Possible death knell for $50m Hobart cableway

Controversial plans for a $50m cable car on Hobart’s kunanyi/Mt Wellington have been dealt a potentially fatal blow, with expert planners recommending its rejection on 21 grounds.

Vica Bailey and Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre campaign manager Nala Mansell. Picture: Chris Kidd

Controversial plans for a $50m cable car on Hobart’s kunanyi/Mount Wellington have been dealt a potentially fatal blow, with expert planners recommending its rejection on 21 grounds.

Consultant planner ERA Planning and Environment found the fiercely debated project failed to meet “acceptable” standards set by the local planning scheme and park management plan.

“The proposed cableway use is not considered to be compatible with the objectives of use and ­development in Wellington Park,” the report concluded. “While it will increase accessibility for tourism and recreational users, the ­cableway will not be consistent with the park’s values.

“The sense of wildness and remoteness for recreational users, and the park’s cultural landscape values, will be diminished.”

The final decision on the development application submitted by the Mt Wellington Cableway Company will be made by Hobart City Council on Tuesday night.

Opponents called on the council to act on the findings and kill the project. “We welcome this report and call on all councillors to heed its recommendations,” said Vica Bayley, of Residents Opposed to a Cable Car.

“With 21 grounds of refusal, many spanning the very values the Wellington Park was established to preserve, refusing a permit to construct this private commercial complex and cableway is now the responsibility of elected councillors.

“The proposal to privatise a public reserve and bring mass tourism to a much-loved mountain has been divisive and consumed inordinate amounts of community time, energy and money. Yet this report demonstrates it was destined to fail from the start.”

Proponent MWCC said it needed time to digest the report before commenting in detail. “We’ve been invited to appear before council sitting as a planning authority next Tuesday and at that point I think we’ll be in a position where we could comment,” said MWCC chairman Chris Oldfield. “We stand by this being a project that we believe is needed in Hobart, badly. We’ve always stood by the planning process and we are continuing to do that.”

He would not rule out planning or other court action should the council reject the project. “Decisions on what we do in the future are just those – they’re in the future,” he said.

ERA’s report, signed by principal planner Emma Riley, found the project’s “scale, mechanisation and emissions” would diminish the tourism, recreational, cultural and landscape values of the mountain.

It found geotechnical information relating to the development of a visitor complex on the pinnacle did not “sufficiently consider all risks to life and property triggered by the development”.

Also cited were noise impacts, potential for “environmental harm”, inadequacies in a proposed access road, stormwater concerns, biodiversity impacts including the loss of swift parrot habitat, damage to the values of the Organ Pipes rock formation, and “loss of visual values”.

“Overall, the proposal is not considered to meet all the relevant requirements,” it said.