Halls Saddle: Hobart City Council calls for federal, state funding for Kunanyi/Mount Wellington visitor and transport hub
A plan to solve Kunanyi/Mount Wellington’s traffic and parking woes has been unveiled, with hopes of developing a visitor and transport hub at the former site of an old quarry.
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Plans are afoot to transform a little-known former quarry site into a visitor gateway and transport hub for Kunanyi/Mount Wellington – but federal and state funding is needed to bring the project to fruition.
Halls Saddle, a Hobart City Council-owned site located in the Ridgeway Reserve, has been earmarked for development and is seen as a potential solution to the mountain’s traffic and parking woes.
There are currently just 280 carparking spaces on the mountain, despite it attracting more than 500,000 visitors every year, with Pinnacle Rd carrying more than 2000 vehicles per day in peak periods.
While Kunanyi/Mount Wellington is the state’s most visited natural asset, the council says that unlike Cradle Mountain and Freycinet, which are located in the marginal electorate of Lyons, the mountain has not benefited from any significant state or federal grant funding to improve the visitor experience.
Councillor Ben Lohberger, the co-chair of the city’s Climate, Sustainability and Biodiversity Committee, said he suspected a visitor and transport hub at Halls Saddle would require up to $15m in external funding.
“It has its own capacity for things like a lookout, potentially a visitor centre, a cafe, a spot where bus passengers can disembark and embark, and potentially somewhere where the buses from Hobart can come up and drop off passengers here, who can then get on a bus and catch it up to the mountain,” he said.
An open day was held at Halls Saddle on Friday, giving the community the opportunity to explore the site and learn about the council’s plans for the area.
The annual number of visitors streaming up the mountain is expected to reach 700,000 by 2029, prompting the council to seek funding through the federal government’s Urban Precinct and Partnerships Program to develop Halls Saddle into a multipurpose site integrating tourism, recreation, and a base for Indigenous rangers and other First Nations cultural initiatives.
Independent Clark MP Andrew Wilkie, who is currently seeking re-election, said he would be doing “whatever I can to try and secure federal funding to make this [project] a reality”.
“There’s so much potential here and it’s all unrealised. It won’t actually require a lot of money. I mean, a few million dollars to do all the design work, maybe $20m to do the construction work,” he said.
Destination Southern Tasmania CEO Alex Heroys said a “sustainable transport solution” for the mountain’s access problems was essential and there were ample opportunities for hospitality and adventure tourism at Halls Saddle.
“We can hub-and-spoke from here, get the visitors in and then take them on a tour of the mountain that will include the summit, but also include the other walking tracks, as well,” he said.
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Originally published as Halls Saddle: Hobart City Council calls for federal, state funding for Kunanyi/Mount Wellington visitor and transport hub
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