MT WELLINGTON CABLE CAR
Why not complain about trails?
THE contradictions continue. Along with all the absurd claims of the anti-cable car minority, there is now this cry out about protection of flora and fauna from an unobtrusive study. Where was all this concern when myriad tracks and trails were (and still are) carved through the mountain slopes for walkers, climbers and cyclists? A fully completed cable car system won’t create as much damage as just one of those tracks. Everything they claim just condemns them further to irrelevance. that while this project is uneconomic and an environmental blight it’s just what they need to divide voters, like they did with forestry and pokies. If they could fiddle and tweak this proposal to the next election, the Liberal Party’s mates could again fund their election campaign. One thing they must understand is that good, honest, courageous, dedicated people were able to push into the remote Franklin River over 40 years ago and stop the dam in its tracks. With this project on our doorstep, the ability of one to two thousand people for however long it takes to blockade construction of this hideous proposal will happen. People who appreciate this mountain for its natural beauty will defend it indefinitely.
Eyeful tower
CHRIS Oldfield (executive director, MWCC) advised on ABC radio that a structure (scaffold) designed to keep guide cables away from high-voltage power lines, will be temporarily erected during the cableway construction phase. Perhaps the fake news of a (fourth) permanent and “massive tower likely to be more than 70 metres taller than Wrest Point Casino, just below the Organ Pipes” may equal the Paris landmark at 324m (Letters, February 19)? Yes, Hobart’s own Eyeful (sic) Tower. ket will bear. It will surely be aimed mainly at the day excursion market. Prices of such trips vary widely, but a quick comparison suggests it might be as much as $250. It seems clear most passengers are to be dropped off by tour buses. The parking spaces in the brochure will enable a small fraction to arrive by car, and will no doubt be highly priced: perhaps $100 for a few hours? So a trip for a local family of four might cost about $1100. Unaffordable? That might not matter. I suspect the cable car company may view local customers as more of a nuisance than a target market. All this is pure speculation, and my figures may be entirely wrong, in which case I trust the company will correct matters by giving us the correct information.
Why the ambassador visit?
AS voters we have the right to vote at government elections, also the right to know why a Chinese ambassador is visiting Tasmania, especially when the Government spent $200,000 on a trade mission to China last year and achieved nothing positive.
Kettering ferry din
AH the peace and serenity, not. Try living in Kettering with three ferries, now working constantly, and earlier and later every day. This was a fishing and boating village not a transport hub.
So much responsibility
IT beggars belief that our Finance Minister takes his family to Singapore but has no idea he has not been charged on his credit card — and this is the man in charge of our finances.