Rosny Hill: This view deserves a better frame

ROBERT MORRIS-NUNN: Rosny Hill project will work with bush rehabilitation experts so the millions needed are spent

MORE THAN A DEVELOPMENT: An artist's impression of Hunter Developments’ Rosny Hill project.

THE fundamental question that needs to be addressed by anyone trying to create new developments in Tasmania is how to conceive projects that incorporate socially desirable outcomes that really benefit both the broader Tasmanian and local communities.

This is particularly important when governments, state and/or local, initiate proposals on public land. It is particularly important to develop real community trust and belief in the stated goals.

Governments generally advertise for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) for development proposals which satisfy a number of competing objectives. In many cases these are over parcels of land in environments that need real sensitivity and restraint, whether they be natural areas, or heritage structures.

And the people submitting ideas are in the main “developers”, driven by purely commercial gain.

The group I represent earnestly tries to do things differently. Hunter Developments began its existence as a way to show how it is possible to sensitively develop a major heritage precinct, the Hunter St IXL warehouses in Sullivans Cove.

We won a national EOI process for the redevelopment of this site, a process put in place by the then Jim Bacon-led Labor government.

The resultant creation of a new hotel completely within the heritage fabric earned international tourist interest and won critical acclaim for its sensitive integration of the old and new.

It is indeed a challenging task, but it is possible to do it, and we have effectively demonstrated this. A key ingredient was true and open collaboration of a wide range of professional groups and authorities, and a very significant factor is that Hunter only instigates projects, which once approved then get sold on and then owned by mainly institutional investors; a situation that creates far greater opportunity for more lateral thinking and innovation. However, before passing any development on, we also create long-term arrangements to translate the promises we have made into legally enforceable ongoing actions, each directly related to the project in question.

With Rosny Hill, we aim to undertake a similar goal to IXL but within a degraded but still important natural environment. Here the aim is not just to create a sensitive architectural solution, one where the new development is completely hidden and the visiting public gets the prime lookout space, which is the landscaped roof terrace, but also to invent a way that the surrounding bush reserve is rehabilitated with endangered plants protected.

Indeed the aim is to give the whole reserve a new lease of life. Our proposal fulfils all of the community aspirations for the site, namely a separate cafe, public toilets, etc, but with significant ongoing funding and enforceable management.

We, Hunter Developments, propose to create a long-term partnership with Greening Australia, recognised as a leading Australian natural conservation group.

Together we propose to form a business /conservation partnership to deliver a unique outcome, the restoration of a valuable urban natural bushland oasis. Over time, and it is probable that this may mean a period of well over a decade or more, it is intended first to build a new 60 suite hotel and collect a modest additional daily surcharge on the room rate, and to then spend this accrued money to finance the ongoing bushland restoration works.

Greening Australia is committed to tackling Australia’s biggest environmental challenges with the best science and the best people, to return life to landscapes and balance to the natural environment in ways that work for communities, economies and nature.

It is only by the hotel’s operation that sufficient funds will be generated to create the ongoing financial wherewithal to allow remediation of the natural environment of the whole of the sadly degraded reserve. We intend it to be a worthy foreground to frame some of the most panoramic views of Hobart, the Derwent Estuary and kunanyi/Mt Wellington, a restored natural bush sanctuary of real worth to the surrounding neighbourhood, city as a hole and indeed the state.

The cost to do this has been estimated by Greening Australia to be in the millions of dollars, and the long-term commitment by many will be immense.

Sadly, if this effort is not undertaken, we have been reliably informed by the ecologists from Greening Australia that the natural values will continue to degrade and existing endangered flora will be lost.

The reality is that weekend volunteers will be insufficient alone to arrest the current degradation. Weed invasion will continue and values will be lost without well guided management. Greening Australia believe they can turn this malaise around, but it will be a major long-term scientifically led campaign.

And the community will be welcome to join in, indeed it is vital that they do so. Thus a very important part of the ongoing exercise will be its educational aspect. Indeed it is intended the hotel get actively involved as well, with hotel staff running interpretation tours informing guests what is going on.

This already occurs at our projects IXL and MACq 01, where it is greatly valued by guests. This is because it is informed, engaging at an immediate personal level and provides a real insight into the values of the community. This is intelligent tourism.

What is proposed is a major long-term tourism partnership, and the creation of a viable ongoing business model that will fund the significant ecological remedial works required. It will link sensitive architectural design that gives priority to creating a major new public outdoor space, a truly grand lookout over Hobart’s most panoramic views and in turn also links it to a massive ongoing bushland restoration effort to slowly transform a remnant bush hillside into a thing of splendour, a real sanctuary in every sense of the word.

It will simply be exemplary.

Hobart’s Robert Morris-Nunn is an award-winning architect and the director of Hunter Developments.