Latest News
Here's our latest press releases from Bruny Island Cruises and Tasman Island Cruises.
Bruny Island Cruises wins Australian Tourism Award
Tasmanian eco-cruising pioneer Rob Pennicott and his team continue to win major awards on the national stage – at tonight's Australian Tourism Awards at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Hobart, Rob's Bruny Island Cruises won the Australian Ecotourism category for 2009.
After sweeping success in the Tasmanian awards leading up to the Australian
finals, Bruny Island Cruises had the unusual opportunity to win national awards
three different categories - Tourist Attraction, Ecotourism and the
Qantas Award for Excellence in Sustainable Tourism.
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New Pennicott Wilderness Journeys office opens on Hobart's waterfront
Today Michelle O'Byrne MP, Minister for Tourism and the Arts, officially opened Pennicott Wilderness Journeys' new Hobart Waterfront office.
Tasmania's eco-cruising pioneer Robert Pennicott's new Hobart base and booking office is located in the Dock Head Building within the heart of Hobart's maritime precinct, at the entrance to Constitution Dock (previously the site of CH Smith Marine).
The new office creates a high-profile capital-city presence to showcase Rob's two multi-award
winning products, Bruny Island Cruises and Tasman Island Cruises. These
spectacular 3 hour coastal wilderness cruises which travel along two key Tasmanian coastal
locations, Bruny Island and Port Arthur, have become some of Tasmania's most desired
experiences.
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Triple Treat for Rob Pennicott's Team
Bruny Island Cruises wins all three of its categories entered in the 2009 Tasmanian Tourism Awards
The wins keep coming for Tasmanian eco-cruising pioneer Rob Pennicott and his team at Bruny Island Cruises. Already an icon among Tasmanian visitor experiences, the cruise along the remote and spectacular coastline of South Bruny Island won all three categories entered in the 2009 Tasmanian Tourism Awards.
"We were very excited to be named Best Tasmanian Attraction and Best Ecotourism, as well as winning the Qantas Award for Excellence in Sustainable Tourism," Rob says. "Each of the awards is important to us for different reasons and it's a great thrill to be acknowledged across a wide variety of criteria."
The Best Tasmanian Attraction award follows on success in the same category in 2006
and 2008. It recognises the significance of Bruny Island Cruises in raising the profile of
Bruny Island, south-east of Tasmania's capital city of Hobart, as a key destination for
local and interstate visitors, along with increasing numbers of international visitors to
Tasmania. The ecocruise has been featured in travel media around the globe, including
recognition by the prestigious Travel & Leisure Magazine 2008 yearbook as 'One of the
Greatest 100 Trips of the World.'
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Australian Geographic Story on Robert Pennicott
Featured in the July/August/September issue of Australian Geographic magazine.
Former fisherman Rob Pennicott has gone more than 10 summers now without taking a fish from a net or dragging crayfish from tea-tree pots. Instead, he runs a fleet of six custom-designed boats on the Tasman Sea.
These days, instead of fishing, the 43-year-old annually nets about 20,000 tourists, who take his Bruny Island Cruises tours. Together they explore the dramatic coastlines of Bruny and Tasman islands, south and south-east of Hobart.
Rob fell in love with the Tasmanian coast at the age of 12, after buying his
first dinghy from his dad and turning his dream of catching and selling fish into
reality. More than three decades later, he's following a new dream - to protect
the coast he's always held dear.
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Robert Pennicott Features in National Telstra Campaign
Tasmanian eco-cruising pioneer Rob Pennicott, who established Bruny Island Cruises and Tasman Island Cruises, is featuring in a national Telstra advertising campaign for the 2009 Telstra Business Awards highlighting successful Australian innovators.
Under the headline 'It's been a rough ride but we never felt like abandoning ship', the press advertisement portrays Mr Pennicott at his Adventure Bay base, with the purpose-built cruise boats he designed behind him and a distant Mt Wellington on the horizon.
Mr Pennicott's cruises have won a series of major Australian awards, including two national categories in the 2008 Telsta Business Awards: the Telstra MYOB Small Business Award for businesses with five to 20 employees; and the Sensis Social Responsibility Award for demonstrated leadership and contribution by a business to the environment, people, education or the community.
The Pennicott family's successful and dynamic businesses continue to grow, carrying more than
28,000 passengers in the 2007-2008 season along the coastlines of South Bruny Island and the
Tasman Peninsula. The 2008-2009 season is on target to increase those numbers.
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New Success for the Pennicott Family
Rob and Michaye Pennicott's widely-acclaimed eco-cruises continued their string of
award successes in the 2008 Tasmanian Tourism Awards, with Bruny Island Cruises
named Tasmania’s Best Tourist Attraction and Tasman Island Cruises winning the award
for Best New Tourism Development.
Both cruises explore sections of south-east Tasmania's remote and dramatic coastline,
where the highest sea-cliffs in the southern hemisphere rise up 300 metres from the
water. Rob Pennicott custom-designed his company's fast, comfortable and sea-kindly
craft specifically for this type of eco-cruising.
Bruny Island Cruises operates from Adventure Bay, cruising south as far as the Friars,
where Storm Bay meets the Southern Ocean. Tasman Island Cruises runs between
Eaglehawk Bay and Port Arthur, giving guests a close encounter with Tasman Island on
the way.
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Rob Pennicott's eco-adventures team wins major national awards
The Pennicott family's journey to success in the nation's most prestigious business
awards began nearly a decade ago, when Rob Pennicott established the now
internationally-acclaimed Bruny Island Cruises eco-adventure. Last year, he
extended his scope to the spectacular coastline between Port Arthur and Eaglehawk
Neck, with the opening of his new venture, Tasman Island Cruises.
The outstanding quality and environmental sustainability of his team's tourism
operations were acknowledged in Sydney on 10 October, with wins in two major
national awards – the Telstra MYOB Small Business Award for businesses with five
to 20 employees; and the Telstra Sensis Social Responsibility Award for
demonstrated leadership and contribution by a business to the environment, people,
education or the community.
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New Tasmanian eco-cruise introduces unique sea suits
Winter is no longer a barrier for exploring Tasmania’s sublime coastline with Tasman
Island Cruises introducing Australia’s first eco-tourism, all-weather adventure suits.
Owner, Robert Pennicott, and the manufacturers of Antarctic Survival Dry Suits,
used for Australian Antarctic Division expeditions, have collaborated to deliver cool
climate comfort for the journey from Port Arthur into nature’s playground.
Tasman Island Cruises, the new eco-voyage by Tasmania’s multi-award winning
experience Bruny Island Cruises, will provide passengers with the exclusive allweather
adventure suits on departures throughout the year.
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