Hobart Residents Are Trying To Stop A Cable Car Tearing Into A Sacred, High-Risk Mountain Site
The battle to protect kunanyi/Mount Wellington has been going on for years.
Local residents have called on the City of Hobart to stop a cable car proposal that would damage Mount Wellington in Tasmania, otherwise known by its dual name ‘kunanyi’.
Its approval, to be decided in four weeks’ time, would go against the wishes of conservationists, environmentalists, and the Indigenous palawa group in the area.
The $54 million proposal was brought forward by the Mount Wellington Cableway Company over two years ago, in an 800-page document that also includes a “fine-dining restaurant, all-day cafe, craft bar and a ‘wind-sheltered rooftop amphitheatre’” at the top of the mountain, the ABC reported.
If it goes ahead, the “tallest cable car in the Southern Hemisphere” would run near the distinctive Organ Pipes attraction, creating concern over how mass tourism, and the sale of public reserve land, will affect the sacred site.
kunyani / Mt Wellington gleams, lit from the north east on a perfect autumn day break, towering over #Hobart. Please please #nocablecar pic.twitter.com/RJ9VS8ZdHY
— Matthew Allen (@xnetcrit) May 23, 2021
“kunanyi is a constant companion to the people of nipaluna/Hobart,” Josh Pringle from Keep Tassie Wild told Junkee. “Her forested slopes are a refuge from the city, a place of healing, a place to walk or sit or explore. She is a powerful symbol of what makes lutruwita/Tasmania so damn special.”
“If we can’t stop MWCC adding more concrete and steel to the beautiful alpine gardens of the pinnacle, and running [shuttle] bus-sized cable cars over the majestic dolerite columns of the Organ Pipes, then what hope do we have for all that lies beyond?” Pringle said.
In order to bring the cable car to life, a community of protected yet endangered trees would need to be knocked over to build a road for the development, threatening high priority species living in the vegetation.
Proposed cableway route near the Organ Pipes. Image supplied.
Additionally, it’s feared the bright lights and noise impact coming from the multi-level commercial complex at the top of the mountain would wreak havoc on the surrounding area at night.
“It’s all about converting what is currently a relatively wild and natural experience into a private, profit-making venture that is channelling people into consumption, indoor comforts, and a whole range of other desires,” said Vica Bayley, a volunteer spokesperson for Residents Opposed To The Cable Car On kunanyi.
He acknowledged to Junkee that there are known transport issues around the mountain right now, but the conversation needs to be around sustainable solutions, such as electric buses, visitor centres, and an upgraded road instead — ideas that just aren’t attractive to investors.
It’s basically access to some of Hobart’s most iconic and, as of yet, undeveloped real estate…
This isn’t the first time developers have pushed for a cable car there, with proposals for aerial transportation there being raised for over a hundred years. The back-and-forth needed to meet all the requirements for a go-ahead has thwarted MWCC since their proposal launch in 2014.
In May, Hobart City Council accepted the company’s development application, with representations to hear from the general public only having just closed on June 22.
What those planning on building the kunanyi/Mt Wellington cable car forget is that most visitors to Tasmania hire cars and so won't engage in the added expense of paying to ride it to the pinnacle for a view degraded by a cable car. #NoCableCar #auspol
— SEWER KING (@JelCastragigo) June 7, 2021
It’s a recurring pipe dream backed by the state Liberal party, some residents concerned about the current transport limitations, and lobbyists.
“They want this because it’s basically access to some of Hobart’s most iconic and, as of yet, undeveloped real estate,” Bayley said.
“This is not just about getting people to the top, have a nice time up there in the wind, and then come down again.”
Bayley, who is also an advisor to the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, sees the cable car as a land grab with colonial underpinnings around “taming, conquering, and profiting from the landscape.”
“For 200 years, we as non-Aboriginal community have been using a lack of evidence of occupation as an excuse to appropriate land, crush culture in Tasmania, murder, and actively dislocate people from their land — it’s Terra Nullius.
MWCC appealed on having to conduct an on-site Aboriginal Heritage assessment in February.
The evasion was rejected, and they eventually ran one to look for physical artefacts in the belief that ‘evidence of occupation’ is the only way to claim Indigenous significance, disregarding any form of cultural and spiritual heritage.
Their report findings, which were overseen by a South Australian consulting group, claimed the development ‘does not involve an Aboriginal heritage site’.
“They’ve brought in an archaeologist not even from Tasmania, but from another state, and this individual hasn’t even bothered to step outside of his own process and talk to Aboriginal people in Tasmania about what our values are,” Sharnie Read from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre told ABC Radio Hobart.
Bayley said there were 6000 submissions to Council via a linked portal his advocacy group created, but says it’s not a numbers game.
“It shouldn’t be about a popularity contest necessarily, it’s about what’s actually right,” he said.
May 2019 Protest. Image Supplied.
“You’ve got First Nations people saying for the last seven years or so, ‘no way, never ever’. You’ve got a whole range of local residents saying ‘no way, never ever’ — in my view, the precautionary principle should prevail.”
Now all concerned parties are anticipating the upcoming final decision. As far as next steps, Council is currently considering all the representations brought to them and will make a call on July 27.
We want this thing refused and then we don’t want it to come back again…
Bayley hopes the outcome not only throws out this development, but safeguards kunanyi from future threats as well, with the knowledge that MWCC will likely appeal if the vote doesn’t fall in their favour.
“We want this thing refused and then we don’t want it to come back again, because there’s massive amounts of time and effort being put in by the community to defend their mountain,” he said.
Junkee reached out Hobart City Council and Mount Wellington Cableway Company for comment.