The foreshore belongs to the people

Cassy O’Connor

Pulp mills and canal estates are A-OK in Paul Lennon’s book, but a walkway for locals along the Battery Point foreshore, now that’s something he’ll come out swinging against.

SIX short weeks ago, late August, early September, when the Lennon Government was busy trying to snuff out the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area in Parliament to suit Walker Corporation’s agenda, our fearful leader sauntered out the front of the building to do a press conference for, I think it was the Heart Foundation, on the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Studying him, I thought perhaps a more credible ambassador for a healthy heart could be found …

The journalists must have thought so too. After a couple of perfunctory questions on heart health, attention soon turned to the issue of a walkway around Battery Point; a subject that had come up in Parliament that day — but as we know, it’s been kicking around for some years.

The story was given new life when Liberal Leader Will Hodgman asked a question of the Premier in Parliament, highlighting the fact that in 2002 the then Minister for Primary Industries, Bryan Green, refused to give a commitment of tenure of crown land to the Hobart City Council that would have allowed it to proceed with environmental and community impact studies on the feasibility or otherwise of a Battery Point promenade.

The reasons Mr Green gave in 2002 included — and Will Hodgman quoted:

‘The Government feels the promenade would create a high level of division in the community and would, undoubtedly, involve a lengthy and adversarial planning process.’

Well, of course, Ralphs Bay came to mind …

Without even a hint of irony, and I couldn’t see any sign his tongue was wedged into his cheek, the Premier told journalists that this was a “pet project” of the Liberals, that local residents didn’t wanted their foreshore spoiled with an “unsightly footpath”, that Battery Point should not be “polluted” with a concrete walkway.

I was standing not more than a few metres away, listening with a pounding heart as an almost blinding white heat rose rapidly into my skull.

Before I knew it, the words came out of my mouth. ‘What about a canal estate in Ralphs Bay?’

The Premier looked at me for perhaps two heartbeats, then looked away and continued to spume hypocrisies.

Because, let’s face it. The Walker plan for Ralphs Bay is a pet project of the Premier’s.

The peninsula community is highly stressed, but not that divided, at the prospect of their treasured coastal lifestyle being forsaken for Lang Walker’s mad and greedy plan for the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area.

There are few coastal developments in existence that are as unsightly as a canal estate.

We are now bound for a costly, lengthy and adversarial planning process in the Resource Planning and Development Commission.

Robbing us forever

And if the Walker plan were — against all the weight of scientific evidence and common sense — to be given the go-ahead, the slowly recovering River Derwent would be polluted by the disturbance of Ralphs Bay’s heavily contaminated sediments.

Defending the Battery Point foreshore that day and on radio the following day was the same Premier who is prepared to support a development that would gouge up these sediments and allow decades of deposited copper, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, lead and zinc into the Derwent; ensuring the demise of those critically endangered Spotted Handfish colonies nearby; trashing a nationally and internationally significant bird habitat; and robbing us forever of a stunning view across the Bay to Mt Wellington.

But, of course, we know why Premier Lennon is against opening up the Battery Point foreshore to the wider public. This government has made a hallmark of looking after the interests of the wealthy.

I’m not going to get stuck into John White because he’s copped enough lately, and I personally have a fair bit of time for him. I can empathise with his desire, and that of his fellow objectors, to want to protect their sense of place. I acknowledge some here today won’t want to hear that. Of course, he does have a long history with the ALP and a vested interest in the status quo.

The Farrell family — for example — has significant Battery Point holdings. The same Farrell family who have benefited arguably as much as John Gay has from Lennon Labor’s unabashed agenda of putting corporate profit ahead of the community’s interest.

It is a Labor administration in name only.

Empty pragmatist that he is, Paul Lennon cares about the foreshore when he’s looking after private interests, and trying to score points against the Liberals or the Greens.

The Premier clearly doesn’t give a fig for the unspoiled coastline along Bass Strait that will almost certainly be polluted by dioxins, furans and other nasty chemical-laced effluent if John Gay’s proposed pulp mill is built on the River Tamar.

Pulp mills and canal estates are A-OK in Paul Lennon’s book, but a walkway for locals along the Battery Point foreshore, now that’s something he’ll come out swinging against.

I know this issue, of public access to the Battery Point foreshore, and what form it might take is fraught with sensitivities.

Today, I speak as an individual who is part of a wider community that shares a deep and abiding love for Tasmania’s marvellous, fragile coastline. I am not here speaking on behalf of the Save Ralphs Bay group, because I am certain there would be a divergence of
opinions on whether there should be some sort of structure, linking the city of Hobart
from Castray Esplanade to Battery Point around this lovely foreshore.

Blatant hypocrisy

All diverging opinion on this issue is valid — unless of course it’s built on blatant hypocrisy.

But I sense there is substantial public support for creating something simple and visionary to link the city of Hobart, in fact from Cornelian Bay where the bike track leaves the foreshore, to Sandy Bay.

This is not about the politics of envy. Of course, the amenity of residents must be preserved. And I understand the concerns expressed by some residents about security, and the potential impact on their lifestyle. Surely there is a way to address those valid concerns with smart and careful planning.

Ultimately, this comes down to a question of public access to the foreshore.

What the community is trying to prevent at Ralphs Bay is not only environmental vandalism, but also the intended privatisation of a treasured piece of public coastline.

What we are talking about here today, is finding a way to make sure Tasmanians and particularly the citizens of Hobart can access, enjoy and feel a sense of collective ownership towards, the Battery Point foreshore and its rich cultural history.

As it is, that access is restricted. If you are disabled, infirm, pushing a stroller or simply not as nimble-footed as you once were, there is no prospect of enjoying the foreshore on foot as it is.

And, there are two properties which extend to low water mark, slicing through the Crown Land foreshore, effectively cutting it off to the people. These private owners should be appropriately compensated for returning those slivers of foreshore to their true owners. I’m sure Hobart ratepayers would not object to this use of their local government contribution.

Our first priority must always be the protection of a fragile coastline, but I believe it is possible to do that, and enhance public enjoyment of this shared natural asset.

At Noosa in Queensland, just across the bay from where I grew up at Stradbroke Island, there’s an example of what is possible with sensitive, thoughtful planning. One of the most pleasant ways to spend a day in Noosa, is to amble along the low-impact walkway that wends through the National Park.

It leads into sheltered beaches and leafy groves, there are places to sit and delight in the view. It keeps people off the rocky foreshore and bushland itself, protecting those coastal values for which the Noosa National Park is famous. There are many such examples of these public walkways around Australia.

The risk here

Any structure along this foreshore would have to be extremely sensitively thought out, designed and constructed.

Personally, I could not support the idea of a concrete bikeway. And I’d be appalled if the opening up of this foreshore to pedestrians led to intensified commercial development of the foreshore. That of course is the risk here, the creeping rot of private interests cashing in on greater public access. Battery Point is a Tasmanian treasure, which is why some of its residents are so understandably keen to keep it the way it is, and thus to keep it to themselves.

But, the pressure is on for a simple, sensitive, well planned means of sharing it among more of Hobarts residents, and fair enough. What a splendid attraction it might be for visitors from interstate and overseas.

There is also the very real and pressing issue of sea level rise. Councils Australia-wide are having to change their approach to coastal planning as a result, and no feasibility study into a structure along this foreshore could be undertaken without examining whether or not any public monies spent would too soon be gobbled up by an inexorably rising tide.

Lots of work to do to see if this idea will fly, but we should seriously examine it. This is about the wider public having a stake in the coastline, our shared common wealth and it’s about opening up what has long been the domain of only a wealthy few, to those who cannot afford a Battery Point home, but are also entitled to enjoy its riches by day.

Tasmania’s coastline should belong to no one person or corporation, it belongs to us all.

Cassy O’Connor
Battery Pt Foreshore Community Rally
14 October 2006