by Jon MS » Fri 08 Apr, 2022 9:41 am
A few comments about the proposed South Coast track commercial hut proposal.
Who is going to pay to bring the track up to the required standard?
In order to be viable the track needs to be brought up to the standard of the Overland track (but not to the standard of the 3 Capes track). Who is going to pay? Parks does not have this sort of money.
After having walked the track something like 45 times over the past 38 years, along with working in my young days as a track worker and then in Parks for over 25 years I have made an estimate of the costs. To fix the current route: about $40.4 M. However, this could be reduced to about $30.5M with some re-routes (the current route was put in by a track worker whose nickname was "Hilltop" and it follows a very sub-optimal route in many places).
Several of the re-routes are long and will require a major financial commitment to complete (eg about $3.5M on the Ironbounds east which would need to be completed in one go).
Who is going to build and pay for the at least 5 bridges that will be required: Faraway Ck, Louisa Ck, major bridge on Louisa R, creek west of Tura Beach and major re-route and bridge on South Cape Rivulet?
Client fitness and expectations
How are they going to screen clients to ensure they have the required fitness? Regardless of the state of the track, it passes through rough country with big hills. Much bigger hills and rougher country than the Overland track. For fit clients, it will be a blast, but a very large proportion of the clientele will have a lower level of experience and fitness (which is a major reason for their signing up to a commercial walk).
Cultural heritage.
The track goes close to some very important Aboriginal sites. At least one of the huts (Deadmans) is very close to a major cultural site and another hut (Louisa R) is close to where the Aboriginal community wants to do cultural burning.
Weather restrictions with flying into Melaleuca
How are they going to manage flying in when Melaleuca airstrip is below minimum flight standards at least 15% of the time?
Use helicopters which will blow their budget?
To be viable, the walk will require near daily departures for at least 3 months of the year and the Melaleuca weather will cause cancellations at less than 12 hours notice. How are they going to manage people who have paid big $$, flown to Tasmania from interstate or overseas only to be told that today's departure is cancelled.
Either that or the huts will have to be big enough to handle 2 or 3 groups at the one time (ie up to about 50 people). This will also mean groups of up to 50 people on the track!!!
Social license
Where is their social license for the walk?
In the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area Tourism Master Plan, getting a social license from Tasmanian people was a requirement. I can see no evidence for this social license.
Will business operators want to be involved or supportive of the proposal. In the 1980s when the commercial huts on the Overland track were proposed a major supplier of outdoor gear pulled their Hobart franchise from its owner because of his support for the Overland track huts. The same thing could easily happen again.
Removal or maintenance of infrastructure when (not if) the business fails
The proposal requires the construction of 6 huts (probable locations: Black Cliff in Cox Bight, western side of Louisa River, Purrar Pt in Deadmans Bay, Milford Creek at Prion Beach, middle of Granite Beach and on the point east of South Cape Rivulet).
Parks does not have the funds to maintain these huts and they will quickly fall into disrepair without maintenance. This means they will need to be removed and the sites rehabilitated, which will cost a lot of money.
Other adgendas
Finally, because this proposal is so "ill advised", is it just a "red herring"? Are they putting this up, knowing it is non-viable and will be willing to "compromise" so they can get easy approval for some other development? Private track and hut at SE Cape???