The team behind The Tailor has officially launched new hospitality brand Ever Lodges, unveiling its first flagship property in the Daintree and Great Barrier Reef region and promising “a new blueprint for environmental luxury.”
Co-Founded by The Tailor Founder and Managing Director Drew Kluska and long-time friend and experiential travel advocate Justin Liberman, the new brand represents a shared ambition to change the way high-end travellers experience Australia.
In conversation with LATTE, Kluska shared his view that the new offering tackles a pressing issue – that Australia possesses the landscapes but not the experiential depth to match the world’s leading destinations. While praising Australia’s “incredible products,” he said many properties still rely too heavily on hardware and traditional service rather than the emotional connection and expert guiding that shape truly transformative travel in places like Africa, where he worked early in his career. “What worked in Africa in 1995 still works today- those experiences are timeless,” he said.
With the aim of bringing these types of experiences to Australia, Ever’s debut property, Ever Bloomfield Lodge, will open in the second half of 2026 as a 14-key retreat – the first in a planned portfolio of Australian lodges shaped by decades of listening to guests, guides, hosts and Country. “Ever Lodges is about creating places that honour nature first, and everything else second,” Kluska said. “Our very first lodge, here in the Daintree and the Reef, sets the standard we intend to build on for decades.”
Ever is born of Kluska’s extensive vault of experiential travel insight. “Ever was shaped not through strategy sessions or market trends, but through almost 30 years of deep listening,” he said. “What stays with people isn’t what they touch, but what they feel.”
The new lodge has therefore been designed with restraint to integrate quietly into its surroundings. “We want to build a product that’s as relevant in 2025 as in 2125,” Kluska said. With this in mind, architecture “sits lightly on Country,” food is shaped with provenance and simplicity, and daily rituals are crafted to leave a quiet but lasting emotional imprint. According to him, every element is meant to foster “shared moments, genuine hospitality, and a profound sense of belonging in place.”
Meanwhile, Ever’s Tasmania-based CEO Matt Casey brings his own wealth of experience from Australia’s luxury lodge sector into the mix. He pointed out that Ever’s defining qualities will come from its human-centred approach. “The real beauty is those beautiful moments that you have with people,” he said. “Ever is built around the simple idea that genuine hospitality is felt, not performed.
“Our guides share not just knowledge but meaning. Our hosts create space for reflection. Our chefs cook with honesty and local character.”
A cornerstone of Ever Bloomfield Lodge is a deeply rooted partnership with the local Walker and Dobie families which will being real experiences to the table – “not the tokenistic stuff”, Casey stressed. “There will be Aboriginal engagement every day,” he explained, adding that the activities will not be scheduled or scripted but spontaneous and real. Community members have already named the property’s suites, and Ever plans to recruit locally across the lodge.
Set where the rainforest meets the reef, the Bloomfield site will offer guests access to two World Heritage areas and a rare diversity of landscapes and stories. In explaining why Ever chose this location for its first property, Kluska called it “one of the great spots of the world”. “It’s almost the best of Australia in one spot,” he said.
While Ever plans additional properties, growth will be slow, deliberate and values-led with future properties to take different forms. “Growth isn’t our primary metric,” Kluska said. “Integrity is.”
Details, rates and the confirmed opening date for Ever Bloomfield Lodge will be released in early 2026.
