Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli access

[Lophophaps]

Wild Drake is in court ordered liquidation.

Nice. A company in liquidation or that is not trading should not be able to make an application to manage crown land. From memory this is Hackett's third business that has gone bust, not a good record. Conservation interests have effectively used a very simple legal technique that big business uses against small opponents. Delay, delay, delay. Contest every small point. Admit nothing. Make the opponent incur costs. Wear the opponent down until they fade. I have used this quite a few times against very big respondents, with success.

The federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is another way to stop this build. It could be put to her that after three businesses have failed (I think it's now three), Hackett has no viability running such an enterprise. It's also a WHA. Note the order - dollars then green. While some decision makers may have no empathy for green values they can understand dollars. Here's one - $4500 for three nights. That's more than many bushwalkers spend in a year. This is similar to the proposed Falls Hotham Alpine Crossing in Victoria, which may be on ice as the state of Victoria goes sort-of bust and there are other delays.

[Son of a Beach]

He's now trying to get a permit to fly a helicopter into the area for the purposes of maintenance on the hut. Maintenance that he has neglected since he's had the lease.

Details: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-02/ ... /104667922

My guess is that he's hoping for a win/win here. If the anti-development walkers and fishers oppose it, then he can claim that they are to blame for the hut's demise. If they support it then they are in favour of helicopters in the area.

Of course, the obvious alternative is that the hut maintenance can actually be done without the involvement of a helicopter. It would would be difficult, but certainly is feasible (look what the Solitary Man achieved on his own at the other end of the park!). Greg French has proposed that if Hackett relinquishes the lease, then he (French) will arrange for maintenance to be done without any helicopter.

My own (controversial) opinion is that this hut should be removed altogether. It's one of the more ugly huts I've seen. But I appreciate that other people have a connection to it as part of their own (or family) heritage.

[wander]

Greg French has proposed that if Hackett relinquishes the lease, then he (French) will arrange for maintenance to be done without any helicopter.

Is there a reference / link for this?

[taswegian]

I'd suggest, wondering, this is strategically timed given the government's intervention and green light for a refused planning application recently.
Not going down that path other than to say there's a lot majority don't know about, which leads me back to here.
I suspect, smell, a rat.
Why was he granted an extension to his lease?
I thought his current status would negate that.

Parks do ferry supplies into huts in the mountains but they are for public use so Mr Hackett can't side with that argument as it's private, exclusive use.
But then I imagine private huts in the reserve get assistance for such, but again, whilst exclusive use they are walk in huts not fly into.

[Lostsoul]

Wouldn’t the Mountain Huts Preservation Society be all over this?Id imagine they would be the ones to do any restoration work.

[myrtlegirl]

Wouldn’t the Mountain Huts Preservation Society be all over this?Id imagine they would be the ones to do any restoration work.

MHPS have done a good job on other huts. They're putting in a lot of effort to keep a very special back country experience going for future generations to enjoy.

If the hut was still available to the public, and was not under a dodgy lease for a special mate, that was kept secret with no-one else getting a chance to apply for it, with a heli-tourism business proposition in a World Heritage Area, paying a measly fee that excludes the public from public land, maybe MHPS would be interested. Not to mention the proponent of teh heli-tourism is in liquidation (yet again), and after nearly a decade has still not given all the info to the dept that does the approval.

[Son of a Beach]

Greg French has proposed that if Hackett relinquishes the lease, then he (French) will arrange for maintenance to be done without any helicopter.

Is there a reference / link for this?

Correction. As per the link I posted earlier, he volunteered to carry out the old guttering, if the lease is relinquished. I had remembered it incorrectly.