Operator pays $50,000 a year to for luxury lodges

The cost of the exclusive 30-year licence to operate private lodges on one of the state's most popular bushwalks has finally been revealed.

Cape Pillar Lodge on the Three Capes Walk. Picture: Tasmania Walking Company

THE lease for the exclusive right to operate luxury private lodges on the Three Cape Track Walk costs the operators $50,000 a year, it has been revealed.

The 46-kilometre track, on the Tasman Peninsula, was developed by the state and local governments at a cost of $40 million.

In addition to the public huts on the walk, the Tasmanian Walking Company was granted a 30-year exclusive lease to operate two private lodges in the national park.

The company, owned by multi-millionaire businessman Brett Godfrey, charges walkers $2895 each for the four-day trek.

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Documents released under Right to Information laws reveal that the company pays five per cent of its turnover as a licence fee plus $50,000 a year for the right to operate the lodges.

The state government has pushed hard to “open up” national parks for commercial development in recent years, although its expressions of interest program has been fraught by accusations of secrecy.

Walkers head out to the Blade at Cape Pillar on Day 3 of the Three Capes Lodge Walk. Picture: Tasmanian Walking Company

The leasing of Halls Island in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area for $6,000 a year was criticised for being too cheap.

The State Ombudsman ordered that lease be released in January after declaring it was not covered by commercial confidentiality.

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said the Three Capes lease has been shrouded in secrecy since it was signed by then Parks Minister Matthew Groom in 2016.

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“For their entire term the Liberals have tried to conceal the leases and licenses they sign with developers, claiming ‘commercial-in-confidence’ over these deals on public lands,” she said.

“The Liberals, backed by a tame Labor Opposition, gifted the Three Capes Track monopoly to private developers without a competitive process and for a song.

“I doubt $50,000 would cover the annual rent in a shopfront in Hobart. It’s a bargain rental for exclusive use rights in the Tasman National Park.

“For developers like Tas Walking Company, which is part of a national company moving in to protected areas around the country, national parks are just the last free real estate.”

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