Waterfront vision needed

THE newly-formed Evers Network delivers a welcome contribution to the debate about the future of Hobart, and what form the city’s underdeveloped waterfront might take in coming decades.

Demolition work at the cold stores at Macquarie Point in Hobart. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE

THE newly formed Nick Evers Network today delivers a welcome contribution to the debate about the future of Hobart, and in particular what form the city’s uniquely underdeveloped waterfront might take in coming decades.

The network is an informal think tank named after the respected former bureaucrat and politician, who died in 2013. It includes people with resumes that individually would fill this column several times over. In no particular order, those names include former Forestry Tasmania boss Bob Annells, former Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (and former University of Tasmania chancellor) Damian Bugg, long-time Treasury Department secretary Don Challen, and his fellow former senior bureaucrat Tony Pedder. Current TasNetworks chairman Dan Norton is also in the group, along with another former UTAS chancellor Mike Vertigan, and public relations guru Greg Ray. These are people who know their stuff and their state. Together, their voice is certainly one all Tasmanians should be listening to.

MORE: PUSH FOR MACQUARIE POINT RETHINK

So what is their proposal? As explained in the Talking Point piece published today on pages 14-15, the network suggests that the “enormous opportunity” presented by the Macquarie Point redevelopment is being stifled by the fact the site is landlocked by the port facilities. “This shortcoming automatically downgrades its potential to attract premium development,” the network argues, correctly. “Imagine,” they go on, “the potential of the Macquarie Point precinct if all that foreshore land was opened up for redevelopment … (and) of course, the redevelopment of Macquarie Point should be seen in the context of a much wider vision and plan for the entirety of Hobart’s iconic waterfront and historic Sullivans Cove”.

The Mercury agrees. Limiting our future vision for the waterfront to just Macquarie Point would be a mistake. We need to be considering the entire stretch from the Tasman Bridge to where the port facilities currently are at Macquarie Pont, around past Macq 02 where the cruise ships moor to Constitution Dock (site of the carpark that boasts the best views of any in Australia), through to Salamanca and on to the current CSIRO site at Castray Esplanade.

And as a community we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to really remake the waterfront into a truly iconic integrated feature of our city that could become a global drawcard. Everything is in place: with the latest TasPorts master plan about to released, the Macquarie Point redevelopment top of mind, and moves afoot to relocate the CSIRO from its current location.

The challenge will be to ensure these projects do not happen in isolation; that they are all linked by one overarching vision for our capital city’s unique waterfront — one that can be enjoyed, and be boasted about, by future generations of Hobartians.

The Nick Evers Network, therefore, deserves credit for sticking their collective head above the parapet and having a crack at envisioning what our city’s future could be. The challenge is now for the largely risk-averse Hodgman Government to get on board and deliver the leadership required to make vision reality.

Macquarie Point is worth too much to rush