Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli access

Tasmania specific bushwalking discussion.
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Tasmania specific bushwalking discussion. Please avoid publishing details of access to sensitive areas with no tracks.

Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby geoskid » Mon 14 Jan, 2019 9:18 pm

Nuts wrote:Nice summary / fair call:

Screen Shot 2019-01-14 at 6.46.49 pm.png

Fair call? This is out and out dog whistling Nuts. Luckily we don't live in Trump-Land. Why quote Cassie?
The people opposed to this development approach it as if some absolute rule has been broken. It hasn't. It is a values based opposition against others that don't hold the same values for this specific development.Any attempt at spurious logical arguments against it will fail because , being value based they reduce to 'I don't like it'. All of the concepts that people want to base their opposition on (TWWHA, NP etc) are not absolutes. They can be changed to suit what benefits the population in the short term. I wonder, amongst the people against this proposal . how many could admit that there is nothing 'wrong' with this proposal, they just don't like it?
PS - If someone wants to argue that it is 'wrong' - they will need to come at it from ethical reasoning, no spurious god concepts, feined care for yet to be born offspring, or unwarranted projection of empathy onto cute furry creatures .
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THEY STOLE MY BACK YARD

Postby Son of a Beach » Mon 14 Jan, 2019 11:17 pm

After reading here this morning Mr Hackett's announcement that he is banning public access, I could not get to sleep tonight. I just kept thinking, "they've stolen part of my back yard!". And this was before I read Nuts/O'Conner's comments above which echoed similar sentiments. This story came into my head... apologies for the length or to anyone who thinks it is sentimental rubbish...

One morning at the breakfast table, I was browsing through the morning newspaper and was half way through turning the last page before the sports section and was about to flick through to the comics when a headline of a small news article caught my attention.

THEY STOLE MY BACK YARD

It intrigued me, so I released the half-turned page, letting it return to obscuring details of Australia's first test cricket series loss to India on home soil, and and read on.

The article explained that there was a small apartment block in my town which had an extraordinarily beautiful garden. All the residents of the apartments were very proud of their garden and loved it very much. Not all of them visited the garden regularly, but even those who only looked out on it from their windows appreciated that it was very special.

However, an entrepreneur who lived in one of those apartments had managed to persuade the government to give him exclusive rights over the garden so that he could rent it out to people from all over town, and even from other towns, for their weddings or parties. He had already got some of the permissions required to build a car park in part of the garden, because there was not enough on-street parking.

Some of the residents of the apartment block were furious that part of their garden was going to be destroyed just for the sake of increasing the wealth of an already successful businessman. I was feeling just a little sympathy for the residents when suddenly I noticed that the address of the apartment block was MY OWN HOME!

I sprang out of my chair and knocked on the doors of some of the neighbours who I vaguely knew in our apartment block and showed them the newspaper article. Most of them had not heard of this before and were utterly shocked beyond belief that such a thing could happen without their knowledge. A few had heard of it, and some had even been interviewed for the newspaper article. Now, while a few of us residents were meeting together in the corridor, some of them mentioned that we should investigate what actions we could take to stop this development, including court actions and public protests.

One kindly old gentleman told me that our land had already been sold. It was gone. It no longer belonged to him - to me - to us. We never sold it. The government never asked us what we thought about rezoning our residential property for commercial business. The government just compulsorily acquired it and gave it to the entrepreneurial resident holus bolus on the grounds that more money changing hands in our society is better than the peace and tranquillity of a perfect garden.

I was so upset by this news about my own back yard, that I immediately went out to my back yard to stroll through my perfect garden exploring every corner of it. I had never appreciated it more than in that moment.

This was soon spoilt when I returned to the apartment block and another neighbour showed me a similar article about the proposed development in our back yard from a different newspaper. It said that the entrepreneur had announced that he would continue to allow public access to the garden. However, his idea of "public access" was that if one of the residents of the apartment block wanted to stroll through their own back yard, they would first have to make a formal application to his office several weeks ahead of time, or months to be on the safe side. If there were not already a handful of apartment residents booked in to visit their garden that during that year, and if the applicant had never complained about the development and never said a bad word about the developer, then their application for a stroll in their back yard would be considered in due course.

I told my neighbour that if he considers allowing occasional access to the garden for a handful of his friends who submit to a formal application process is "public access" then an exclusive gentlemen's club in London had full "public access". After all, each of those club members are also members of the public.

Then I went back to my apartment and wept for the loss of my beautiful perfect garden.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby monte » Tue 15 Jan, 2019 7:07 am

It seems to me if they want to do these kinds of developments they could take the wind out of the opposition by doing things a bit differently:
- have parks own the commercial huts and lease just the facilities
- require improvements in the area for general public (put a toilet in or something)

The helicopter access is a separate issue as far as I can tell and I'm not sure if there's any existing restrictions on scenic flights or landing so I won't comment on that other than there's a solid argument for those incapable of walking in to be able to experience the place. Making it more of an option to walk in for those capable could cut down on flights.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby stepbystep » Tue 15 Jan, 2019 7:09 am

This whole thing keeps reminding me of Kevin Kiernan’s essay about the loss of Lake Pedder, ‘I Saw My Temple Ransacked’
We are very much seeing the looting of Tasmania’s crowning jewels right now. I would encourage everyone to read Edward Abbey’s ‘Desert Solitaire’ that’s the future we are facing, and once it arrives. That’s it.
The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders ~ Edward Abbey
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Nuts » Tue 15 Jan, 2019 9:32 am

geoskid wrote:
Nuts wrote:Nice summary / fair call:

Screen Shot 2019-01-14 at 6.46.49 pm.png

Fair call? This is out and out dog whistling Nuts. Luckily we don't live in Trump-Land. Why quote Cassie?
The people opposed to this development approach it as if some absolute rule has been broken. It hasn't. It is a values based opposition against others that don't hold the same values for this specific development.Any attempt at spurious logical arguments against it will fail because , being value based they reduce to 'I don't like it'. All of the concepts that people want to base their opposition on (TWWHA, NP etc) are not absolutes. They can be changed to suit what benefits the population in the short term. I wonder, amongst the people against this proposal . how many could admit that there is nothing 'wrong' with this proposal, they just don't like it?
PS - If someone wants to argue that it is 'wrong' - they will need to come at it from ethical reasoning, no spurious god concepts, feined care for yet to be born offspring, or unwarranted projection of empathy onto cute furry creatures .



I tend towards optimism, so please, if you can apply a lateral argument that discounts anything in Cassies POV go ahead?
Maybe things aren't so bad, WWHA was real-estate by design and developers forego existing examples from their submissions. Developers have anything but protected profits in mind. Existing users are misguided and arguments flawed, rather than confounded or challenged by emotions they never expected they'd need to explain.

Thanks for the effort Nik, some of us caught that echo.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby bogholesbuckethats » Thu 17 Jan, 2019 9:17 am

Cafe Society: Fly-in, fly-out venture the thin edge of the wedge
AMANDA DUCKER, Mercury
January 16, 2019 11:00pm
Subscriber only


GREG French has plenty of back stories about the environmental flashpoint known as Halls Island, Lake Malbena, in the remote Western Lakes of Tasmania’s Central Highlands.

The fly-fishing author and guide loves the place, and not just because he and his wife conceived their son, Tom, there 28 years ago.

We’re sitting at Badger’s Bike Cafe in New Norfolk when he flails his arms to demonstrate the way Frances waved and called “I’m ovulating” across the water on a strategic visit to his campsite all those years ago.

He has slept on the island many times since, but he can’t go back there now, having been banned by new leasee Daniel Hackett, the proponent of a tourism venture that would see helicopters flying guests in and out of the tiny lake island in Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

Hackett runs RiverFly1864 and employed Greg as a fly-fishing guide.

He also commissioned him to build RiverFly’s existing huts in the Western Lakes, which are on private land near Lake Ina, just outside the Walls of Jerusalem National Park (the area was later included in the World Heritage Area).

“Lake Ina is an example of good development,” says Greg.

“It is outside core wilderness, on private land, where everybody was in agreement, and it enables people to access an area who would not otherwise access it, and become advocates for it.

“My view of managing wild places is you make the front country so good that most people have their needs met there, and then the back country is left for those who just have to do it.”

For diehard fly-fishers and walkers, he says getting there under their own steam is an integral part of the experience.


He describes his fallout with the younger Hackett, whom he mentored for years and considered a close friend, as “unbearable”, but says the thought of commercial choppers operating in core wilderness is worse.

Speaking ahead of Thursday night’s meeting of concerned fishers, walkers and other citizens at Great Lake Hotel, Greg is here to talk about why he sees the proposal as a line in the sand.

“The bad governance on this is extraordinary,” he says, accusing the State Government of unilaterally rewriting a long-standing management plan that was previously subject to extensive and routine consultation and to the original drafting of which he contributed in 1999.

“The reckless trashing of those plans is beyond the pale,” he says.

That disregard, he says, is just one indication of the Government’s disrespect for community views and wilderness values. He describes “unilateral rezoning of wilderness” to help facilitate the Lake Malbena development, which would see small groups flown in to stay at new demountable huts.


Walker and trout fisher Richard Webb trout fishing on Halls Island on Lake Malbena. Picture: CHRIS CRERAR
He also objects to what he describes as “the privatisation of our national parks” over what he believes is a long lease by the developers (operating as Wild Drake Pty Ltd) for an area much larger than the lease first secured from Reg Hall’s daughter for $1.

“For me, the biggest problem with all this is the precedent of giving a chunk of land in a World Heritage Area national park to a developer without notifying the public, without even doing a cost-benefit analysis,” says Greg.

“In the new management plan, you can do that through regulation rather than legislation, where previously you couldn’t.”

Then there is the issue of helicopter access. A core value of true wilderness is that it is free of mechanical access, he says. Prized as one of the top five wild trout fisheries in the world, the remote Western Lakes are historically a walk-in destination with flat, easy terrain ideal for daytrips on foot.

He predicts that if the developers weather the storm of opposition to get the Lake Malbena plan through — it has already cleared federal environmental hurdles and will be assessed by the Central Highlands Council when a DA is submitted — it could have profound ramifications.

“There are other leases in the Central and Western Lakes and most of those people have been contacted by tourism operators to see if they can buy the leases out,” he says. “And it’s off the back of the Malbena proposal: ‘If Daniel can do it, we can do it…’ It undermines the whole idea of wilderness.”

It’s no surprise author Greg loves language — he swoons over the seductive nomenclature used in mapping by original Halls Island huts builder Reg Hall in the 1930s — but his argument over what constitutes “wilderness” goes beyond the semantic.

In December, Tasmania will host the 39th World Fly Fishing Championship, an event expected to attract many international journalists.

“The Franklin Dam and forest wars led to bad publicity all around the world,” says Greg.

“It gave us an image overseas as a petty, bigoted, redneck island that nobody wanted to go to. It is no coincidence our tourism industry has boomed after the forest wars were effectively stopped.”

Is it really worth risking that bad rap again over Lake Malbena, he asks.
That looks like a pad.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Son of a Beach » Thu 17 Jan, 2019 9:30 am

Greg French's comments are spot on as usual.

Speaking of the old original lease on Halls Island, which I thought was just for the area of the hut itself, does anybody know why that lease is about 75 metres away from where the hut actually is?

That tiny old lease is shown by LISTmap as being near the southern shore, in a rainforest area of the island, and also shows the hut as being at that same location (Tasmap also show the hut at that same point).

But the hut itself is close to the centre of the island, just out of the rainforest, and nowhere near that little square lease area. All photos that I've found of the hut show it in its current location.

Was the hut relocated at some time? Was the wrong location specified for the original lease and it accidentally never covered the location of the hut? Was the lease actually for some other purpose apart from the hut, and DPIPWE (LIST) just assumed the hut was on the same location as the lease? What's the story there?
Attachments
Halls Hut Loction.jpg
grey Square is LIST location; green star is actual location
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby johnrs » Sat 19 Jan, 2019 8:55 am

Folks please get some submissions in ASAP
Details below
Thanks
John

CENTRAL HIGHLANDS COUNCIL WILL BE ADVERTISING THE DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION ON THE 19th of JANUARY 2019. Lake Malbena will become a haven exclusively for the rich unless we fight to stop it. That starts with making sure that the Councillors know that the community do not support being shut out of the World Heritage Area so that rich people can fly in. Email them!

lbenson@centralhighlands.tas.gov.au
jallwright@centralhighlands.tas.gov.au
tbailey@centralhighlands.tas.gov.au
rbowden@centralhighlands.tas.gov.au
rcassidy@centralhighlands.tas.gov.au
jhonner@centralhighlands.tas.gov.au

Make a submission to the Council. Details below.

APPLICATION FOR PLANNING PERMIT
Notice is hereby given that an application has been made for planning approval for the following development:

Applicant: Wild Drake Pty Ltd
Location: Halls Island, Lake Malbena, Walls of Jerusalem National Park
Proposal: DA 2018/50 - Visitor Accommodation (Standing Camp)

The relevant documents will be available for inspection at the Council Office at 19 Alexander Street, Bothwell and 6 Tarleton Street, Hamilton during normal office hours and on Councils website www.centralhighlands.tas.gov.au until 4 February 2019. Any person may make representation in relation to the proposal in writing addressed to the General Manager, 19 Alexander Street, Bothwell 7030 or by email to kbradburn@centralhighlands.tas.gov.au and will be received no later than 5.00pm on 4 February 2019.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby johnrs » Sat 19 Jan, 2019 8:59 am

Here is a suggested submission (from the Wilderness Society site)
John again

Lake Malbena in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park is recognised as being of high wilderness character. Wilderness is an important World Heritage value ‘which underpins the success in meeting all four criteria for a natural property and is the basis for the maintenance of its integrity’. (TWWHA Management Plan, p. 43)

The World Heritage Committee sought strong provisions to protect wilderness from tourism development. In response, the Turnbull Government has given unconditional assurances wilderness will be protected via management planning and other mechanisms, such as federal environment law.

The construction of new buildings, such as the hut and accommodation buildings proposed by Wild Drake Pty Ltd would have a demonstrable negative impact on the ‘naturalness’ and ‘remoteness from settlement’ components of wilderness. Similarly, the establishment of a private, commercial helipad will impact ‘time remoteness’ and degrade wilderness.

Given the significance of wilderness to this World Heritage property and the negative impact this proposal would have on wilderness, the Minister should be satisfied that the action to construct and operate private, commercial accomodation at Halls Island is clearly unacceptable. The proposal will have a significant impact on an attribute of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area that ‘embodies, manifests, shows, or contributes to the Outstanding Universal Value and/or integrity of the property’. (TWWHA Management Plan, p. 28)

.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby myrtlegirl » Sat 19 Jan, 2019 9:54 am

I'm curious about how the Hacketts are funding this proposal. There would also be significant costs associated with the challenges to the proposal.

Maybe they are independently wealthy. Maybe there's family money. Maybe there's other unnamed business partners/backers.

Interesting.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Son of a Beach » Mon 21 Jan, 2019 9:19 am

If anybody has any good stories about or photos of Halls Island, the hut, etc, you can submit them to this Halls Island website.

There is link on the website for contributing information or photos. Linking (using relevant text) to the website from your own website, or Facebook, etc, will increase it's rankings on internet search engines.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby whynotwalk » Mon 21 Jan, 2019 10:31 am

Kudos Nik! I've often walked nearby, but never quite got to the lake. So while I can't contribute YET ... I hope I'll get there one day, and that I'll find it as it is today,

cheers

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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby zorro » Mon 21 Jan, 2019 12:05 pm

In the last 30 years I have seen Tasmania steadily being swallowed up by exploitation of National Parks. Helicopters, guided groups for the exclusive, more and more rubbish dropping idiots. I don't think WHA means anything these days, you only have to look at the mess they have made of the Overland Track. Is not the Cape walk enough for the trendy backpackers? Frankly my forays are rather tarnished by the experience of noise, rubbish, international visitors with no consideration for anyone and helicopters. Even had some idiots light a fire at echo point. Same group who left all their rubbish at Bert Nicholls hut. Reported said group to rangers but no interest shown. I would rather remember the place as it was. [Before the idiots burnt down Du Cane hut.] So in summing up shove your helicopters and chairlifts and your development proposals and leave the *&%$#! place alone.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Son of a Beach » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 10:09 am

Richard W wrote:The only lease shown is a 6 x 6 m lease, which is also not located exactly at the hut site.


Son of a Beach wrote:Speaking of the old original lease on Halls Island, which I thought was just for the area of the hut itself, does anybody know why that lease is about 75 metres away from where the hut actually is?

That tiny old lease is shown by LISTmap as being near the southern shore, in a rainforest area of the island, and also shows the hut as being at that same location (Tasmap also show the hut at that same point).

But the hut itself is close to the centre of the island, just out of the rainforest, and nowhere near that little square lease area. All photos that I've found of the hut show it in its current location.

Was the hut relocated at some time? Was the wrong location specified for the original lease and it accidentally never covered the location of the hut? Was the lease actually for some other purpose apart from the hut, and DPIPWE (LIST) just assumed the hut was on the same location as the lease? What's the story there?


There is now a new Halls Island Interactive Map at the Halls Island web site which shows the odd difference in location between the old lease and the old hut. Zoom in to see more details including labels.

The map also shows some of the proposed development plans - site footprint and building locations/sizes. All these map layers can be turned on/off at will to visualise the site as desired.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Paul » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 11:58 am

The map you refer to, shows the Lease existing on the Island only.

Therefore a village of tents could legally camp on the adjacent land and a flotilla of boats could occupy the water between that land and the Island

Is this correct ?

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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Son of a Beach » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 12:19 pm

I believe this is correct. The small section of lakeside land near the island that is outside of the national park is still owned by the Parks and Wildlife Service.

However, if such a number of people were to assemble there, they would need to be extremely cautious about their impact on the land and on the water in that area. Partly to protect it from damage, but also to make sure that they are seen to be protecting it and not damaging it. If they were thought to be damaging the area, that could harm their cause. It's not just whether or not they actual cause damage, but whether or not they are perceived by the public to be causing damage. In sensitive areas, simply walking in the wrong place can cause damage. So extreme care would be required both to not cause damage and to be seen to be not causing damage.
Last edited by Son of a Beach on Tue 22 Jan, 2019 12:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Paul » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 12:31 pm

Those of us who will be prepared to undertake such activity ( camping and boating/kayak/float tube, swimming ) will obviously be doing it in the best interest of the environment - protecting it without cause of any damage.

Of course some people would have the right to do this by way of "tribal heritage/custom"

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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby tastrax » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 1:02 pm

I reckon the most minimal impact camping spot is the helipad as its listed as "existing natural sheet rock" :wink: :wink:
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Paul » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 3:46 pm

Hello Tastrax,

Yes, the sheet rock would be a nice clear camp site.
Do you have the knowledge of whether the natural sheet rock area is a leased area or not, for the development proposal ?

Thank you for any information, regarding my question, you can provide.

Kind Regards,

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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Warin » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 3:58 pm

tastrax wrote:I reckon the most minimal impact camping spot is the helipad as its listed as "existing natural sheet rock"


The copper could land on to of there camp. :twisted:
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby stepbystep » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 4:59 pm

myrtlegirl wrote:I'm curious about how the Hacketts are funding this proposal. There would also be significant costs associated with the challenges to the proposal.

Maybe they are independently wealthy. Maybe there's family money. Maybe there's other unnamed business partners/backers.

Interesting.


There are rumours he has backers and is currently broke. We'd very much like to find out who they are! If anyone has clues to that money trail now is the time to leak that information!
The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders ~ Edward Abbey
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby myrtlegirl » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 6:39 pm

stepbystep wrote:
myrtlegirl wrote:I'm curious about how the Hacketts are funding this proposal. There would also be significant costs associated with the challenges to the proposal.

Maybe they are independently wealthy. Maybe there's family money. Maybe there's other unnamed business partners/backers.

Interesting.


There are rumours he has backers and is currently broke. We'd very much like to find out who they are! If anyone has clues to that money trail now is the time to leak that information!


As no info on finances has come out, the Hacketts are either going it alone, or if they have backers they and/or the backers don't want the info publicly known.
Imagine if it was a mining company backing them! (I'm not seriously suggesting this. But it could be.)
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Son of a Beach » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 7:28 pm

If you can convince a finance agency (eg a bank) that you have a solid business plan, they will lend you the money. However, it's hard to imagine a bank lending this kind of money for a plan which is clearly going to face a lot of stiff opposition. Not just vocally, but active opposition, I would imagine.

So there may be some other persons/groups providing funds.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Son of a Beach » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 7:47 pm

I've just been looking through some of the development application. Where the required criteria says:
A5
Buildings setback from the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area must comply with any of the following:
(a) as proscribed in an applicable reserve management plan;
(b) be no less than 500 m.

The response is:
The proposal is located within rather than adjacent to the Tasmania wilderness World Heritage Area. I therefore approach the standard on the basis that it does not apply.


I guess the new never-approved-by-the-public plan is what makes this possible!

Later it says:
The building and works have been sited to be hidden in the landscape and are not on a skyline or ridgeline.

As far as I can tell, the proposed site is pretty much right on the ridge line across the middle of the island!
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Son of a Beach » Tue 22 Jan, 2019 8:47 pm

Here's a few other notes on the development application that I found as I went through. I'm not expert, so I do not know if I'm correct on these points, but these are the way I see it. The quotes are taken directly from the documents that form part of the application to council and can be viewed at: https://centralhighlands.tas.gov.au/dev ... onal-park/

Stormwater Management Code

The proposal for collection and reuse of water on site satisfies part b) and therefore complies with P1.


It is simply not possible to store or re-use the vulume of rainfall that would be collected on the infrastructure of the proposed buildings. The volumes of rainfall here are enormous. Therefore the answer here is invalid. They would need to demonstrate how they plan to use 12 months worth of rainfall, or otherwise, how they intend to manage the excess stormwater.

Waterway and Coastal Protection Code

Complies. The proposal does not involve a stormwater point discharge to watercourse, wetland or lake.


As above, they cannot possibly use all of the water that would fall onto their proposed buildings, therefore it would become stormwater. The development is on an island in a lake. If the massive amount of excess stormwater does not discharge into the lake, they need to explain where it will discharge to, or otherwise how they plan to deal with the vast volumes of water over and above what they can re-use.

Development Standards for Buildings and Works

The building and works have been sited to be hidden in the landscape and are not on a skyline or ridgeline.


This is wrong. The building site is right on a ridge line that traverses across the middle of the island. It is not on the highest point of the island, but it is on a ridge line at will not be hidden in the landscape as claimed. The forest to the north, east and south of the site is not dense dense enough to hide the proposed site. Only the forest to the west will obscure it from that point of view. It will stand out like a sore thumb to any bushwalkers on top of Mt Oana.

The 'Halls Island Development Application' states:

The proposed location (Halls Island) has been under private lease or licence since ~1955, preceding National Park and World Heritage Listing. The existing hut (which does not form part of this DA) has been privately owned since its construction.

This is either a blatent lie or has been written to deliberately deceive council. There has been a tiny lease on a tiny part of Halls Island since the 1950's, but the development application itself clearly states that this lease is NOT part of this proposed development. The remainder of the island is included a brand new lease created specifically for this project. Furthermore, the old hut on Halls Island, 'Halls Hut', is not actually within the old lease. The location of the hut is well outside of the area of the lease. The location of the Hut is different to what is shown on most maps. Most maps show the hut at the location of the lease, but this is not actually where the hut is. Therefore the hut was never actually privately owned at all (intentionally or otherwise), until the new lease was created specifically for this project.
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby myrtlegirl » Wed 23 Jan, 2019 9:21 am

Good work SOB.

The EDO and Wilderness society are working on an info sheet to help us. Should be out in the next few days.
You can also subscribe to the EDO bulletin on their website.

A friend compiled this list:

There is some good general info here:
http://www.edotas.org.au/haveyoursay/ho ... -your-say/

and there’s this….
https://hallsisland.org/news

and this:
http://www.edotas.org.au/about-edo/sign ... ls-island/

wow – this rabbit hole keeps getting deeper…
https://twitter.com/giblinite/status/10 ... 5775014912

and this is a neat summary…
https://theconversation.com/green-light ... ice-104854

https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... ke_Pty_Ltd

this should be useful too:
http://www.edotas.org.au/wp-content/upl ... -brief.pdf
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby Son of a Beach » Wed 23 Jan, 2019 10:22 am

myrtlegirl wrote:I'm curious about how the Hacketts are funding this proposal. There would also be significant costs associated with the challenges to the proposal.

Maybe they are independently wealthy. Maybe there's family money. Maybe there's other unnamed business partners/backers.

Interesting.


It would be quite expensive to build, and also very expensive to maintain on an ongoing basis. Not only are they flying guests in and out by helicopter (two return trips for start of each stay and two return trips at end of each stay, as one helicopter cannot carry all the people at once - according to their project plan), they are also flying out grey water (cooking, showering) EVERY trip by helicopter. So after they drop the guests off on the mainland, they will be picking up the grey water tanks from the island. Sewer tanks will be removed once per year (or more if they fill quicker than that). Helicopter trips are very expensive, and of course these holidays would therefore be expensive and exclusive to the very rich.

So it will need to be backed by somebody with a LOT of funds, and probably somebody who already has an interest in that kind of market.

When I searched Google for riverfly 1864 financial investment I didn't immediately see any directly useful results. But by coincidence there was one event that did pop up in several of the search results including pages from the Mercury, Examiner and Brand Tasmania all reporting on the 2017 Tourism awards. There are a bunch of tourism projects there owned by what I would consider to be likely candidates!

See:
https://www.brandtasmania.com/work-stories/?item=1110
https://www.themercury.com.au/lifestyle ... e9aa92a9ff
https://www.examiner.com.au/story/50479 ... sm-awards/
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby iaindtiler » Wed 23 Jan, 2019 6:07 pm

From the Flora and Fauna assesment;

"The lessee of a historic hut on Hall’s Island, Lake Malbena, in the Walls of Jerusalem
National Park, is investigating the potential for guided tours to the island."

I thought historic Halls hut was outside the proposed lease. And certainly not under lease by Hackett already.
Going through the application for any false information!!
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby iaindtiler » Wed 23 Jan, 2019 6:25 pm

Again from Flora and Fauna assesment:

"Threatened Fauna
The only threatened fauna species known to occur within 5 km of the island is the
Clarence galaxias, Galaxias johnstoni (TSPA and EPBCA endangered). The known
occurrence of this species is adjacent to an area that will potentially be traversed on
foot by visitors to the island."

By other standards it is listed as critically endangered. Why "potentially " put much more pressure on this species!!
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Re: Luxury camp inside Walls of Jerusalem WHA with heli acce

Postby iaindtiler » Wed 23 Jan, 2019 7:04 pm

I can find no information in the application for fire management and mitigation? With peatland present in close proximity to both the north and south of proposed huts, surely with recent/current fire situations, a robust plan needs to be part of the application?
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