Federal Labor questions Cradle Mountain cableway project ‘delay’, government defends timeline

Six years after the project was first proposed, a development application for a planned cable car at Cradle Mountain is still yet to be presented to the local council for assessment.

A planning application for a cable car at Cradle Mountain is still yet to be presented to the Kentish Council for assessment – six years after the project was first mooted.

Federal Labor has questioned why the state and Commonwealth governments have been “unable to even sink a shovel into the ground” since they each committed to invest $30 million into the project in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

The planned low-level cableway – initially proposed in the Cradle Mountain Master Plan, released in 2016 – would connect the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre to Dove Lake, providing an all-year, all-weather service. It’s projected to bring an additional 60,000 visitors to the region.

Artist impressions of Cradle Mountain Master Plan- the proposed cable car. Picture: Cumulus Studio

Federal Labor candidate for Braddon Chris Lynch said the delay to the cableway – which would be located in the electorate of Lyons – was “another in a long list of projects that (the Coalition has) failed to deliver”.

“Announcing projects is only half the job – following through with concrete results is the real mark of an effective local MP,” he said.

Acting State Growth Minister Guy Barnett said the cableway project required “a significant amount of careful planning” to ensure it had “minimum impact on the natural surrounds and aesthetics of the national park”.

“We expect a business case for the proposed cableway to be completed in the coming months and an extensive community consultation process is being planned,” he said.

“The project would need to receive all relevant planning and approval processes before construction would commence.”

Mr Barnett noted that a new visitor centre had been built in accordance with the master plan and opened in 2020, and that a new viewing shelter at Dove Lake was currently under construction and was expected to be completed by the middle of the year.

A spokesman for federal Infrastructure Minister Barnaby Joyce said the Commonwealth’s $30 million in funding for the cableway was “on the table and ready to flow”.

“Delivery of the project is a responsibility for the state government,” he said.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and former premier Will Hodgman announcing federal funding for the cableway at Cradle Mountain in 2018. PICTURE: CHRIS KIDD

“Should Mr Lynch be interested, the (federal) government would be happy to provide him with information on our additional funding commitments, totalling more than $25 million, for projects already under way across Braddon.”

The Cradle Coast Authority (CCA), which represents eight local councils in Tasmania’s north-west, said the cableway was a “sensitive project”.

“We believe that it is important that all studies are completed, and the project is finished to the highest standards to address any environmental concerns that are raised,” Sid Sidebottom, chairman of the CCA’s board of directors, said.

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