Next Iconic Walk – Public Works Committee Inquiry

Submission

In October 2025 we wrote, together with other environmental NGOs, to members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works urging they consider scrutinising PWS’s Next Iconic Walk project proposed for the Tyndall Range and they agreed to do so. There is plenty for them to consider. The TNPA prepared a submission to the Committee.

Since the project’s $40 million budget was identified in 2021 (already inflated from the original $20 million in 2019), there have been significant project design changes and higher than general inflation in relation to construction costs generally. Furthermore, the 2021 feasibility study is outdated and irrelevant to the current project design. This raises serious questions about the financial viability and overall prudence of proceeding with the project, especially given the state’s dire financial situation. And all this notwithstanding the environmental impact considerations of the proposal.

The Three Capes Track, the original “iconic walk”, eventually cost three times its original budget, and our analysis indicates income from the walk has failed to cover its operating costs in recent years

Postscript 29 April 2026

On 24 April, the Tasmanian Parliamentary Committee on Public Works released its report recommending the PWS’s proposed ‘Next Iconic Walk’ in the Tyndall Range proceed (see here). However, one member of the five-member committee, Helen Burnett MP, produced a dissenting report. She concluded the proposal did not represent good value for public money, would have a significant environmental footprint on a fragile, sub-alpine region, and other proposals which may have provided higher economic benefits to West Coast communities were not sufficiently considered, amongst other reasons. We concur.