Don’t cap numbers, fix the town
TOURISM BURSTING THE SEAMS
HERE we go again on the ridiculous, impractical, capping of numbers at Freycinet merry-go-round. I live, work, volunteer and own two small businesses in Coles Bay. The capping agenda is a distraction from what is needed — public infrastructure spending. With low interest rates, the Reserve Bank is directing governments to invest in infrastructure. This has started with the State Government in the national park, with toilets at Wineglass Bay Beach and Schouten Island and a walking track from the visitors’ centre. This is a result of the Freycinet Master Plan, a process lobbied for by residents.
We can no longer consider Coles Bay a sleepy village. It is a town of 5000-plus with no reticulated sewerage, with crumbling roads and play equipment. Most of the urban population has no town water and all the Swanwick beach tracks are in disrepair or closed. State spending could bring water to Swanwick and the fisheries. A lack of infrastructure is a barrier to the investment the Government is encouraging with the Regional Tourism Business loan scheme. We are a permanent population of about 350. The rate base is not that of a town of 5000, nor should council be responsible alone.
The problem has been ignored as numbers have grown, resulting in media attention and frustrations harnessed to push a capping agenda. Capping fixes none of these problems. It is a simplistic approach to infrastructure needs that should have been planned for 10 years ago. Council (“Wilderness access plea,” Sunday Tasmanian, July 7). This is a classic example of pollie-speak. It is an arrogant declaration that human activity in our WHA (more tourism) needs facilitating through providing air access. It doesn’t. This is exactly the kind of authoritative pronouncement technique my Gran used when she wanted me to feed the rabbits on a frosty morning and she didn’t want an argument.
Current users and casual tourists, including a growing number of small-tourism walking trips, are quite OK with no more facilitation. Of course the Tourism Industry Council would want to expand empires. And as for helicopters helping “remoteness”! Who comes up with these?
What debate?
READER Yvonne Stark makes a valid point about democracy (“Wineglass, why bother”, Letters, July 26). Politicians are elected by the voting public to be the voice of the people. Why then, when meetings involving a substantial number of interested people are called to debate a concern with government and the majority vote, the government ignores the decision? This is just window dressing by government. We are brainwashed to think we live in a democracy, but are we really seeing a totalitarian state evolve? paradise and put up a parking lot” could surely apply to Coles Bay, with more tourists, overcrowding, now more concrete carparks. Never mind, it’s an easy way to fill government coffers.
The Three Capes Track — restricted campsites for those Tasmanians wanting to make their own way as it used to be done. The Overland Track — a hefty fee for locals to access their own track and no concessions or privileges. The South Coast Track — impending construction of private huts being built, which will diminish the experience of locals on one of our most iconic walks. The privatisation of our world heritage wilderness areas, example, Halls Island — leading to restricted access for locals, and stiff necks for those anglers and walkers spending the day watching helicopters.
Walk the walk
REGARDING the helicopter fly-in, flyout for Walls of Jerusalem. Surely the council speaks for the people and is this not a democracy? Why can’t tourists walk in like everyone else? Why should a tourism business set to profit introduce noise pollution? World heritage sites belong to everyone. They have universal value that transcends the value they hold for a particular nation. These qualities are expressed in the convention concerning Protection of the World Heritage Convention, which aims to promote co-operation among nations to protect heritage of such outstanding universal value that its conservation is important for current and future generations. Will future generations see pristine wilderness?
Solar left out
MANY thanks to UPC Renewables for their wind farms which will make us the Battery of the Nation (Talking Point, July 26). Not sure they will be viable at only 8c per kilowatt hour. Oh, wait, that is only what we solar panel owners (peasants) will receive.
Listeria reaction
THREE cases of listeria in separate states from an unknown source, and a state premier urging people “not to overreact” (“Our salmon ‘safe to eat’ “, Mercury, July 26). In the words of that ancient prophet, Lance Corporal Jones, “DON’T PANIIIIIC!”
Mac Point training
ONCE again I find myself pondering the staffing costs of the Macquarie Point Development Corporation. If light rail could be included in any proposal, the entire project could be renamed the eternal gravy train.
Seeing red
A CARTOONIST’S nightmare … Pauline Hanson to dye her hair blonde!
West Coast bucket list
HAVE just been privileged to pay a visit to The Wall at Derwent Bridge, the West Coast Wilderness Cruise and Railway, all excellent world-class tourist attractions. I suggest all Tasmanians should put these on their bucket list. The West Coast motto, find a way or make a way, was surely to the fore. Times have changed since my late father bicycled from Hobart to the region in 1929.