The Wild Drake proposal - Make a submission

The Wild Drake proposal would have a profound impact on this area, fails to meet the criteria set out in the Management Plan for the World Heritage Area, and remains shrouded in secrecy.

Please read the material on this page, use the submission guide and then send a submission via the contact details below.

Send your submission to one of the following:

Email: [email protected]

Fax: 02 6274 1620

Post:

Referrals Gateway Environment Assessment Branch Department of the Environment GPO Box 787 Canberra ACT 2601

Resources to help you make your submission

The Wild Drake submission is on this page. It contains details of what is proposed to be built.

This page explains how to make an effective public submission.

Key points

The Wilderness Society is waiting on more information to finalise its detailed submission. But there’s enough already known to make a quick submission that points out the key flaws in the referral.

Use some of the key points below to make your submission.

• The proposal is likely to have a significant impact on World Heritage Values—considered ‘Matters of National Environmental Significance’ under the law. As such the Wild Drake proposal should be rejected outright.
• If the referral is not rejected outright, it should be deemed a ‘controlled action’ and subject to further assessment.
• The proposal is inconsistent with the Tasmania’s Wilderness Word Heritage Area (TWWHA) Management Plan, which allows only standing camps in the self-reliant recreation zone. The referral describes the project as far more than a standing camp, with hut and multiple other buildings proposed to be constructed from timber and steel.
• Additionally, the TWWHA Management Plan states that any “new tracks or reroutes” should only be for “environmental/management purposes only” (p79). The proposal details new tracks that are for tourism/recreation in the self-reliant recreation zone and wilderness zone.
• The proposal would have a negative impact on mapped wilderness values, a World Heritage value and significant component of Outstanding Universal Value, important for the maintenance of the integrity of the TWWHA. Lake Malbena is of high wilderness value and huts and commercial  helicopter access degrade wilderness.
• The project’s negative impact on wilderness also contradicts the legislated management objective for national parks, as detailed under the National Parks and Reserves Management Act (2002), which lists “to preserve the natural, primitive and remote character of wilderness areas” as a management objective.
• The proposal is shrouded in secrecy, with the full, state-based Reserve Activity Assessment (RAA) withheld from public release. Until the RAA is fully released, genuine community consultation for this referral is impossible.
• Private, commercial tourism accommodation is not currently an “existing use” of Halls Island and Lake Malbena and it is not, and has never been, the destination of private commercial helicopter flights with the sole purpose of transporting paying customers.