Wellington Park Management Plan Review

Hello to all our supporters fighting to keep kunanyi cable car free.

Thank you Vica

First, I must say a huge thank you to Vica Bayley who, as the primary driver of our fight to stop the cable car in recent years, has been elected to the House of Assembly as a Greens member.  We wish him the absolute best as he continues the fight to protect our wonderful lifestyle and environment.
Vica saw the process through TASCAT where the proponent exercised their right to appeal the HCC decision and, as we know they lost that appeal. The complexity of our legal representation and the processes of TASCAT were enormous and we thank Vica for his dedication to the mountain.

New Planning Body

The second issue to take us all by surprise was the announcement by the Rockliff government of a new planning body to by-pass the local council. While this announcement is seen by most as a weakening of our planning laws, we have been advised that a Mercury journalist was assured by a spokesperson for the government that the legislation would not be used to facilitate the cable car.
We will of course be holding them to that.

Wellington Park Management Plan Review

The most pressing issue for all of us now is the review of the Wellington Park Management Plan.
This could of course be an opportunity to strengthen the protections for the mountain against inappropriate developments but equally it could be used to water down those provisions of the previous plan which successfully saw the cable car DA rejected by both the council and the TASCAT.
ROCC will be putting in submissions at the various stages of this review. We note however that the last time the Wellington Park Trust altered the Plan was to approve a change to the Pinnacle Specific Area to accommodate the cable car proposal. This was done despite overwhelming opposition from the public. Indeed, at the end of the consultation process the Trust were heavily criticised by TASCAT but still approved the change to the plan. As you can no doubt tell I am sceptical of the process and its outcomes. Having said that we must participate and be diligent.

MWCC have publicly called for the Management Plan to be changed to suit the company’s purposes and the MWCC are actively encouraging people to use the Management Plan Review comment boxes to ask for the Plan to be changed to align with the cable car proposal.

I urge you to have a look at the Wellington Park Trust website https://wellingtonpark.org.au/step-1-park-values to understand the process and to take part. The process has started with a review of the values within the park. It takes the form of a survey.
In the comments section you might add your own comments like – “the Management Plan should be changed to explicitly prohibit a cable car across the Organ Pipes and prohibit construction of any large structures on the Pinnacle.”
If you feel the values that have been set out are wrong or not complete, then have your say. You can also make a more detailed submission adding values that you might feel are important. The review of values closes on 15th Sept 2023.
This process will take time and a draft management plan is not expected until early 2025.
Please get involved and thank you for being part of the continuing fight to protect the mountain.

Ted Cutlan
for Residents Opposed to the Cable Car

We’ve ordered a new batch of the fantastic Dolerite not Dollars tshirts, so don’t miss out on your opportunity to get one.

Tshirts feature young Tassie artist Cormac Brannigan’s fantastic design. On sale now at  https://kunanyinocablecar.org/shop