The Tamar’s big flush

Henry Gee

I believe the river has become a time bomb and illnesses are already being related to contact with the harmful ingredient contained within. The frightening thing is lack of admission by council of these serious problems, instead of a whole lot of ducking and weaving with an awful lot of truth missing. Capping this off Ald. Beams made the surprise statement that the Federal Government has been asked to toss in $200,000 for yet another study into the Tamar’s woes! But perhaps the most positive announcement was in the, in the Alderman’s eyes, the fact that a visiting AFL team had complimented him on the state of the river. Enough said!

THERE ARE a lot of questions needing answers over recent stories and actions in regard to the now extremely dangerous waters of the Tamar river in Launceston, and the situation is a grave one indeed.

Residents have been kept in the dark for years over the seriousness of the matter until recently when the “Examiner” allowed an article through giving the true state of these waterways, E-coli readings up to 110 times the legal limit recorded in June 2007 covering the whole of the Tamar basin, including the 1st. basin in the cliff grounds where adults and children are still free to swim. All the leaked figures had come from an independent source and had been supplied to the Launceston City Council manager in June 2007 and only acknowledged the following February [2008].

The release of the story prompted the LCC to hang temporary signs on the boardwalk warning that swimming in the highly contaminated cesspool would be inadvisable, a similar method to the one applied when warnings appeared on the street poles of Invermay to ease the anxiety of residents concerned for their welfare in the face of the next major flood to that area. The solution here was to mark the water levels of the 1929 disaster on the street poles, giving the residents confidence that there alert council was right on top of the situation. The responsibility shown by the council and the failed Upper Tamar River Improvement Authority (UTRIA) has been extraordinary in every way. The state of the Tamar estuary in the heart of Launceston really does rate among the worst polluted rivers on world scale and the figures released certainly support this fact.

I found it interesting that when these figures were leaked, Hydro Tasmania were obviously struck with a pang of guilt immediately spearheading the bold plan to flush Launceston’s river system in an attempt to convince the Tamar Yacht Club not to follow through with its threat to move its sailing regatta some 50 kilometers north to where there is a little less pollution, as this would reflect badly on Hydro’s already fragile image. The big announcement was that a total of 6 cumecs (including the standard ‘moisturizing’ flow of 1.5 cumecs which is the total donation by Hydro to the Cataract Gorge) would be released simply to pacify the antagonists.

Most of these gobbly gook figures mean very little to most people, but even so the level of excitement grew creating interest among those who had never seen the once magic spectacle of water over the rapids. So low and behold as the promised time approached, 12 noon on April 18th, a small crowd began to assemble on Kings Bridge also the Gorge cliff grounds, and of course the Trevallyn Dam itself to witness the big flush. But alas, this excitement soon faded when the valve was finally opened showing very little difference in flow. The promised 6 cumecs over a 4 hour period and valued at $5000 was little more than a modern fire truck could muster simply using a hose from Kings Bridge.

1.5 cumecs the regular supply to the Cataract Gorge. (9.30 am on the 18th April)

Once again the poor Tamar was left unhelped and so it was decided that a few fairy stories may save the day as they had in the past and of course they encountered a soft target allowing all risks to be overlooked and so the waterless regatta went ahead right where the yacht basin once was.

Now of course the Hydro have reasons for the shallow flow through the Gorge, the discovery of a wee snail previously unknown to man but fortunately discovered by their scientific department in the 1960s. It is very minute and thought to have 5 legs and 3 eyes aptly named (Beddoneia launcestonensis) and is allergic to fresh water and it is feared that ‘snotty’- the snail, as we will call him, may succumb to a terrible fate unless the utmost care is given to the amounts of water that are allowed to flow within his domain.

It seems most people weren’t aware of snotty’s existence until the big discovery was made in recent times, but it is now thought the little creature has been surviving there for millions of years hanging on for dear life up until the Hydro took the pressure off poor snotty to allow him to release his long held hold of his rock and now sings the praises of Hydro Tasmania for constructing the dam. This is not a fairy story but believed by many to be true.

The poor Tamar is no stranger to abnormal behaviour in respect of the mysteries involved in “maintaining Launceston’s Tamar river”, a lot of cross-talk and no action has brought the once proud waterway to almost extinction in 2008.

DAM FOOLERY – This is the height of the ‘big flush’ (~6 cumecs) at 2.30 pm on the 18th April 2008

What is needed is a professional approach immediately to save our river from its now worst state ever status. The years of bleating about funding should be buried among the many reports on the subject that have been wastefully been brushed aside simply the intellect was never there to understand them. No serious effort has ever been taken to seek funding to be of direct benefit to the river itself, side issues only have absorbed any valuable funding that may have been available. It has been more about sundry work and much lauded investigative group trips overseas without any results being posted none of which can be credited to benefiting the rivers themselves.

Listening to Ald. Graeme Beams speaking with Tim Cox on ABC radio recently, it was interesting to note how out of touch Ald. Beams is. None of the figures quoted added up and it was obvious he had either been programmed wrongly, deceived by his advisors or maybe simply lost his script while quoting the amounts of spoil taken from the river bed, quote “1.5 million tons has been removed in the past 15 years”. This equates to 100,000 tons per annum, and during that period no dredging whatsoever took place for several years, while not taking into account that most of this dangerous material has escaped back into the river, particularly when it is well known that these old holding areas were abandoned back as far as 1912 for this very reason and to attempt this same exercise today using highly contaminated material, along with exposing the many homes in the area, is nothing more than ignorance gone mad.

The alderman claimed other incredible ‘porkies’ by stating that the last surge of water nature put down the South Esk [River] removed some 300,000 cubic metres of silt from the river basin, a bold and unlikely story, but then claims his informers advise that 2,500 cubic meters per day is settling back in the estuary? Confusion of story lines?

I believe the river has become a time bomb and illnesses are already being related to contact with the harmful ingredient contained within. The frightening thing is lack of admission by council of these serious problems, instead of a whole lot of ducking and weaving with an awful lot of truth missing. Capping this off Ald. Beams made the surprise statement that the Federal Government has been asked to toss in $200,000 for yet another study into the Tamar’s woes! But perhaps the most positive announcement was in the, in the Alderman’s eyes, the fact that a visiting AFL team had complimented him on the state of the river. Enough said!

The State Government and its representatives have shown little interest in the plight of Launceston’s waterways, most seem blinded by the vision and simply recite what is the party line, More Dredging!! More Dredging!!, then hold their noses and run to their comfort zones leaving the ailing river to survive all alone.

With seven sewer outfalls into the Tamar, none being efficient (secondary only), it is inevitable that serious problems are lurking and the aroma alone over a widespread area is an appalling affliction in this day and age, but now the story is the river is only returning to its original state of 200 years ago, this statement direct from the bowels of the LCC. Perhaps this is their plan for the whole of Launceston, who knows?

I fear that it may be too late to stop the cruel infection that has overcome the last remaining icon nature blessed Launceston with, but it is very much on the brink of becoming a tragedy equaling the disastrous loss of the Cataract Gorge where all care was abandoned and destroyed something far more valuable than what it provided.

Henry Gee
Launceston.