Cliff Top Walk

Save the Grange Beach cliff top walk!

Between Grange Beach and Flinders Esplanade North, there is a delightful, short track along the cliff top, behind Utiekah Drive. The walk is on a Public Reserve and has magnificent views of the river and down to the mouth of the Derwent. The track links to other sections of the foreshore walks in Taroona, enabling residents and others to enjoy our marvellous water views.

 

 

This track, used by local residents young and old for decades, has now been deemed "dangerous" by Crown Lands Services, and was closed in August 2011. This is despite the fact that no-one - not from Crown Lands, not from Kingborough Council, nor any of the residents I have talked to - can remember any mishaps on the track. Kingborough Council have removed the steps at the Grange Beach end of the track.

It would seem we are now being given no choice as to what level of risk we are prepared to take - even the very minor risks associated with this track. By far the most common remark we heard, in collecting signatures for a petition to Council to reopen the track, was that "we are turning into a nanny state".

One more community asset in Taroona has disappeared, possibly forever - unless we protest. Many Taroona residents are upset and angered by this closure. 

Crown Lands have washed their hands of this track - they will not do anything to reopen it. However, they will allow Kingborough Council to do so, if they upgrade and maintain it. Since the Council has previously done considerable work on the track, including building a substantial pedestrian bridge, this is the most desirable outcome.

We are concerned for the future of our Taroona Tracks

If you care for this track and many other tracks around Taroona and Kingborough that are threatened by similar "risk management" decisions, we urge you to contact:

Crown Lands: Daniel Gillie

email:  Daniel.Gillie@dpipwe.tas.gov.au

phone 6233 5640

GPO Box 44, Hobart, Tasmania 7001

Kingborough Council: ask for your message to be forwarded to the Mayor and Councillors

General Manager Paul West

email: kc@kingborough.tas.gov.au

phone: 6211 8200

Locked Bag 1, Kingston, TAS, 7050

Here are some points you can make...

... but please feel free to add your own!

• The track is a community asset that has been used safely for decades.
• The track is on a waterfront public reserve, that should be kept open to the public - ‘a window on the Derwent'.
• Placing a sign that draws attention to the possible risks and states that you walk at your own risk would have been a much better solution.
• Many other facilities available to the public are at risk if such stringent conditions are applied - it is a worrying precedent.
• Crown Lands and the Council should be protecting public assets, not closing them.
• Kingborough Council has done considerable work on this track in the past, and should continue to support it.
• The track is part of the vision of a continuous foreshore walk in Taroona on Crown and Council land.

For more information

Contact Anna Majdanska and Tim Sprod:

email: anna_majdanska@hotmail.com

phone: 6227 8785