University of Tasmania sell-off plan for Sandy Bay campus moves passes parliament’s lower house

A UTAS plan to sell off a portion of its Sandy Bay campus to help fund a $500 million STEM precinct has moved a step closer, with facilitating legislation passing state parliament’s lower house.

UTAS Sandy Bay campus signage. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

A University of Tasmania plan to sell off a portion of its Sandy Bay campus to help fund a $500 million STEM precinct has moved a step closer, with facilitating legislation passing state parliament’s lower house.

After earlier this year abandoning a divisive proposal to move the campus to Hobart’s CBD, UTAS announced it would develop two large parcels of land above Churchill Ave to allow the construction of hundreds of new homes.

Minister Madeleine Ogilvie. Picture: Linda Higginson

Minister for Innovation, Science, and the Digital Economy, Madeleine Ogilvie, said although the House of Assembly had approved the UTAS rezoning request, any further sale of campus land would require the approval of both houses of parliament under the University of Tasmania (Protection of Land) Bill 2024.

“The government supports not only the retention, but the reinvigoration of the University of Tasmania at Sandy Bay,” Minister Ogilvie said.

“Central to those efforts are equipping the university with the ability to deliver a world-class education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“UTAS needs a STEM precinct to educate young Tasmanians for that future.”

UTAS originally planned to develop a new STEM hub on Melville St, as part of a plan to move the Sandy Bay campus into central Hobart.

But in an elector poll two years ago, Hobart ratepayers overwhelmingly rejected the city move, with 74.38 voting against the proposed relocation.