Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli access

[johnrs]

And so Daniels proposal finds itself in court.
The whole approval process seems dubious to me,
think mates in a small place or simply cronyism.
I hope the TWS is successful.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/ ... 204f3854ee

[bogholesbuckethats]

More info RE court case here http://www.edotas.org.au/tws-seeks-revi ... -decision/

[Nuts]

http://www.edotas.org.au/about-edo/sign ... lqhJP-S4wk

[Maraea48]

For those of us who are concerned by this kind of development in our national parks you could attend this proposed rally!

[north-north-west]

We'll be there.

[Nuts]

BUS Devonport-Launceston departs Formby Rd. VC at 9.30am Sun 28th- to Launceston, to show a presence. Leave a message here (by 9am) if you are coming.

[stepbystep]

11am Civic Square, Launceston.

Please help stop this. Read the last line of the article....

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation ... 0fca18f404

[stepbystep]

A couple of shots from todays rally. A rough guess at 250 in the crowd. Speeches were mostly really good. Thanks to those that turned up, and those that made it happen.

[Wherever I may roam]

Interesting paragraph toward the end of this article and how it could be used to compare potentially in this debate... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-28/ ... y/10438648

The Society has said it applied to Parks and Wildlife to complete construction of the hut at Deception Plains, to "acknowledge the sacrifice made by Boy and to honour his name and his contribution to the local mountain heritage", but was refused. They followed up with a request to construct a shelter over the remains to "protect them from further decay" — also refused "due to the World Heritage Status of the area", the society said.

Interesting how a shelter was denied due to status of area yet the luxury camp proposal is significant compared to this.

[Son of a Beach]

Interesting paragraph toward the end of this article and how it could be used to compare potentially in this debate... https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-28/ ... y/10438648

The Society has said it applied to Parks and Wildlife to complete construction of the hut at Deception Plains, to "acknowledge the sacrifice made by Boy and to honour his name and his contribution to the local mountain heritage", but was refused. They followed up with a request to construct a shelter over the remains to "protect them from further decay" — also refused "due to the World Heritage Status of the area", the society said.

Interesting how a shelter was denied due to status of area yet the luxury camp proposal is significant compared to this.

It's a good a valid point. It's also worth noting that PWS has explicitly advised the government against approving this luxury development also (see links a few posts up). It's the government that seems to be pushing to override PWS on this particular development.

[north-north-west]

It's a good a valid point. It's also worth noting that PWS has explicitly advised the government against approving this luxury development also (see links a few posts up). It's the government that seems to be pushing to override PWS on this particular development.

Yes. It's interesting that TasPAWS has advised against the development, given the number of pro-tourism people in upper management. Shows just how shoddy and corrupt the whole thing is.

[tastrax]

I notice Lake Malbena has not been digitised in Open Street Map - if someone has the time to run around the lake it would be appreciated. I didn't notice this when I digitised Halls Island (to make it easier for folks to find!)

[Nuts]

It's a good a valid point. It's also worth noting that PWS has explicitly advised the government against approving this luxury development also (see links a few posts up). It's the government that seems to be pushing to override PWS on this particular development.

Yes. It's interesting that TasPAWS has advised against the development, given the number of pro-tourism people in upper management. Shows just how shoddy and corrupt the whole thing is.

Parks Advisory Council (so it's not as if we can expect them to be a group of apolitical independent experts in their field, long term concerned citizens or anything): https://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?id=1715

[bogholesbuckethats]

An updated list of Central Highlands Council members.

Unfortunately I have been unable to find contact information for newly elected members but I will update the document once that is made available.

[Mark F]

How about a massive fishing effort to rid the lake and surrounding waters of feral fish. No trout - no camp.

[stepbystep]

How about a massive fishing effort to rid the lake and surrounding waters of feral fish. No trout - no camp.

No doubt re-stocking will be part of the 'arrangement' they have stitched up.

[Nuts]

Despite people like our tourism CEO using the support to their own ends, UNESCO expressed concern with the rezoning (even on the Overland and Lk Rodway).
Whatever led to planning endorsement i'm sure wouldn't stretch to introducing feral animals. Which makes it interesting how the operator/this government gets around that? Scrap the onerous WHA listing? Ban non--paying fishers?

[bogholesbuckethats]

Editorial in today's Mercury. Text copied to PDF as it is behind a paywall.

[north-north-west]

Thanks for that.

And it notes that potential noise impacts from the
helicopter flights in and out had been successfully “avoided or mitigated”.
(But on this last point the decision brief itself only refers to “a maximum of
30 trips per year” when on the 52nd of the 100-plus pages of attachments
to the brief is found the detail that “the heli-use required to facilitate up to
30 guiding packages per year is in vicinity of 60-120 return heli-trips . . .
equating to a total flight time of between 25 and 44 hours per year at
capacity”.)

Yeah, that shows just how seriously they take it. Note that the editorial gives the conclusions, but mostly doesn't give the basis for them. And that's before considering how much political input there was into the ruling.

[bogholesbuckethats]

Exactly, wouldn't expect much more from that newspaper though. Has anyone else had any luck RE central highland councillors? I've only been told that they arent willing to comment on the proposal at this stage.

[jmac]

A group of about eight Grade 11 students from my school organised an email-writing session today to write to the Southern Midlands Councillors. Really pleased with the commitment of these kids; half of them had attended the rally in L'ton last week. Good kids.

[bogholesbuckethats]

A group of about eight Grade 11 students from my school organised an email-writing session today to write to the Southern Midlands Councillors. Really pleased with the commitment of these kids; half of them had attended the rally in L'ton last week. Good kids.

That's great to hear, hopefully they can help spread the word. Here is the latest installment from The Mercury.

[bogholesbuckethats]

Talking Point in todays Mercury by Greg French

[stepbystep]

Talking Point in todays Mercury by Greg French

Just beat me to it!

Talking Point: Don’t let chopper flights blot angling and wilderness gem
GREG FRENCH, Mercury
November 8, 2018 12:31am
Subscriber only
IN my book Frog Call I wrote what are quite possibly the first widely distributed stories about Lake Malbena and Halls Island. In my latest book, Water Colour, I wrote several heartwarming stories about my friendship with the proponent of the current development proposal. Also, I introduced the previous leaseholder to the current developer. Nonetheless I simply cannot support the current development proposal. What went wrong?

As a supporter of tourism, I shudder when I look back at the bad old days of the Franklin blockade and the forest wars. They were nasty times, and they had a very negative effect on visitors’ perceptions. What turned tourism around was a conscious decision by previous governments to focus on finding common ground.

The first major achievement was coming up with a community-endorsed management plan for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (this was the result of countless thousands of hours of unpaid work by hundreds of stakeholders.) The second was the ending of the forest wars through consensus.

The current Hodgman Government seems to want to return to the bad old days. First, it tried to reignite the forest wars, but with limited success.

Then it tried to have large swathes of wilderness removed from UNESCO’s World Heritage list. When that failed, it turned its attention to trashing the management plan through an expressions of interest process when there was no public appetite for development in core wilderness.

In land management, especially WHA management, a community-endorsed management plan is akin to a constitution. A strong constitution is integral to a society’s prosperity. It is not something to be changed on a whim. In functional democracies, it is tweaked only on rare occasions, and any changes have to be endorsed by the overwhelming majority of the people. When the people allow a government to unilaterally rewrite a constitution, you can be sure that the country is well on the way to hell in a handbasket.

Back to the Malbena development. There appears to be no acknowledgment of the overwhelming public agreement that helicopters must not be used for commercial operations in core wilderness (wilderness, by any rational definition, must be free at its core from mechanical access). And what of the unilateral rezoning of wilderness areas to accommodate developments at all costs?

As stated, I have known the proponent of the Malbena development for more than a decade and have counted him as a friend. The angst that this project has wrought is almost unbearable to me.

We don’t have to put up with wedge politics. It really is time for people like us — the majority who abhor hatred and division — to insist that our elected officials start working for the common good. It worked in Wentworth!

The problem for the State Government on this issue is that it has misread its constituency. The great majority of visitors to the Western Lakes are passionate anglers, not necessarily traditional Green voters, and there are lots of them. Trust me: even proud economic conservatives will vote against the Government on the issue of unsuitable development in what I have long argued is one of the five best fly fisheries in the world.

This is what we need now:

WE NEED politicians to stand up and be counted. Will you support a return to the main provisions of the community-endorsed management plan or not?

WE NEED a genuine public debate on the future of tourism in the TWWHA, and the process has to be at least as rigorous as the one leading up to the implementation of the 1999 plan.

WE NEED a debate on whether there can be a compromise on the current Malbena proposal (perhaps a return to the proponent’s original idea of walking a small number of clients into Halls Island via Gowan Brae might be acceptable to the majority of stakeholders).

And if all else fails? Well, there’s always direct action. If it comes to that, I for one will be there on the shores of Malbena standing up for both wilderness and democracy.

Fishing identity, Tasmanian Greg French, contributes to magazines such as FlyLife and has worked with Gin-Clear Media, co-writing and narrating fly fishing documentaries. He spends most of his time in Australia and New Zealand but travels widely. His best-known book is Trout Waters of Tasmania and his writing on global destinations includes The Last Wild Trout. Greg’s latest book is Water Colour, published by Affirm Press this year.

[Nuts]

"WE NEED a genuine public debate on the future of tourism in the TWWHA, and the process has to be at least as rigorous as the one leading up to the implementation of the 1999 plan"

Agreed but then the result, the '1999 plan', didn't help much..

[doogs]

Wow. That's a great opinion piece, hopefully many will agree and let their voices be heard.

[Nuts]

TICT CEO Luke Martin has penned a piece in today's Mercury..

Let's not go down the path of bitter division:

'IF people come and see it, they will want to protect it.”

That was Bob Brown in 2016 advocating for a new multi-day walk in the Tarkine rainforests.

He is right, of course.

Only the most cynical could not have their environmental conscience triggered when experiencing for ourselves great natural areas in all their raw glory.

The truth is tourism and conservation go hand-in-hand. Our tourism industry knows it. The conservation movement knows it.

Our natural areas are the number one reason visitors come to Tasmania, and our magnificent national parks underpin vibrant visitor economies across regional Tasmania.

Some of the earliest material from the Save the Franklin campaign spruiked the tourism potential of saving Tasmania’s great wild rivers with a vision for tour boats and walks down the Gordon and Franklin, and seemingly every great Tasmanian environmental battle since has at some point cited tourism as a core argument in the campaign for conservation.

For these reasons it is bitterly disappointing to find our industry at loggerheads with the conservation movement over tourism in our protected areas.

Whether you agree or disagree with their politics, you must respect the conservation movement for all it has achieved in defending and campaigning for the conservation and protection of Tasmania’s natural landscapes. It’s been hard-earned, and it is in their DNA to scrutinise and publicly question any activity they believe might compromise their conservation values.

But over recent weeks we’ve witnessed a ferocious attack on what is a relatively insignificant tourism venture proposed for Halls Island on a site that has experienced decades of human activity.

The long and complex process by state and federal government agencies over several years to assess their proposal is being questioned.

It has been over the top. Whether you support or oppose any proposal in Tasmania’s protected areas, surely we all agree decisions should be grounded in science and sober analysis.
Not hysterics. I expect the campaign against the Lake Malbena project is only a teaser of the campaigns to come against other proposals in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

Can Tasmania realise its potential as one the world’s leading ecotourism destinations without a bitter and protracted debate among us every step of the way?

We believe Tasmania can be a global example of sustainable and quality commercial tourism activity in protected areas that add to our global brand and create economic activity in the most regional parts of the state.

We have many outstanding examples of low-impact tourism in these areas. There are more than 200 commercial tourism operators with leases or licences to operate in Tasmania’s reserve system.

There is no logical reason we can’t sensibly grow this sector and strike a balance between practical conservation and enabling Tasmanians with vision to create a new generation of visitor experiences that will draw visitors from across the globe. I believe most Tasmanians would support this aspiration.

The point of contention is the resistance by some groups to private infrastructure on public lands, the impact of standing camps and huts for guests, and the perception that public access to some sites may then be compromised. These are all legitimate concerns that should be tested by experts in our Parks and Wildlife Service and the Federal Government through robust assessment. But surely we can strive for balance that enables new investment, while respecting the enduring rights of all Tasmanians to our natural environment.

The Lake Malbena project is permitted under the World Heritage Area Management Plan approved by UNESCO. It has been approved by State and Federal Government. The proponents have met every requirement put before them. They deserve a fair go.

How we resolve this debate could set the tone for the conservation-tourism relationship for years.

Can we find some middle ground, or are we defining the rules of engagement for another divisive Tasmanian battleground?

Luke Martin is chief executive of Tourism Industry Council Tasmania.

[Nuts]

'IF people come and see it, they will want to protect it.”

"That was Bob Brown in 2016 advocating for a new multi-day walk in the Tarkine rainforests.

He is right, of course."

[north-north-west]

The point of contention is the resistance by some groups to private infrastructure on public lands, the impact of standing camps and huts for guests, and the perception that public access to some sites may then be compromised. These are all legitimate concerns that should be tested by experts in our Parks and Wildlife Service and the Federal Government through robust assessment.

Luke, you're "forgetting" (I'm being polite here) that the relevant TasPAWS advisory board vetoed the project.
You also seem to have trouble understanding that a big part of the problem is the helicopter use. And it's all very nice to say that concerns that public access being compromised are valid while ignoring the fact that the only access allowed outside of the Hacketts' paying customers is for a maximum of three parties, each with a maximum of four people. Per year. That's twelve people per year total. And how do they arrange access, and how much is it going to cost to gain permission?
It is not just limiting access, it is a de facto privatisation of the island.

The Lake Malbena project is permitted under the World Heritage Area Management Plan approved by UNESCO.

Only because the area was rezoned.

It has been approved by State and Federal Government.

[sarcasm]And political ideology had nothing to do with either of those decisions, of course.['/sarcasm]

[doogs]

In his letter Marto claims those against the proposed development are not willing to compromise, yet in Frenchys piece he suggests one. This being; make the guests walk into Lake Malbeny but still have the accommodation on Halls Island. Marto sounds like a spoilt brat who throws his toys when he doesn't get his way...