Freycinet Master Plan highlights key concerns: an overloaded sewerage system and an overload of cars

A revised Freycinet Master Plan, which has just been released for public comment, highlights two key concerns in the tourism mecca: an overloaded sewerage system and an overload of cars.

TRAFFIC movement and wastewater will be upgraded to cope with soaring visitors to the Freycinet Peninsula, according to a newly released master plan for the state’s most popular tourism region.

A revised Freycinet Master Plan, which has just been released for public comment, highlights two key concerns in the tourism mecca: an overloaded sewerage system and an overload of cars.

Some of the traffic congestion will be addressed by a new “visitor gateway” located outside of the Freycinet National Park, to reduce parking pressures inside the park.

The gateway, at Coles Bay, will include a carpark so people can leave their cars outside of the park and instead travel there by shuttle bus, boat or from shared use bike paths.

The revised plan has been developed with input from the community, the Parks and Wildlife Service, the Department of State Growth, Glamorgan Spring Bay Council, East Coast Tourism, the Freycinet Association Inc. and the Freycinet Destination Action Plan group. Freycinet Lodge, Coles Bay, Tasmania. Picture: SUPPLIED

The plan envisages visitors will “park and hop onto a shuttle bus, from an architecturally designed shelter with information about what to do in the park”.

The plan envisages a commercially operated boat system taking visitors into the national park from the gateway — subject to take-up by private sector.

The plan also outlines improved wastewater management, and says the State Government has provided $365,000 funding to TasWater to undertake a feasibility study to investigate the most suitable option.

The revised plan has been developed with input from the community, the Parks and Wildlife Service, the Department of State Growth, Glamorgan Spring Bay Council, East Coast Tourism, the Freycinet Association Inc. and the Freycinet Destination Action Plan group.

The traffic and wastewater concerns were identified after a draft master plan was released last June, which attracted 144 public submissions.

THE NEW FINAL PLAN SAYS THE SUBMISSIONS HAD KEY THEMES:

*An impression the draft master plan was too commercially driven

*Opposition to the use of the peninsula by helicopters, cruise ships, jet skis and some recreational boating.

*Concerns that the peninsula is already at capacity in terms of visitor numbers

*Criticism the draft plan insufficiently addressed issues around wastewater management, and

*Criticism the draft did not adequately address and prioritise the natural values of the wider peninsula area.

To address concerns about cruise ships, the new master plan says the Government will maintain its “ongoing commitment … to the voluntary agreement with large cruise ship operators not to enter Wineglass Bay”.

The gateway, at Coles Bay, will include a carpark so people can leave their cars outside of the park and instead travel there by shuttle bus, boat or from shared use bike paths. Picture: SUPPLIED

The plan also says it will review how much disturbance is being caused by helicopters, committing to a review with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to “consider and respond to the impact of helicopter flights (other than for emergency or management purposes and opportunities for change”.

The pressure on housing is also addressed in the plan, which suggests an accommodation strategy that looks for affordable housing options for people working in the tourism industry.

“This is to alleviate existing housing shortages and costs, and also addresses a key structural barrier to further private investment,” it says.

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A public meeting will be held next Sunday March 24 at the Coles Bay Community Hall, where the revised Master Plan will be presented and a community questions and answers session will take place.

Further information and a copy of the revised Draft Freycinet Peninsula Master Plan will be available at www.parks.tas.gov.au from Saturday 16 March 2019 and public comment is invited. Comments on the revised Plan must be received by 9am Monday 15 April 2019

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