UTAS: Letters to the Editor

UTAS is apparently loosing its shine as a corporate citizen and there is a risk that it will also loose its Social Licence too. In a way its not too surprising. In Launceston they have been trampling all over ratepayer's aspirations in concert with 'the Council'.

The with so much contention in the air UTAS just could not resist getting its hubris out and putting it on display in Hobart. So here are some of the responses they have drawn in The Mercury.

HOT TOPIC: FLANAGAN AND UNI’S CITY SHIFT 

Call a halt and reassess 
RICHARD Flanagan is right to point to the serious problems presented by the University of Tasmania’s handling of its decision to relocate into the CBD (Talking Point, April 20).

The university is “of Tasmania”, after all, with an obligation to engage with the Tasmanian community in an open and direct fashion, something it has not done so far.

Professor Black is an able champion of the need for the university to rethink and reshape itself, but he has inherited a management that has largely lost touch with the real values of education and research.

The shortcomings in the university’s proposal, the evident lack of genuine consultation, and the considerable opposition the proposal has generated ought to lead the university to call a halt to the current process, reassessing where it is and where it might be heading.

Jeff Malpas Grove 

Who gave permission? 
RICHARD Flanagan was spot on about Tas Uni moving into the city. I cannot believe Hobart City Council is incapable of seeing what is going to happen and identifying the consequences.

Who gives permission for Tas Uni to make the city centre a campus? Surely the council is responsible for managing the nature and atmosphere of Hobart.

Hobart’s traffic problems are the consequence of lack of foresight from some time back but if the university is allowed to colonise the city centre, all that traffic which currently parks at Sandy Bay will move into West and North Hobart displacing the people who work in the city but park in those suburbs just a walking distance from the city centre.

Already those suburbs are parked during working hours. I imagine students will park there overnight and cause further problems for residents who currently can’t park outside their own houses during the day.

Quite frankly I cannot imagine a student from overseas preferencing a university consisting of disconnected ugly office blocks and having no obvious cohesive centre over one situated at the existing site where students meet their peers in pleasant grounds.

The university has become a money-making machine and we the residents of Hobart are going to become collateral damage.

Bridget Landrell West Hobart.

Bees start buzzing 
THE move of UTAS to Hobart has been an issue that hasn’t caused the bees in my bonnet to buzz, until I saw that Richard Flanagan thinks it is a terrible idea.

I know a few people with work connections to UTAS and they are also scornful of the idea. As I ask around and read around, I discover it is progressing with the speed of an alpine avalanche, even though nearly everyone thinks it is a terrible idea, leading to the questions – why, and what is the hidden agenda? 

Keith Anderson Kingston

Launceston, too 
THE proposed move into central Hobart continues to confuse most of us.

The many questions asked by Richard Flanagan deserve answers. An almost parallel situation is evolving in Launceston where the university is proposing to move from its Newnham campus site to Inveresk, which adjoins the city centre.

The Inveresk site is very limited in area and sits on the crust of the ancient Invermay swamp, which is likely to liquefy with the next major Tamar Valley geological event, considered by some geologists to be long overdue.

Even today heavy transports vibrate grounds and buildings as they pass. In scale, location and logistics, the Newnham campus site is similar to the Sandy Bay site in many respects.

What is the truth behind the proposed moves? Is the plan to make easy access near impossible for most students, thereby forcing them to go online rather than attending on-site lectures thus creating more enrolments and an even greater profit, for whom?

Peter Anderson Launceston

That’s me gone 
THANK you, Richard Flanagan. I was privileged to know you many years ago, when you were a graduate assistant. I was also privileged to work at UTAS for over 25 years, and to study there as a mature- age student (nowadays very mature!) since 2005.

Having completed a degree in Antarctic Science I am enrolled in the university’s new Legal Studies degree, which is just fantastic and completion of which means a very great deal to me. However, for practical reasons, the day Law and Humanities move into the city will be the day I withdraw (very reluctantly) from the course. Please UTAS, re-think.

Christine Hurley Richmond 

QUICK VIEWS 
Benefit over boldness 
GOOD on you Richard Flanagan for expressing what many are thinking about the Tas Uni move (Talking Point, April 20). The patronising attitude of those in charge is sadly predictable and the hype and spin for the move has reached new levels of idiocy.

Everything, it appears, must be exciting, bold and groundbreaking instead of sensible, considered and of benefit to all Hobartians.

Tim Beaumont Hobart .

Can I leave my cave yet? 
WOULD some caring greenie please tell me when it will be safe to leave my cave where I sought refuge from the sun because of the expanding hole in the ozone layer. Or maybe I should stay put until some other disaster called nature takes over from climate change.

J. Pritchard Claremont

Richard Flanagan Speaks Up

Richard Flanagan has earned the authority to give his university a serve, a well deserved serve, and when he does he speaks with an authority respected far and wide. He is never backward in coming forward to tell it like it is and from a wider perspective than the position self-serving institutions typically assert/deem their 'rightness' from.

UTas in the Mercury's contributions to the debate to do with their aspiration, self-indulgent and ill-conceived aspirations, to shift camp and apparently on little more than a whim and informed by something at best that might be an 'intuition', a 'feeling in the waters', that seems to go something like "if we do something then something will happen somehow" – not too dissimilar to betting everything on black in a roulette game.

Even now in the 21st Century academic institutions, especially so for universities, would do well to take note  of Immanuel Kant when he said “thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.” Nothing would seem so blind, or indeed so empty, as to operate upon a whim plucked from 'the winds of failing fortunes' in some hollow hope that 'things will get better somehow' while one holds a wet finger aloft.

In any event if when you read The Mercury's 'Flanagan articles' you swap Launceston for Hobart you'll recognise the basic story being told. Click here to read the articles.

FITCH QUESTIONS & RESPONSES APRIL 18 20190 – UTAS & GOVT FUNDING

Basil Fitch put a series of questions to Council in regard to issues around which there is either some ambiguity or avoidance of discussing them around the table and on the record. Arguably all these question should/could have been ask by Councillors in open council. For whatever reason there is a reluctance for Council to be transparent and accountable in regard to a range of issues of interest to ratepayers et al.

The questions and their responses are recorded here to to enable them to be more accessible to anyone researching matters related.

COUNCIL AGENDA Thursday 18 April 2019 7.1.1 

Public Questions on Notice - Mr Basil Fitch - 8 April 2019 FILE NO: SF6381

AUTHOR: Anthea Rooney (Committee Clerk) 

GENERAL MANAGER: Michael Stretton (General Manager) QUESTIONS and RESPONSES:

The following question/questions were submitted to Council on 8 April 2019 by Mr Basil Fitch and have been answered by Mr Michael Stretton (General Manager). 

Questions have been typed as they were received.

Question 1. Will Council please reveal the true and irrefutable facts in regard to Infrastructure Australia’s commitment to provide $150 Million towards UTas’s proposed relocation to Inveresk under the guise of UTas’s Northern Transformation?

Response: Whilst this question is more appropriately answered by the Australian Government or the University of Tasmania (UTAS), the Australian Government has committed $150 million investment into the Northern Transformation Project (NTP) to relocate the Launceston and Burnie University campuses.

Question 2. Given that there is any such a commitment when was it announced by Infrastructure Australia and how secure might the commitment be regarded as being?

Response: The Australian Government investment in the Launceston component of the NTP was announced bi-laterally at the last federal election. It was formalised as part of the Launceston City Deal and is formally contracted with UTAS via a Grant Deed. City of Launceston. 

Question 3. Is it the case that Infrastructure Australia itself, and alone, determines commitments exceeding $100 Million?.

Response: The following extract from Infrastructure Australia (IA) outlines its role. IA evaluates decisions on behalf of the Government who ultimately make the final determination. “Infrastructure Australia will undertake evaluations of project proposals that are nationally significant or where funding of more than $100 million is sought from the Commonwealth. This includes infrastructure proposals across all sectors, but excludes defence proposals.”

Question 4. Is it the case, as has been suggested, that Infrastructure Australia may not consider UTas’s Northern Transformation as appropriate infrastructure to be funded from within its budget and in accord with its priorities? 

Response: Infrastructure Australia does not allocate investment. IA assesses projects to inform Government decisions. 

Question 5. Has the Prime Minister made any firm and secure forward commitments in regard to ‘City Deal funding’ for Launceston in recent days/weeks? 

Response: Yes. The Federal Budget included $45 million (as well as $45 million from the State Government) for implementation of the Tamar River Health Action Plan which is a Launceston City Deal commitment. 

Question 6. Given Prof Adams’ reported understanding in the press that UTas has secured Infrastructure Australia’s $150 Million commitment towards UTas’s Northern Transformation planning, does this ‘understanding’ have any prospect of having real and reliable standing in the case of any possible outcome in the upcoming Federal election? 

Response: The funding from the Australian Government has already been committed via a formal Grant Deed with UTAS.

Question 7. Has Council estimated and quantified the ancillary infrastructure imposts that are likely to flow from UTas being able to realise its ‘staged development’ under its projected Northern Transforma tion aspirations - short and long term? 

Response:The Council has a clear understanding of the infrastructure requirements associated with the proposed re-location, including parking, people movement and stormwater/sewer (etc)

Question 8. Given that UTas is able to proceed with its Northern Transformation, by whatever means, has Council considered any planning constraints that it will impose upon the developments to mitigate against spiralling costs, given that UTas is a non-ratepaying ‘service soak’?

Response: The cost of the NTP is a matter for UTAS to answer, not the Council. However, it should be noted that the project will need to demonstrate compliance with the Launceston interim planning scheme. 

Question 9. In regard to ‘City Heart developments’, currently what are the unplanned cost overruns attributable to the projects on a project by project basis? 

Response: There have been no cost overruns with the City Heart projects. The three major projects: Quadrant Mall, Civic Square and Brisbane Street Mall re-developments have all been delivered within their respective budget allocations.

Question 10. What are the consequences to ratepayers flowing from these overruns and what mitigation is under ‘active consideration’ to alleviate any potential fiscal stress upon ratepayers? 

Response: Nil - refer answer to question 9.

Question 11. What are the major impediments to a positive future outlook flowing from the City Heart developments that constituents have identified and consequently what ‘community engagement activities’ is Council, and are Councillors, actively promoting and participating in to address the issues being identified?

Response:.Firstly, it should be acknowledged that the Civic Square re-development has been an overwhelming success in creating an active and dynamic public space which our community are using in a wide variety of ways. The increasing number of events held in the space, together with the increased day-to-day usage of the space by community members, is testament to all that the City Heart Project is seeking to achieve. Of course, the Council will continue to work to activate this space in new and interesting ways in the future and this will involve various forms of community engagement in the future. In respect to the Brisbane Street Mall redevelopment, the Council is in the process of completing an internal review of the project and this may result in a further community engagement approach around various design elements of this project.

Prof Rufus Black Plays Another Card

This turned up yesterday. Also an item on ABC TV news yesterday with the smiling VC. And for those with nothing else to do, a New Game: "VC! Pick the Vocab  Crap!" Instructions - find as many buzz words as you can. Give yourself 

one point per word. Add up the number of points, You win! so give 

yourselves a clap!

NB: Tis might just turn out to be 'FAKE NEWS' AND you will all note that UTAS will "pay its way in Hobart' whereas Launcestonioans have been screwed over by their Council and UTAS. Launceston gifts UTas land now worth $10Million plus and not a word about paying its way as in Hobart. 

NB: NO SUCH COMMITMENT TO PAY RATES IN LAUNCESTON NOT A SAUSAGE ALL COST FALL UPON THE RATEPAYERS

The good Prof Black is talked about elsewhere as "an ethicist", so there is another game you can play. Find the "moral compass in all this" and when you've done so, use it to find the "ethics." 

BTW: click here for the VC'S letter to his underlings!

ABC REPORT: Click Here

GOOD LUCK AND CAREFUL READING!!

FROM ...................... https://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/university-of-tasmania-makes-call-on-city-move/news-story/489fb885cef187594a22736f3c47a478?utm_source=The%20Mercury&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial

University of Tasmania commits to $600m move into Hobart CBD JIM ALOUAT and JAMES KITTO, Mercury April 5, 2019 5:52pm ...................... IN a move destined to change the Hobart CBD forever, the University of Tasmania will move away from its Sandy Bay campus and consolidate its future in the city....................... The game-changing plan will see UTAS develop a city-centric campus in the heart of Hobart during the next 10 to 15 years. It will cost the university $600 million to build its new campus....................... UTAS EXAMINES ‘CITY-CENTRIC’ MODEL IN HOBART...................... UTAS TO REVIEW CAMPUS SITE OPTIONS...................... The campus will run from the original home of the university at the Domain, along Melville St. At the heart of the inner-city campus will be a new central library and public square at the former Webster building and carpark bounded by Melville, Argyle and Bathurst streets....................... In a relief to many, the university will also enter an agreement with Hobart City Council to pay general rates on all its existing and future inner-city buildings for the next decade....................... The decision was announced late on Friday afternoon after a meeting of the UTAS Council in Burnie....................... ttps://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/729c3d69e84cdc17809ce6f561157737?width=1024 The University of Tasmania’s Sandy Bay campus....................... University Chancellor Michael Field said the university had decided on a long-term strategic direction to shift to the city....................... “This will be a long, thorough and deliberative process....................... “We will consult carefully along the way to produce a campus which is a source of great pride for both our university community and the people of greater Hobart.”...................... UTAS will act as steward for the existing Sandy Bay campus land into the future....................... In reaching its decision, the university weighed up two broad directions: the city-centric approach and a distributed model....................... The distributed model would have cost the university $575 million under which ageing Sandy Bay operations would be redesigned and rebuilt in a smaller footprint on the lower part of the existing campus....................... Two-thirds of the Sandy Bay buildings need replacement because of poor ratings for “building condition and functionality”, according to university documents....................... UTAS will retain ownership of the Sandy Bay campus and has plans for its future too. Vice-Chancellor Professor Rufus Black said it would invest in the Sandy Bay campus as a home for its students for the next decade. “In the long term, it will stay as the home for our sporting facilities, accommodation and specialist research facilities. “We will develop it over the long run so it has an appropriate mix of institutions, housing and preserves the green spaces.” ttps://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/4d1ad5f7998b6b885bcaef45a3841ba4?width=650A  map showing the proposed new University of Tasmania precincts. Professor Black said a critical factor in its decision was allowing students living across New Norfolk, Brighton/Bridgewater, Midway Point, Glenorchy and Huonville better access to the uni....................... “University council members saw that as very important,” he said. “It’s critical that more Tasmanians have access to higher education at all stages of life,”...................... The university already owns a significant amount of real estate in central Hobart....................... In the past four years, the uni has spent almost $80 million across properties on Argyle St and Melville St, the former Forestry building and the MidCity, Fountainside and Theatre Royal hotels....................... It has its media school, medicine school, a future performing arts centre and the School of Nursing and Midwifery in the Hobart city precinct. MORE UTAS NEWS:...................... UTAS SPLASHES THE CASH IN BUYING SPREE...................... ‘SIMPLIFICATION AGENDA’ IN UTAS’ SAVINGS BID STUDENTS CHALLENGED EVEN BEFORE CLASS STARTS Professor Black says a city campus would enhance the Hobart CBD and be great for city businesses....................... “It will bring a large number of people into the city for a 24/7 period,” he said. “I think it will help the city sustain and grow.” Reactions have been largely positive to the move....................... Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds welcomed the news, in particular the university’s 10-year commitment to pay general rates for all its inner-city properties....................... “It provides the council and Hobart community confidence that the university is going to pay its way investing in public infrastructure that will be needed to support this move into the city,” she said. “As Lord Mayor I have discussed with Vice-Chancellor Black the need for a clear agreement on city planning and the adequate funding of infrastructure, so I welcome his comments....................... “It is important that we continue to work together to meet the future requirements of the city.” ttps://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/12814aa60167a2051268724162432a5c?width=1024Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds has welcomed UTAS’s proposed move and its commitment to pay general rates. Picture: PATRICK GEE Professor Black said the University would now consult with stakeholders to help inform its detailed masterplanning and building design. “Our first step on this journey will be to pause, to listen to our Aboriginal community and ensure our new campus honours the values and history of our first people,” Professor Black said....................... Professor Black said concerns surrounding traffic management, parking and access to family services such as child care would be addressed. Tasmania University Union state council president Sharifah Zaliah Syed-Rohan called on UTAS to continue to consult with students....................... “This consultation must be student-centric and sincerely reflect the diverse perspectives and needs of our student body,” she said. “We believe that the new facilities must be purpose-built to ensure that our students are able to work and study in an environment that facilitates their development and educational demands.” \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Cautious welcome for UTAS's city move THERE are pros and cons to the University of Tasmania’s impending shift from Sandy Bay to Hobart’s CBD, business and community leaders have said. Overall the feeling is positive but some leaders have cautioned about the logistical challenge the move might bring. Real Estate Institute of Tasmania state executive Tony Collidge said the shift was a win for Hobart but only if the university was paying council rates and not leaving Hobartians “to pick up the tab for all the council costs”. “The other issue is ensuring that there is going to be enough accommodation available once the move happens and that it doesn’t pressure existing rental stock.” Tasmania Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey said UTAS’s CBD student accommodation, including the apartment block at Elizabeth St, brought economic energy to the area and he said he expected additional student learning spaces to do the same. “Looking at it from the HCC’s perspective, I would imagine the council would be seeing the economic benefit the CBD move would bring to Hobart,” he said. Mr Bailey said the shift, which he called “a boon for Hobart”, would need to bring with it some “work on traffic flows and congestion around the CBD”. RACT community and membership general manager Stacey Pennicott said the announcement underpinned the need for a long-term holistic vision for the future of mobility in Greater Hobart. “An increase in students and staff living, working and studying in the CBD will bring great benefits to this area, but also increase pressure on the existing infrastructure and public and active transport networks,” she said. Mrs Pennicott said RACT’s 30-year Greater Hobart Mobility Vision would be launched in the coming weeks. “We look forward to working closely with the University of Tasmania on how our vision works with theirs to make a sustainable future for all Tasmanians,” she said. Tasmanian Small Business Council executive officer Robert Mallet said the UTAS move to the city “wouldn’t be good for anyone”. “The CBD is about shopping, administration, Government, and business and very shortly it’s going to look like an overgrown high school,” he said “People can argue the economic benefits with having more people on the streets, but they are only students who don’t have the same amount of disposable income as many others.” A National Tertiary Education Union report released last month, which surveyed its Tasmanian-based members on the relocation, indicated the majority of those surveyed did not support a move. Of the 48 per cent of members who returned the survey, 75 per cent chose the distributed model (Sandy Bay campus), 16 per cent favoured the CBD model, and 7 per cent were undecided. Independent candidate for Nelson Madeleine Ogilvie said UTAS’s decision was “extremely disappointing” and would “create a gap in the cultural, intellectual, and creative life of the Sandy Bay community that would be very hard to fill”.

HISTORY, THE SPECTRE OF THE FLOOD AND LAUNCESTON

There is something here in this reminder of the city''s history perhaps. Given that UTas VC Prof Rufus Black, someone from somewhere else, someone who exhibits all the characteristics of a climate denying Professor, along with his entourage of compliant 'corporate functionaries' might learn something fro this piece.

This  article by Julian Burgess appeared on 3 April 2019  and it is a poignant reminder of where 'the flood' sits in the Launcestonian imagination and experience. It just does not go away and it should not. Places like Lismore, Brisbane and Townsville have more recently demonstrated the losses that are there when the 'spectre of the flood' is underestimated.

But if you are 'not planning to be there' for the flood or its aftermath – indeed, most probably planning to be somewhere else – the ethics and morals involved in planning takes on a whole new dimension.

Wishing it away will not send it away but it can be planned for and profitably so. The event of April 1929 might just be avoidable but what if there is something more extreme as there has been worldwide and in places in Australia that might also alert this us April to the risk of not thinking ahead.

Launceston 1929 flood 'the most deadly 

disaster' remembers historian 

Julian Burgess

• Julian Burgess

Local News

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CLICK HERE TO GO TO SOURCE

The Great Flood of 1929 remains the most deadly flood disaster in Tasmania's history.

Ninety years ago wild weather and rain across Northern Tasmania started in late March and intensified in early April with 18 inches (457mm) of rain recorded between April 3 and 6.

It is described in Launceston Weather Office records as an "outstanding storm" event.

Bureau of Meteorology records state that the South Esk River rose to over 30ft (nine metres) above the summer level at Fingal and to about 60ft (18 metres) at Evandale, where it was 6ft (1.8 metres) higher than the previous recorded flood of August 1852.

"Considerable portions of the township of Longford and of the suburbs of Inveresk and Invermay and other low-lying parts of Launceston were flooded to a depth of upwards of 10ft (three metres)," the bureau noted.

As floodwaters approached Launceston The Examiner of April 5, 1929, warned a record flood was now likely. 

The Scamander Bridge had already been swept away and a meeting of civic leaders in Launceston made emergency plans.

A few days after the Albert Hall had hosted the annual Launceston Competitions the city council announced the auditorium would be made available as a refuge centre.

"Indications are that there will be a continuance of wet weather and that the flood waters will increase. A tremendous volume of water is expected in the Gorge at Launceston shortly," The Examiner said.

The arrival of the flood crest and its terrible power in the South Esk River however seems to have taken authorities by surprise.

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Staff were still working in the Duck Reach Power Station when the flood crest hit at 11.23pm on April 5. 

The turbines had to be hurriedly turned off as water started to swirl into the building.

Launceston was plunged into darkness as water rose rapidly to about three metres inside the power station and blew out the windows and doors.

The suspension bridge at Duck Reach was swept away and the power station workers had to scramble to safety up the steep track behind the power station.

"The death-roll resulting from the devastating floods which have swept the northern part of the state has been increased by the tragic loss of life near Gawler on Thursday night, when eight out of nine of a family party perished owing to the driver failing to observe that the abutment of the bridge had been replaced by a channel of water."

The Examiner, April 6, 1929

Early on Saturday, April 6, the torrent coming down the South Esk River through the Cataract Gorge met floodwaters sweeping down the North Esk River.

At 1.30am the Post Office clock and Launceston fire station bell tolled out the disturbing signal that water had passed the Tamar River embankments and Inveresk and Invermay were in danger.

About 4000 people had to be evacuated from their homes and The Examinerlater reported that the "complete absence of electric illumination" had made the task extremely difficult.

Church halls across the city were opened up to provide temporary accommodation for those driven from their homes by the rising floodwaters.

'The Tragedy of the Waters' was The Examiner's headline on Saturday, April 6, 1929.

"The death-roll resulting from the devastating floods which have swept the northern part of the state has been increased by the tragic loss of life near Gawler on Thursday night, when eight out of nine of a family party perished owing to the driver failing to observe that the abutment of the bridge had been replaced by a channel of water."

At least 25 people reportedly died in the floods.

When the Briseis dam at Derby collapsed 14 people were killed, a baby girl drowned at Hagley and four people disappeared at Avoca.

The Examiner wrote that the passage of the floodwaters through the valley of the South Esk River had caused incalculable damage to property, heavy losses of stock, and great suffering and inconvenience to residents of the adjacent areas.

The Weekly Courier on Wednesday, April 10, 1929, wrote that: "Tasmania has been in the deadly grip of a flood so cataclysmic in its fury as to completely overshadow any such visitation in its history."

"It was as appalling in its suddenness as it was vehement in its force.

"The loss of life, the wholesale damage to public and private property, the demolition of bridges and the dislocation of transport and communications have been sufficient to test the calibre of the most courageous community."

The cost of the flood damage was estimated to be in the millions of pounds.

Launceston had experienced several major floods before 1929.

The biggest was in December 1863 when an estimated 4625 cumecs (cubic metres per second) of water raged down the Gorge.

In 1929 the estimated peak flood flow was put at 4250 cumecs in the South Esk River and 567 cumecs in the North Esk River.

More recently the June 1969 flood saw the flow through the Gorge peak at 2670 cumecs and in June 2016 it was 2375 cumecs of water from the South Esk River and approximately 800 cumecs from the North Esk River. The 1929 disaster led to the construction of Launceston's flood levee system.

Julian Burgess is a former associate editor of The Examiner and author.

Something, perhaps, for the climate denying Rufus Black and his entourage. For any one who subscribes or can access the Examiner's website this article by Julian Burgess appeared yesterday 3 April 2019 at 4.30 pm.