Rosevears Hotel

A Historic Pub With A Modern Twist
The Tamar River is at the heart of Northern Tasmania and situated on its western banks is the iconic Rosevears Hotel.

The Rosevears Hotel is a favourite of Tamar Valley locals who for generations have enjoyed the atmosphere of its beautiful waterfront location. The Rosevears Hotel has all endearing features of an historic country pub with a twist of contemporary sophistication through our food, wine and modern waterfront accommodation.

The property offers a variety of different spaces for functions and our 26 hotel rooms all have their own private balconies with water views of the Tamar River.

Family Owned Operated.
Allan Virieux – Owner
His Journey To Rosevears Is A Great Tasmanian Success Story
Allans love affair with Rosevears began long before he was in a fortunate position to purchase it. As a passionate West Tamar resident he saw the opportunity to own an iconic piece of Tasmanian history as an exciting adventure. He refers to Rosevears as the old girl and has invested in restoring her old bones into a modern hotel with vibrancy and a real focal point for the Tamar Valley.

Allan’s history is diverse, from humble beginnings on a dairy farm on beautiful Flinders Island, he was the youngest of nine children. After finishing school on Flinders Island at 16 he worked on the farm on weekends and on a fishing boat up and down the east coast of Tasmania.

At 18 the excitement of the big city lights of Launceston lured him in search of work where he got a job with the Department of Main Roads on the asphalt crew. At the time he had never seen asphalt as Flinders Island was dirt roads! His job was labouring which took him all over the state with a mobile asphalt plant in tow, camping in the bush and discovering remote parts of Tasmania.

After 10 years at the DMR he was married and then got a job with the West Tamar Council. Allan went from having a job where he was away all the time to having a job where he wasnt, he and his wife started their family in Frasers Road in Glengarry. To make some extra money he bought a little 5 tonne excavator and started doing some weekend work whilst at council, his little job on the side meant that he worked every day for 6 months to keep up with demand!

One day he was working on a job and a yellow Mercedes pulled up and a bloke got out and asked him Are you A.J Virieux? Allan answered ‘Yeah’.

He said My name is Len Bligh. I have a subdivision I want done up at Greens Beach and I want you to come and work for me . Allan was a bit hesitant and told him that he had a job with the council and I was pretty set for life job wise. Len replied “Well, thats all well and good Allan but youll never make any money staying there. He guaranteed Allan at least six months work. But said therell be more, trust me .

At this fork in the road that life presented Allan he decided to jump in and take the risk, this decision set him on a very different life path. Once he finished the Greens Beach subdivision, he began quoting for driveways and carparks. Before he knew it there were more driveways and carparks and the business just took off, and that one decision led to the birth of A.J. Virieux Constructions. Which eventually became Venarchie Contracting.

The size of the business meant that it was time to upscale as sourcing asphalt was a huge overhead and they felt there was a better, cheaper way to source it, when it wasnt possible to buy any in Tasmania, he decided to create his own! After 3 years of negotiations, hoop jumping and building infrastructure Allan had his own asphalt plant.

The infrastructure arrived from Korea at the Bell Bay port and it was transported on the back of semi trailers, and put together like a jigsaw puzzle. It was up and running and producing around 25,000 tonnes of asphalt per year. At this time Allan was employing around 85 permanent staff and about 30 casual workers.

After 40 years in the asphalt and civil industry he decided to sell Venarchie in 2017, Allan proudly ensured all of his employees continued to be employed after the sale, many who had become lifetime friends and ensuring their continued employment was a condition of the sale.

Allan was was fortunate enough to buy the Rosevears Hotel in 2010, one he had frequented regularly throughout his adult life living in the West Tamar. He is passionate about the Rosevears Hotel and has visions transforming the waterfront around the hotel to make it a destination for locals and visitors to the Tamar Valley.

Allan has two children from his first marriage, Elizabeth and Jamie, both have worked for his businesses straight from school. At different times he has employed his brother and nephew, family is important to Allan. He is remarried to Prue and together they have seven grandchildren.

The Rosevears Hotels long history was a family run business and thanks to Allans passion and enthusiasm for Tasmania and the Tamar Valley will continue to be so.