Multi Million Dollar disaster in Launceston

Geoff Smedley

Launceston’s Tamar River is on the receiving end of yet another disaster.

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On Tuesday October 6 there was a predicted outcome of the much hailed close piling of the North-Esk riverbank from the Charles Street bridge past the Tamar estuary and on to the wheat silos at old Kings Wharf … at an estimated cost of 3.5 million dollars.

Earlier there had been a visit to New Orleans on a study tour claimed to be in the best interests of the Tamar Basin; even though no connection could be found and no report on the party’s visit has ever been released which is in line with with everything carried out in “Tamargate” in more than a decade.

We have witnessed a whole line of major disasters during that time. Many many millions have been spent.

The North-Esk debacle was always going to be a disaster from the outset. The public had been led to believe the riverbanks were rapidly collapsing into the river and the whole of Invermay was about to follow suit and disaster was coming from everywhere at once, so let’s press on.

Almost 200 years ago the area chosen was a huge rock bar forming rapids across the North-Esk and had been removed to allow shipping to berth at Queens Wharf close by Tamar St. then a bustling part of Launceston, and so in that shoreline is the remnants of these rapids; made up of rocks and gravel including tons of rock ballast dumped there when trading vessels entered the floating dry dock for survey and service that was situated right there also; so it could be expected that any attempt to drive concrete piles would only end in the disaster confronting the viewer today.

My feeble attempts to alert someone to these facts simply fell on deaf ears and the folly pressed on until such time as the purpose built concrete piles ran out and the few that did stand up most were shattered beyond any use; this should have been the time to wave the white flag, but no, there were many stoppages for funding topups and the like but it would be another 12 months before the embarrasment eventually overcame stubborness when the money. 3.5 million plus top ups dried up with less than 8% of the distance covered.

It was decided to backfill the tiny part covered and on so doing the whole caboodle began to collapse into the river. Much of the fill was tossed into the already choked up waterway putting paid to just another unlikely venture of the Launceston City Council.

It was not only the LCC that should bear the shame but the ones driving the state, particularly Mr. David Llewellyn who was having his turn at Infrastructure at the time. He was made aware of exactly what the position was, and I must say even though he was only politition that shows the respect of a reply, but no effort was made to follow up on the issue. There is now so much credibility at stake in the whole of Tasmania and it’s good to see Launceston is more than holding it’s own without a pang of guilt.

* The above photo is from the Examiner 7th Oct, the day after the collapse. You can see in the photo the desperate attempts to stop the cave in; the backhoe on the barge in an attempt to dump the fill into the river. I had received several calls and e-mails to go and witness the 3-5 million disaster happening but the picture in the paper caught the start of the action on the Tuesday evening and by the time I was able to get there was .AM Saturday morning and my pictures depict the result; the whole lot bulldozed into the river and not a peep from council, the Examiner, not one Pollie in sight … all are shellshocked and in hiding.