Environment Department’s James Barker unsure how many flights Lake Malbena proposal requires

The Federal Environment Department bureaucrat who signed off on a development in Tasmania’s World Heritage-listed wilderness says he is not sure how many helicopter flights would result.

Tasmanian Labor senator Anne Urquhart grilled the federal Environment Department on the controversial Lake Malbena proposal in senate hearings on Friday. Picture: PHILIP GOSTELOW

THE Federal Environment Department bureaucrat who signed off on a proposed luxury development in World Heritage-listed wilderness says he is not sure how many chopper flights would travel the Walls of Jerusalem National Park should the plan go ahead.

Under questioning from Tasmanian Labor senator Anne Urquhart, department assessments and governance deputy secretary James Barker said he understood the proposed development allowed for 30 trips near Halls Island, Lake Malbena, but took on notice how many flights would be required to service and maintain the proposed standing camp.

Separate documents held by the Government show the 30 trips would lead to about 120 flights.

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“I think there’s an allowable tolerance of some changes in the numbers,” Mr Barker said on Friday.

“I wouldn’t expect the numbers to be prescriptively locked down but our expectation was that those numbers of additional flights for servicing and maintenance would not be in significant excess of the numbers we had assessed for the purpose of accommodation access out to the area.”

Mr Barker said the department’s assessment of the development’s proposed helicopter flights took into account that helicopters already flew into other areas of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

Proponents Daniel and Simone Hackett have argued chopper access to the site was more environmentally friendly than walking, but the proposal has earned the ire of green groups, fishers and bushwalkers.

Senator Urquhart on Friday quizzed Mr Barker on the briefing document that informed the Federal Government’s decision to give the controversial proposal the green light in August.

A reference to the relationship between the Queensland and Commonwealth governments within the document was a “typographical error”, Mr Barker said.

And he said the Central Highlands project was assessed and recommended to be approved by Queensland North Assessments, a division of the federal department, to ensure it could be processed within the legally required timeframe.

Mr Barker said three of 940 submissions the department received on the proposal could be considered neutral. Most were in opposition, but more than 800 were campaign submissions, he said.