Ralph's Bay still threatened

On June 30, 45 people met to prepare the next phase of the Save Ralph's Bay (SRB) action group's campaign against a proposed canal housing estate being built by the Walker Corporation, owned by billionaire Lang Walker, inside the publicly owned Ralphs Bay Conservation Area, in the Derwent river estuary.

The development proposal has been declared a Project of State Significance, which means it will go through an independent assessment by the Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC).

Issues raised by the development's opponents include the potential for heavy metal contamination of the Derwent, threats to migratory and resident shorebirds and the critically endangered Spotted Handfish, the value of saltmarsh habitats, community and aesthetic impacts.

The SRB also argues that the area is a high wind zone and not suitable for a housing development.

The SRB is encouraging its supporters to write letters to the Hobart Mercury calling on the Tasmanian Labor government not to remove the Walker proposal from the RPDC process, as Premier Paul Lennon has done with Gunns Ltd's widely unpopular $1.5 billion pulp mill project in the Tamar Valley in northern Tasmania.

For more information about SRB, visit http://www.saveralphsbay.org.

From GLW issue 717