Proceedings to wind up Wild Drake Pty Ltd are the next step in the legal process about the campaign to protect Lake Malbena from the impacts on Wild Drake's proposed helicopter-accessed tourism development. Alienation of public land within a national park for the benefit of a private developer, and the impact on the wild character of the area of both the development itself and the helicopter access, are both inappropriate.
Conservation groups have written to Australia’s Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek MP, to welcome the new Retrospective Statement of Outstanding Universal Value (page 16) for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) of Lutruwita/Tasmania. The Statement, provided by the Australian government, was approved by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee at its 45th session in Riyad, Saudi Arabia, in late September 2023.
Daniel Hackett is still attempting to obtain approval to construct his proposed helicopter accessed lodge at Lk Malbena. This has dragged on for four years, with no social license. The Federal Environment Minister should halt the current farcical consultation process.
Why has the government chosen to announce some tinkering with the Expressions of Interest for Tourism Opportunities in National Parks (EOI) process while stalling on the reforms to the process that really matters, the Reserve Activity Assessment (RAA)?
The Tasmanian National Parks Association has called on the Tasmanian Government to extend Tasman National Park near Crescent Bay, close to Port Arthur, by acquiring a property recently offered for sale.
The Tasmanian National Parks Association is calling for the area around Cradle Mountain to be protected from over-development including an intrusive cable car, a century after the area was reserved on 16 May 1922 to protect its scenery.
It is time to rethink Tasmania’s exploitation of our national parks as a resource for growing the tourism industry. We need to move beyond the simplistic ‘unlocking’ approach and develop a more nuanced policy that acknowledges and protects the values that attract visitors to Tasmania’s parks in the first place. What will it take to make the state government realise that its ‘unlocking’ policy is compromising the concept of a national park?
Environment groups today called for the Tasmanian Government to approach with caution any attempts by the Kentish Rifle Club to obtain funding for their proposed rifle range on Maggs Mountain, near national park access routes. Hearing rifle shots detracts from characteristics of remoteness and isolation and an unmodified natural setting.
A State Government reservation process is an opportunity to create Kooparoona Niara (Great Western Tiers) National Park. The new National Park is a perfect step to realise State Government's aim for Tasmania to be global eco-tourism destination of choice.
TWS and TNPA have filed an appeal against the 6 July 2020 decision by Tasmania’s Supreme Court relating to helicopter-accessed visitor accommodation at Lake Malbena. They will be arguing that the Court made a number of legal errors in reaching its decision.
