Proposed Great Lake Adventure Trail

[robl]

What do people think? Is it feasible? Would people walk this track? Shack owners have mixed feelings about it.

https://greatlakeadventuretrail.com.au/

https://connect.hydro.com.au/proposed-g ... gn=website

Associated with the below.

https://www.realestate.com.au/news/cent ... ake-hotel/

[biggbird]

First I've heard of this one. Not sure about the environmental impacts etc of the proposed trail, but I would be keen to ride it more than walk it I reckon. Just seems like it would be a bit of a boring walk, but maybe I haven't spent enough time around there.

[MrWalker]

I've walked over halfway round the lake and the shoreline is not very exciting, except in short sections, but some tracks through the bush are quite interesting. There seems to be a bit too much emphasis on being close to the shore, rather than making use of the bush tracks that already exist. It would make an interesting bike ride, but not a great walk, without some alterations to the route.

[north-north-west]

It's a bike track; it's being promoted by a bunch of mainlander fly-ins who bought the Miena pub and are trying to take over the area. The locals are, virtually to a person, very much opposed, but the developers are being backed by the government (shades of Malbena).

yingina is better for watercraft than walking. Doubt I'd bother; there's really not much in the way of adventure walking around the shore and I notice they avoid one of the most interesting stretches, which is between Teds and Cramps.

[johnrs]

Yes as NNW has said there is a great deal of local opposition to this bike track proposal!
John

[Nuts]

I couldn't see why locals care, a few bikes going past on a degraded foreshore. but there ya go..

Don't know the other 'mainlander', the one I've met a few times grew up around Bronte (as I understood) and managed the DB hotel for a lot of years. If he supports further wilderness development (Halls Is) I disagree on that front, and can imagine that triggers some hate. But then, on the public front, a lot of people just don't care about that either. Probably not so much dislike from conservationists as that from some locals ie. the one who's gonna ''shoot them on sight', sigh, but probably enough to dismiss any positive outcomes.

i do like the concept of long distance bike trails, especially using resource-reserved crown land and linking existing tracks. They can benefit local users and regional economies. I'd imagine around the lake would be a bit boring.Maybe involvement in the Tassie trail, or enhancement, or extension would be better in many ways, it doesn't seem to get much local support either.

[north-north-west]

Some of the local objection may come from the way this has been done. There was no consultation, no advance warning, nothing of that nature; it has been presented to the community as a fait accompli. They have particularly and specifically gone out of their way to ignore and override any input from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Council and any concerns about potential impact on Aboriginal cultural sites.

As it's not an environmentally sensitive area (except possible effect on the Miena cider gums, which are in a precarious enough positiion as it is), I'm not entirely opposed to the concept provided it's a multi-use track and it doesn't affect current free access or the aforementioned Aboriginal heritage sites. But they have to have a transparent process, clear of any hint of corruption or special favours.

[johnrs]

Transparent process? No special favours?
What state do you think we are talking about?
Best wishes
John

[tastrax]

Probably looking for customers for places like this...

https://www.instagram.com/kuumasauna/
https://www.kuuma.com.au/

[Nuts]

Some of the local objection may come from the way this has been done. There was no consultation, no advance warning, nothing of that nature; it has been presented to the community as a fait accompli. They have particularly and specifically gone out of their way to ignore and override any input from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Council and any concerns about potential impact on Aboriginal cultural sites.

As it's not an environmentally sensitive area (except possible effect on the Miena cider gums, which are in a precarious enough positiion as it is), I'm not entirely opposed to the concept provided it's a multi-use track and it doesn't affect current free access or the aforementioned Aboriginal heritage sites. But they have to have a transparent process, clear of any hint of corruption or special favours.

well.. there is a consultation (linked) and there'll be an RAA.
but.. as we expect it will be geared from a mindset of getting the process done rather than done if there is no unexamined reasonable opposition to defer to.

For park and wilderness exclusive occupancy projects, for me, I don't want a consultation process, the answer is No.

Really, many projects should just not be possible. Parks should be able to concentrate on conservation and community not be the ministry for whacky ideas.

Other crown land though, reasonable use may be a way forward.. something other than just pure opposition or non-participation in future directions.

(not that I care less here about any individual's success in getting rich quick, even the focus on any one project seems a distraction)

[johnrs]

Absolutely agree Nuts
People are really pissed off while connected vested interests are well served.
Surely the Malbena mess would have taught Government something or do they want to go through it all over again?
Maybe starting with 1500 negative submissions to the beleagered folks at the Highlands Council?
John S

[north-north-west]

well.. there is a consultation (linked) and there'll be an RAA.

Yes, they have now started the usual CYA process, but they never dealt with the locals until the official annnouncement was made.
Go in behind the scenes, and it seems to have been an object lesson in how to *&^%$#! off the people you really want on your side.

[Nuts]

There have been signs against the bike track around the lake for at least 12mths, around the time I had a contact for guiding (and wasn't interested). So not shack owners or business, but I do suspect a group of locals that wont be happy, especially if the proponents/one of them has voiced support for insidious things like Malbena as well.. Without first-hand understanding of what has occurred, I suspect kid gloves or velvet gloves wouldn't matter up against passionate ideals.

[farefam]

As a mainland visitor I can't say that this proposal seems the least bit attractive to myself, even though I am a bushwalker, a paddler and a mountain biker. The scenery around Great Lake has always seemed quite bleak and uninteresting to me (and often cold!!!). If the locals are strongly opposed I expect that they probably have good reason (most likely privacy concerns in relation to their shacks) and I am happy to respect their wishes.

[headwerkn]

(For perspective, we have a shack on yingina/Great Lake. Other than a few signs around our corner of the lake, I've heard/seen/read virtually zero about all this until now.)

I suspect a lot of the current opposition - other than the usual kneejerk NIMBYism you get anywhere - is down to fears that somehow the area will end up like Derby or Maydena, and become completely swamped by MTBers and redefined by their needs/whims. And, subject to their behaviour which in a minority of cases isn't always gracious, respectful or appreciated by locals who were perfectly happy with their sleepy little backwater town as it was.

Putting aside the fact Great Lake isn't a singular town but a dozen-plus shack communities spread over a pretty huge area, I'm not really sure how a mostly flat lakeside track would appeal to that MTBer demographic, honestly.

Actually, I'm not really sure who it appeals to. eBike riders who appreciate flat expanses of water, eroded yellow-brown rock and the occasional patch of dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest? Seems like a limited market

The entire lake foreshore (save the dam walls) is perfectly walkable 99.9% of the time and there's no lack of old tracks about everywhere either. Plenty of people (presumably locals/shack owners) walk there and use them to launch boats already. As such I dare say privacy concerns might be a tad overblown though I'll reserve comment until seeing accurate plans as to where the track actually would go.

Admittedly there are some nicer patches of forest a track could weave through to make it sorta interesting (though a lot got burnt in 2019) but let's be honest, when people think of Tasmanian alpine scenery, they're not thinking about a large hydro-affected lake. Tasmania would certainly benefit from another novice-friendly multiday hike which I guess this *could be* but again, a 3-day lakeside wander isn't what the vast majority of people want to do. And it seems impossible to do such things these days just with simple, cleared tent sites, a couple of timber bench and a toilet. It's gotta be million-dollar bushfire resilient huts and the like...

I could think of worse places to do long runs on in summer, and perhaps the track would hold enough snow to make for a semi-interesting cross country ski route in winter, but I'm struggling to see the appeal of such a development. Let alone the economics to pay for it.

[Rexyviney36]

It's not hard to work out - the owners of the pub are the ones behind the MTB track.
I have a shack at Great Lake - the track proposal doesn't phase me at all.

[robl]

Some of the finer details are at the below link for 7 days. (wetransfer)

https://we.tl/t-x7aMehL5zh