The danger to Launceston

Geoff Smedley Open Letter to Mr. Frank Dixon, General manager, Launceston City Council.

It is frightening to think today with our planet moving into an ugly phase that thought has not been directed at preparation for what’s really confronting the the future of Launceston, but instead it appears that the follies of the past are simply to be repeated, it is beyond belief…!!

Dear Sir,

In a need to clarify some points of interest contained in letters that have come to hand regarding the decay of the Tamar Basin and other issues of concern for Launceston’s now decaying image

Firstly I was the culprit that put forward the “$1 billion”!!! re-development plan (Council Technical Dep. estimates) for what must be by now Tasmania’s biggest window on neglect, and without any argument totally caused by pure mis-management and nothing more, any further excuses can only further fuel condemnation of these shortcommings The “Examiner’s Bugle Buster” recently further exposed issues of a very outdated group by inadvertently conducting an IQ test of these same old individuals responsible for our “dynamic town”, all bar one (the Mayor), failed to mention the river crisis, rather praising their own extravagances over what has become a ridiculous period of time.

It seems inconcievable to believe that Mr Ratcliffe, a hydraulogy engineer would quote figures from a wellknown and truly flawed report carried out by the UNSW in 1959. This so called physical modelling study, the remaining result of which are visible today, useless remains of that failed attempt to build a river levee systen on the banks of the Tamar Basin. The existing unservicable scheme now in ruin on the Tamar and in the city was placed there in the 60s. and simply collapsed in a very short period of time and fortunatly it had never been exposed to any major floods during it’s very short lifespan.

The original 1959 study report was commissioned to the UNSW as a government election handout, a public promise at that time, but unfortunatly carried out much like a university stunt by these lads of letters at the college.(a video tape of the whole escapade is in council files). The revered report failed on every count and no figures or fact can carry any credence, one instance is the fact that no knowledge of major changes that had changed the South-Esk behavior with the construction of the Trevallyn Dam in 1953 this alone making predicting the next flood of 1929 proportions an unreliable failure.

The hidden away video also shows that while this technical feat was being conducted the North-Esk portion of the model’s structure failed leaving this portion of the escapade without result and so nothing could be added in this quarter. The whole thing resulted in an expensive farce and the evidence is plain, a scheme built on flawed guesswork that became in a very short time, a flawed failure and this is the report Mr, Ratcliffe is basing his figures on.

It is frightening to think today with our planet moving into an ugly phase that thought has not been directed at preparation for what’s really confronting the the future of Launceston, but instead it appears that the follies of the past are simply to be repeated, it is beyond belief…!!

It cannot be disputed that this potential crisis now engulfing the whole planet that Launceston won’t be spared and concerns are growing that no plan of action has been mentioned making it obvious that no serious thought has been put to this world crisis, instead a lot of immature thinking being brought to bear making people feel uneasy.

All the rhetoric of current plans laid down in the name of the river do nothing to improve the condition or safety of these neglected waterways, and each expensive ploy that comes from council quarters is mostly in direct contradiction to professional advise, Example:- a well known fact that levee banks in Launceston could never claim a relationship to New Orleans or China or anywhere else, this is Launceston’s problem alone and any capable person would accept that. Secondly the sanity of spending millions of dollars piling the north bank of this now severely restricted artery, the North Esk and estuary to the main Tamar River, while it shows what little research had been carried out beforehand by the number of fractured piles now on display that little has been achieved, but it proved as was previously stated, the urgency expressed to close pile this area was unwarranted, in fact the supposed crumbling levee banks story had no basis of truth to it as that particular site may be classed as possibly the most stable part of the whole river system within the city unlike the opposing shoreline. In the early 1900s a gravel shoulder was a feature of the area and it was the favoured mooring site of the many river fishing boats, a fleet that used the hard site to advantage also giving reason for the construction of a substantual floating dock at the site and a place where I began my working life directly after the second world war in 1945

It was possible to walk on this gravel “beach” at low water to the old Charles street bridge, an area then known as “rotten row” where the dwindling river fishing boats still lay on the hard gravel bottom and also areas where ships in the past had dropped ballast before entering the dry-dock, These facts should have been at least researched before such an expensive folly started.

Now we have yet another glaring example of expensive tomfoolery in the extreme. The array of broken and shattered piles gives a good indication of the difficulties encounted and the money that has been spent needlessly for what?

The latest suggestion of developing the most dangerous part of the shoreline into a people’s park is another diversion away from reality. To believe this is a serious suggestion when we are overlooking such a serious and degrading health problem right in the heart of the city, 7 sewage outfalls in the area apart from many others of unmentionable content all being dumped into now what has become the local cesspool and fast becomming unsafe to go near.

To suggest a park on that dangerous North Bank is typical of other calls being made in the last couple of decades, avoiding the serious issues while inventing mindless suggestions and worst still acting upon them. This park scheme is still another fairy tale to waste funding that is disguised as benefitting the river whereas in most cases the reverse has been the case. If there was any real help for the doomed river that whole area should be removed an allow the Tamar estuary to run free counteracting some of the serious obstructions now badly effecting by strangling the North-Esk

The cost of removal of this parcel of land would be far less than the millions about to be spent on more questionable fantasies as seems to be the custom,this could lead to a reclamation programe for the whole unsightly place giving the current administration a lead on where to go in overcomming the burden of what do we do now syndrome that is plagueing the system.

We appear to be entering a pile driving sarga to match the failed dredging programme a cosy agreement that has achived nothing, a story in history!

Launceston’s serious river situation has never been placed before the Federal Government for funding assessment even though we have just experienced a raft of desperates out of Canberra looking for funding items particularly in Launceston’s locality where very little serious undertakings were presented, the messenger carried the wrong briefing and got shot.

Finally may I suggest that a report to the public be forthcoming covering all these many details and as to these extraordinary commitments that keep appearing in the media and just where these ideas and reasoning germinated, now that would be an interesting read for a bewildered public..

Geoff Smedley.