries the essence of all of this. The slowing down, the deep inward journey, and the quiet sense of wild wonder that Tasmania so naturally evokes.
This place called me back again and again.
Now, I hope I can share it with you too.
Come to the mountain.
Step away from the pace of everyday life.
Let the land hold you, and the silence find you.
Breathe.
