SRB News

Our November 2006 newsletter is out - THREE GOOD WAYS TO HELP SAVE RALPHS BAY

You can download the newsletter as a 136Kb PDF here.

The Ralphs Bay, Tasmania 2007 calendar and cards from Save Ralphs Bay Inc. are on sale now!

Save Ralphs Bay Inc has produced a stylish 2007 Calendar plus cards featuring iconic images of our precious bay and its wildlife just in time for Christmas and gifts.  Sales of this calendar and cards will help with our continuing fundraising efforts for Save Ralphs Bay Inc.

You can download a PDF preview version of the calendar here (NOTE THIS IS A 1.7MB PDF DOWNLOAD) and a PDF preview of the cards here (NOTE THIS IS A 307KB PDF DOWNLOAD).

The calendar and cards are available directly from Save Ralphs Bay:

DOWNLOAD THE ORDER FORM HERE - 184KB PDF

and is available online for credit card users via the ThisTasmania store.

The calendar is also now available from selected outlets around Tasmania (such as Fullers, Book City, Angus & Robertsons, Hobart Book Shop, Wilderness Shop Salamanca, plus shops around Lauderdale, Cremorne, and the South Arm Peninsula) but to avoid disappointment please use the order form and we will ensure that you will receive your calendar and/or card order by return post.

Also - Why not help the Bay and sell to your friends and colleagues? Simply download the ‘Your Organisation’ order form (221KB PDF), take the orders, collect the funds, and email us for a calendar delivery to your nominated Hobart address. For organisations outside of Hobart, we will arrange something by phone.

You can email us about these and other sales matters at .

Our October 2006 newsletter is out - COMMUNITY TO FIGHT FOR RALPHS BAY IN THE R.P.D.C.

You can download the newsletter as a 352Kb PDF here.

The Resource Planning and Development Commission (RPDC) has recommended to Planning Minister, Steve Kons, that an assessment should be undertaken into a statewide canal estate ban across local government planning schemes.

Under the Land Use Planning Approvals Act (LUPAA) 1993, Save Ralphs Bay Inc. lodged a Draft Planning Directive with the RPDC in August to prohibit canal estates in Tasmania, consistent with a canal estate ban in the Kingborough Planning Scheme 2000 (see attached).  Under LUPAA, the RPDC is required to work towards consistency across Tasmania’s local government planning schemes and Save Ralphs Bay Inc argues that the bar now needs to be set higher in order to protect Tasmania’s coastal values.

If implemented, this Draft Planning Directive would not affect the Walker Project of State Signficance (PoSS) assessment for Tasmania’s first canal estate development, in Ralphs Bay.  A PoSS over-rides local government planning schemes.  It would however, set an important benchmark for future coastal management in Tasmania.

’The Government feels the promenade would create a high level of division in the community and would, undoubtedly, involve a lengthy and adversarial planning process.’

Well, of course, Ralphs Bay came to mind ...

Without even a hint of irony, and I couldn’t see any sign his tongue was wedged into his cheek, the Premier told journalists that this was a “pet project” of the Liberals, that local residents didn’t wanted their foreshore spoiled with an “unsightly footpath”, that Battery Point should not be “polluted” with a concrete walkway.

The proponents of Tasmania’s first canal housing estate in Ralphs Bay seem prepared to cynically exploit poor sewage infrastructure in Lauderdale, and the Clarence Council’s apparent willingness to shirk its responsibility to fully fund the necessary upgrade, Save Ralphs Bay Inc. said today.

SRB Inc communications’ coordinator, Cassy O’Connor, said residents should not be misled by the developer’s statement that it would fund the sewage pipeline from Rokeby to Lauderdale. 

“Walker Corporation proposes to pay for the pipeline only to its intended canal estate development, NOT to the residents of Lauderdale itself.

Dear Ralphies and supporters

It has been a two week rollercoaster ride for SRB Inc. in both Houses of State Parliament and, last Thursday, at Parliament House in Canberra.

The upshot of it is, we are bound for the RPDC and a Project of State Significance (PoSS) assessment, but WITH the Ralphs Bay Conservation Area as we know it, intact. Thanks to the concerted lobbying of Legislative Councillors - and the brave resistance of Labor MLCs, Lin Thorp, Allison Ritchie and Terry Martin - the Lennon Government did not succeed in removing the sandflats from the Conservation Area. That’s a huge plus. Now it will be up to the proponent to convince the RPDC, against all the weight of available science, that the 90 hectares Walker wants is of negligible conservation value. It’s going to be difficult for them, but we’ve also got to make sure by being super organised and effective in gathering together the evidence and experts for our case.

I have been asked to advise on a number of matters associated with the proposed Ralph’s Bay Area (Clarification) Bill 26 of 2006.

Download the PDF of the Kerr legal opinion here (109kb PDF)