Transcript of media conference with Councillor Anna Reynolds, Mayor of the City of Hobart, and Amy Russell, General Manager of the Wellington Park Management Trust, The Domain, Hobart, 22 February 2024.
Journalist – unidentified
Anna, tell us what is the council advocating for this election?
Anna Reynolds
We have our advocacy priorities outlined in the document that we’re circulating to all candidates, as from today. It covers some really important strategic issues for the city, including housing, public transport, visitor infrastructure on the mountain and also investing to ensure that we retain our status as Australia’s Antarctic gateway.
Journalist – unidentified
Can you expand a little bit on those pressing issues that you just sort of mentioned there and how important it is to get on top of those for Hobart?
Anna Reynolds
I guess the one to really focus on, we want to focus on today, was visitor infrastructure for the mountain. It is Tasmania’s most highly-visited natural site. And yet the visitor infrastructure is largely funded by a local council. That’s not sustainable. We do really need to invest in strategic infrastructure on the mountain to improve the visitor experience. We’re really pleased to work with the tourism industry who also recognise that investing in some key infrastructure on the mountain will improve the visitor experience but also improve the experience for locals as well.
Journalist – unidentified
Why is it so important to get on top of mountain infrastructure? Do you perceive a bit of a boom in terms of more people visiting and it’s sort of at the moment not going to be able to sustain more people coming to the mountain?
Anna Reynolds
There are more visitors coming to the mountain every year than go to Cradle Mountain or Freycinet and both of those places have had significant investment in visitor infrastructure. So we know there’s about 400,000 people using the mountain every year and that’s projected to increase to 700,000 within a few years. So it is really important that we keep the infrastructure up to date with the numbers but also the expectations of the community to have good toilets, to have great tracks, to have good access and to have new facilities.
Journalist – unidentified
You mentioned housing in the plan. What sort of things would you like to see done in the housing space in Hobart?
Anna Reynolds
Well, I guess we there has to be quite a bit of a really strong partnership between the three levels of government to ensure that we do develop strategic sites in inner city Hobart. Too often housing development, social housing projects, end up being put on the outskirts of cities. And we do think that there’s some really important opportunities in central Hobart. It does often require a little bit more money, extra money upfront, from state and federal government. But the payback is that the residents have better access to services, better access to transport, from having those medium density developments in the city.
Journalist – unidentified
You mentioned that you had sent this out to candidates and that sort of thing; have conversations began and have –
Anna Reynolds
Not yet but we’ll be offering a site visit to the mountain and also an in-person briefing for all candidates in early March. And then we’ll be hoping to get their responses to these priorities before the election so we can let people know what different candidates say about these Hobart priorities.
Journalist – unidentified
What precautions do you have in place to manage the hot weather?
Anna Reynolds
The most important step that we’re taking is to close our bushland reserves. We have a protocol to close them whenever there is an extreme fire weather day declared. That’s a preventative measure to ensure that there aren’t people walking or riding up in the mountain areas and up in our bushland areas and may not know about an impending fire. So it is a precautionary measure, but a really important one. Other than that we’re really just stay in very close touch with TFS and SES and we’re on alert in case they need our assistance in an emergency.
Journalist – unidentified
And how would you assist?
Anna Reynolds
We do have a team of of trained fire – I want to call them firefighters – fire crew. Yes, that’s better. So we do have a team, a fire crew team at the city of Hobart and they work in our bushland to reduce fuels and to manage the landscape for fire. And they work very closely with the Tas Fire Service and are available if required in an emergency as well.
Journalist – unidentified
Can you say how effective all those preventative measures are so far?
Anna Reynolds
We spend so much money on fuel reduction burns, manual removal of fuel, making our fire trails at really high quality. So we invest a huge amount of money in the prevention of fires in the City of Hobart. But if you have extreme weather, extreme fire weather days, very dry conditions like we have now, all that preparation is helpful, but it’s it’s not the main thing that we need to be careful of, it is that dangerous fire weather.
Journalist – unidentified
[inaudible]
Anna Reynolds
I think any time that we get this mix of very, very dry conditions, high winds and high temperatures, we all need to be on really high alert because we are a very bushfire prone city.
Journalist – unidentified
So do you have a message for Tasmanians about what they can do to help the situation and stay safe?
Anna Reynolds
Just follow the fire bans very, very clearly and and make sure that you’ve you’re really aware of what’s going. Keep checking the Tas Alerts app and just be really conscious of keeping an eye out for any changes that might happen during the day or the evening.
Tasmanian Times
May I ask about the stadium? Jeff Kennett’s intervention yesterday was to kind of reverse the model. So instead of a team based in Hobart playing some games Launceston, base it in Launceston and play some games in Hobart at an upgraded Bellerive Oval as I understand it. Would you be concerned that that would mean a loss of economic activity to Hobart?
Anna Reynolds
I haven’t read Jeff Kennett’s article so I’m not sure about the proposal in detail. But I think the the model that the government are looking at is for there to be the team playing in both locations. So I don’t see it as a huge change.
The council has made submissions about the precinct plan and also the kind of factors that need to be considered as part of the planning assessment so that’s really where we’re focused: how would this new facility fit within the city landscape? And that’s I guess been the main focus of of the city rather than this new opinion piece.
Amy Russell
Amy Russell.
Amy Russell, General Manager of the Wellington Park Management Trust,
Journalist – unidentified
Can you tell us why is it so important to secure extra funding for the mountain?
Amy Russell
There is no question the visitation to the mountain is growing. And one of the interesting things is all of the very high visitation figures that we quote actually exclude local users, which are the greater proportion of visitors. Of course, we have some locals who visit every single day. So the actual number of individual visits to the park are in the order of millions, in addition to those international and interstate tourists that we see come through.
In light of that there is an expectation that people will be provided for, especially on such a high profile attraction as kunanyi Mount Wellington and Wellington Park at large. And it is therefore important that we do meet their needs and meet their expectations.
Journalist – unidentified
What are some of the big things that the money will be going towards? What are some areas that really need some work done?
Amy Russell
Some of the key issues that the Trust has identified includes things like the connection of power to The Springs, that’s obviously a key enabling aspect for infrastructure development. We’re also looking at seeking additional funding support for the improvement of toilet facilities at The Springs as well. So really bringing up those basic amenities that visitors are seeking to use and to bring them up to par with what people are seeing in other national parks. Of course, Wellington Park sits outside the standard park and reserve framework in Tasmania being its own unique reserve under its own piece of legislation. In the absence of those conventional income streams, we do need to seek additional funding to make sure that we are able to keep up to speed with those other reserves,
Journalist – unidentified
Given that it is such a major tourism draw-card, does it just make sense that the government should be investing in it given how much money it is bringing into Hobart and Tasmania?
Amy Russell
The government is investing, certainly the Trust is part of that investment. But there is no question that the burden of investment for the for kunanyi Mount Wellington rests with council as the landowner as well. So I guess when Wellington Park was first established, and when the Trust was established, it was some 30 years ago. At that stage, we hadn’t seen the tourism boom in Tasmania, and we hadn’t seen this explosion of visitation which we’re now bearing the brunt of.
So it’s quite feasible that we start to look at that management framework and see if it does need to be contemporised so that there is more opportunity for all parties who are benefiting and using the park are able to contribute to its management and to the provision of those basic infrastructure assets.
Journalist – unidentified
Do you predict any push back from indigenous Tasmanian given the significance to them?
Amy Russell
It certainly is significant to indigenous Tasmanians, and the Trust is working very closely with members of the palawa community as part of our management plan review process as well. That includes looking at some of the stories and the songs that they have associated with it, the lore of the mountain, so looking at those intangible values. They are going to be coming forward with their position and what their key values are for Wellington Park and the mountain. And that’s something we’re looking to accommodate in the next version of the Wellington Park Management Plan, which is due for release in 2026.
Tasmanian Times
Just on that, there was an Aboriginal Reconciliation Report tabled in Parliament. Unfortunately, the authors don’t come to mind. That included a proposal to create two new national parks, one based on kooparoona niara and the other based on kunanyi. How does the trust view a potential proposal to convert the existing Wellington Park reserve into a national park?
Amy Russell
There’s no question that there has been plenty of discussion around the conversion of kunanyi Mount Wellington and Wellington Park to National Park. It is complicated by the mosaic of tenures that are in place across the park, it’s not one single land holder that would need to be negotiated with. Having said that we are cognisant of the fact that there is Aboriginal interest in the park at large and we are working with them at the moment to identify those key aspects. So it’s the key values, significant sites and areas of interest to Aboriginal people, which is what our act allows us to accommodate. And working out how we can best facilitate their return to country and their access to Wellington Park for cultural needs, for potential Aboriginal commercial interests, whatever it is that they’re seeking to do. The trust is aiming to facilitate that as part of our responsibility to ensuring that everyone has access to the park.
Media release – City of Hobart, 22 February 2024
City of Hobart’s strategic advocacy in 2024 State Election
The City of Hobart is gearing up for the 2024 State Election with a strategic and collaborative approach to advocacy, aimed at ensuring that Hobart’s needs are properly recognised in policy and funding decisions at state level.
Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds emphasised the crucial role of advocacy in securing a prosperous future for the city.
“Our advocacy priorities reflect the pressing issues facing our city and align with our vision for a vibrant, resilient, and sustainable Hobart,” Cr Reynolds said.
“We are committed to addressing these priorities through practical partnerships and innovative solutions.”
In July last year, the Hobart City Council endorsed an updated Intergovernmental relations Framework and Advocacy Strategy 2023-2027 which aims to enhance the City’s ongoing relationships with other levels of government and improve the City’s capacity to advocate for decisions and resources that meet the needs of the Hobart community.
Cr Reynolds said the endorsed advocacy priorities for the City of Hobart included:
- Addressing Housing Access and Affordability: “We aim to increase the supply of appropriate housing within the City through practical partnerships that align with state and national housing policies.”
- Boosting Hobart’s Antarctic and Science Sectors: “Investment in new Antarctic and science infrastructure will solidify Hobart’s status as the premier gateway to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.”
- Accelerating Climate Action: “Urgent action and investment at state and national levels are crucial to mitigate climate change and increase our city’s resilience.”
- Investing in Community-based Sports Facilities: “Maximizing the value of proposed government investments in sports infrastructure will enhance community well-being and engagement.”
- Unlocking Hobart’s Potential as a Visitor Destination: “Strategic investment in key sites and collaboration with local industry will further establish Hobart as a premier visitor destination.”
- Diversifying Transport Options: “Investment in transport infrastructure is essential to promote sustainable and accessible transport options.”
In line with these priorities, the City of Hobart is calling on both the Tasmanian and Australian Governments to invest in key visitor infrastructure at kunanyi/Mt Wellington.
Cr Reynolds underscored the significance of this investment, noting that the site attracts 400,000 visitors annually, with projections to reach 700,000 in the next decade.
“Just like Cradle Mountain and Freycinet, improving the visitor experience of kunanyi/Mount Wellington is an issue of state importance,” Cr Reynolds said.
Wellington Park Management Trust general manager Amy Russell said the Trust supports the City of Hobart’s call for master planning and infrastructure investment for kunanyi/Mount Wellington and was also seeking support for this through the next State Budget.
“The Trust’s 2024-25 State Budget submission proposes the development an alternative management framework for Wellington Park, and critical investment in power connection and toilet facilities at The Springs,” Ms Russell said.
“Wellington Park is a unique reserve, cobbled together from land parcels of different ownership. Because of this complexity, it is governed by its own piece of legislation, and sits outside of the normal funding streams assigned to Tasmanian reserves.
“Instead, landowners such as the City of Hobart, which owns the land including kunanyi / Mount Wellington, are left to resource and maintain what has become Tasmania’s most visited natural attraction.”
Destination Southern Tasmania chief executive Alex Heroys said there were scarce destinations worldwide where one can encounter such pristine wilderness and breathtaking natural beauty within a brief drive from a bustling capital city.
“kunanyi/Mt Wellington holds a special place in the hearts of both visitors and residents, emphasising the importance of thoughtfully investing in infrastructure that enhances the natural experience, encourages dispersion throughout the mountain, and highlights its remarkable offerings,” Mr Heroys said.
“kunanyi is an important part of the nature-based offering that creates demand for visitation to Tasmania.
“The mountain has long suffered from a lack of investment relevant to its visitation and in comparison, to other natural areas of our state.
“It is time for us to prepare for the future, have an overarching plan and ensure that the visitor experience matches the expectation of our local community and visitors.”
The proposed investment includes:
- Master plan to allow for integrated approach to planning and management of kunanyi/Mt Wellington. ($300,000)
- Electronic sign to provide safety information. ($350,000)
- Wellington Park entry roundabout. ($900,000)
- Pinnacle Road guard rail – stage 3 & Springs to Bracken Lane. ($9m)
- Pinnacle toilet. ($800,000)
- Pinnacle boardwalk. ($1m)
- Springs power and drinking water services. ($1m)
- Springs new toilets and surrounding infrastructure. ($1m)
- Upgrade and extend Pipeline Track. ($1.05m)
- The provision of contemporary safe visitor facilities including parking and access solutions that manage the capacity constraints increasingly experienced on kunanyi/Mt Wellington e.g. Halls Saddle or alternative. ($20m)
“The provision of contemporary, safe visitor facilities, including parking and access solutions, is paramount to managing the increasing visitor numbers sustainably,” Cr Reynolds said.
