University of Tasmania angry at Newnham campus sale delays

The UTAS campus at Newnham will soon be empty following its inner-city move, however plans to turn the space into a residential and commercial precinct have stalled. Here’s what’s happening.

Craig Barling Deputy Vice Chancellor UTAS. UTAS Financial Position inquiry at parliament. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

The University of Tasmania’s attempts to continue redeveloping its Newnham Campus are being stymied by the failure of six years’ negotiations with the state government to remove a covenant over the land.

The state government says the regulatory process is complex and denied it had taken anywhere near that long.

The redevelopment, part of the Launceston City Deal, featured during a parliamentary hearing into the university’s finances in Hobart on Wednesday.

The University’s masterplan for the site includes a Defence Cadet facility and residential and commercial development and the proceeds were earmarked to help fund the redevelopment at Inveresk.

UTAS Newnham Campus. Picture: Chris Kidd

A covenant on the site allows the university only allows the land to be used for educational purposes, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Craig Barling said.

“We’ve had negotiations and conversations with government the whole way through but it has come to a point where we’re finishing our Inveresk campus and that Newnham campus is going to be empty in three months time and not able to be developed in the way we want and the community wants,” he said.

“The master plan in the North for Newnham was strongly supported, the process was rigorous. “We did it in conjunction with the Coordinator General’s office, and it was really strongly supported by the community that would be good for Newnham and the northern suburbs of Launceston, but right now we can’t do anything with it.”

Mr Barling said the process had been extremely difficult.

“The negotiations around lifting that covenant have now taken six years.

“We’ve now got to go through two Houses of Parliament to get approval for that covenant to be lifted, and it sort of sets the tone for the restrictions we are that are placed upon us sometimes causes a great causes a big impact around our financial sustainability, because we have not been able to realise that opportunity with the northern campus, and we’ve been waiting, like I said, for six years for that to be addressed.”

A government spokeswoman said the process was nearing its end.

“The transfer and sale process of the land at Newnham is a complex succession of steps to address the current condition on the title and enable the land transfer,” she said.

“All parties have now agreed on a method to effect the transfer and government has recently written to the university outlining this in detail.

“We hope the sale to defence can be completed in the coming months.”