Alex Bainbridge, Hobart

The Save Ralphs Bay campaign won a major victory on September 2 when the Walker Corporation announced that it would not proceed with the development.

Walker proposed to develop a luxury housing estate with canals at Ralphs Bay, east of Hobart. The development would have destroyed a nature conservation area.

The Save Ralphs Bay campaign has, over the last 18 months, mobilised broad community opposition to what it described as an “insensitive, inappropriate” development. While the Walker Corporation cited unspecified “commercial” reasons for dropping its proposal, the real reason was that the Save Ralphs Bay campaign succeeded in building up public pressure against the development. Four opinion polls all found that a large majority in the community opposed the scheme.

Walker had been seeking “project of state significance” status from the state government, which would have smoothed its way through local planning regulations. State cabinet discussed the issue twice, most recently on August 15. On both occasions the politicians avoided taking the hard decision, apparently because of opposition from Labor parliamentarians who faced losing their seats if the project went ahead.

On August 30, the state Liberals — still recovering from their disastrous results in the last election — came out publicly against the Walker proposal. This was immediately hailed by business leaders and establishment commentators as a “bad signal to business”. However, as the party’s deputy leader Will Hodgman said, “there may be seats in it” for the Liberals.

Premier Paul Lennon responded immediately by declaring that Labor would grant the “project of state significance” status, thereby overruling state cabinet. However, this was not enough to save Walker’s proposal. The local campaign proved that, with enough determination and community support, it is possible to have victories against governments and corporations.

From Green Left Weekly, September 7, 2005.
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