Halls Island lease: Lake Malbena documents revealed

Documents released by the proponents of a tourism development in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park reveal the price the government has demanded to lease Halls Island.

Halls Island at Lake Malbena. Picture: ROB BLAKERS

THE 20-year lease over Halls Island in the Walls of Jerusalem National Park will cost the operator $4,000 per year, lease documents reveal.

The proponents of a controversial tourism development at Lake Malbena have released a trove of information relating the project in a bid to counter claims of secrecy surrounding the project.

Tourism operator Daniel Hackett is seeking to build a standing camp on the island after taking part in the State Government's Expressions of Interest process — but the project has become bogged down by legal challenges.

Daniel Hackett. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

In a statement on the project website, Mr Hackett said he was releasing all remaining documentation relating to the project in the interests of transparency and informed debate.

“We understand that our industry sector, nature-based tourism, plays a role in the wider public conversation,” he said.

“This includes our own Lake Malbena project. With this in mind we have chosen to take the step to release all known and outstanding Right To Information correspondences immediately, and directly to the public.

“With this information release, combined with the volumes of information already released during three Federal and Council public comment periods, our project is an open book.

“There isn’t another private project in Tasmania with more information available.”

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The documents reveal the government is charging Mr Hackett's company Wild Drake $1,000 per year for the lease of Halls Island until the project is substantially complete — and $4,000 per year after that.

The lease term over the island runs for 20 years from January 2018 and the rent will increase by 2.5 per cent a year, the documents reveal.

The project is subject to an additional licence fee of $1 per year and applicable council rates.

Mr Hackett is also being charged $2,000 a year for the lease over the existing hut site on the

island. That lease has a ten-year term.

He called on the opponents of the project to be equally forthcoming in revealing where their funding is coming from.

The documents also reveal that Mr Hackett sought a permit to helicopter an aluminium rowboat into Lake Malbena.

And he expressed to the Parks and Wildlife Service concerns about the potential environmental impact of a large protest in the area on environmental values and aboriginal cultural heritage.

The State Government has consistently refused to release details of lease terms relating to EOI developments in national parks on the grounds that they are deemed “commercial-in-confidence”.