Cable way ‘thought bubble’ at Cradle Mt to go ahead
The Cradle Mt Master Plan was developed for the Cradle Coast Authority in conjunction with Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service , the Tourism Industry Council and Kentish Council. Images are adapted from online concept video.
Sharon Webb
A Tasmanian government department has spent years analysing a $60m cable way at Cradle Mt which the state’s national parks organisation has labelled ‘an extremely silly idea’.
The president of the Tasmanian National Parks association Nick Sawyer said, ‘The experience of Cradle Mt should be that of visiting a national park, not some sort of theme park.’
According to a Department of State Growth spokesperson, the plan is to shunt 10 people at a time across the wilderness between the Cradle Mt Visitor Centre and Dove Lake in a mono-cable gondola system ‘similar to the Kuranda Skyrail Rainforest Cableway in Queensland.’
The promoters are at pains to differentiate the cable way from the cable car proposed for Hobart’s Mt Wellington, recently rejected by the Hobart City Council.
That decision is being appealed by the proponent in the Resource Management, Planning and Appeals Tribunal of Tasmania.
‘The cableway is different from the proposed Mt Wellington cable car because it will not go up a mountain but through the Cradle Valley,’ State Growth said.
State Growth said its analysis of potential cableway routes to determine what is technically feasible with the lowest environmental and visual impacts is nearing completion.
The work will be included in a business case being prepared for the project and also includes assessment of visitor numbers and preparation of models and visualisations.
Once the analysis is complete and cableway route options have been narrowed to enable a preferred option, detailed stakeholder engagement will take place, with planning for this engagement under way.
Environmental investigations and engineering assessments will commence following this detailed stakeholder engagement.
The spokesman for Residents Opposed to the Cable Car, which has so far successfully fought off a cable car up Mt Wellington, has called the cableway a ‘gimmick’.
Vica Bayley said the plan was totally overcooked. ‘As a long term conservationist this is overkill, a massive infrastructure project which will have significant impacts on a beautiful little valley walk,’ he said.
‘The road to Dove Lake already has an impact on that environment. That road should be used for more sustainable transport than a cable car.’
But NW tourism bodies greeted the idea with enthusiasm when first raised in 2016, developed by the Cradle Coast Authority, the Tourism Industry Council Tasmania and Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.
They saw more infrastructure at Cradle Mt as having potential to attract tourists and provide jobs.
In 2016 the then mayor of Kentish Council, Don Thwaites, said existing Cradle Mt infrastructure ‘needed an overhaul’.
‘It is a very much a low-grade reception for visitors there,’ he said. ‘Waiting for an hour to catch a bus to Dove Lake is very average.’
Since then the award-winning Visitor Centre has been opened at Cradle Mt, both the Australian and Tasmanian governments have committed $30m each to the project.
Labor leader Rebecca White said during the 2018 state election campaign, ‘Without the cableway element of the masterplan, Cradle Mountain will not reach its full potential as a visitor experience.’
But Mr Sawyer said, ‘It’s an insult to planning to call it a master plan. It’s a thought bubble.
‘It has three aspects, the visitor centre, a viewing shelter at Dove Lake which is half built and the cable car.
‘The TCIT conference last week made it obvious they were going ahead with a cable car as a fait accompli.
‘The idea would have died years ago except for the 2018 Braddon byelection when a lot of money was promised.’
Mr Sawyer said the existing road should be used to bus in tourists to Dove Lake because it already exists and is not visible from a substantial distance as a cable car would be.
