Business owner Alfred Gude said his skippers were unable to navigate through to the Gorge on low tide, and for the first time had struggled to get through Home Reach. 

``These skippers have never seen it this low ... we’ve always been able to get up and down Home Reach, even if going into the Gorge has been a bit tricky,’’ he said. 

``The exceptional problem at the moment is a combination of the lack of winter rain, the southerly  winds blowing it out, and very low tides as well.’’

The two boats operated by Tamar River Cruises require about a metre of water clearance, however Mr Gude estimated there was roughly half a metre at both the Gorge entrance and Home Reach at low tide on Wednesday. 

Mr Gude said his company had been forced to change the departure time of Wednesday afternoon’s discovery cruise, and cancelled others scheduled for the Cataract Gorge. 

``It does have an impact, and we’d really like to see the (silt raking) program back as soon as possible,’’ he said. 

Mr Gude said he would prefer three small raking events a year, rather than one large one. 

A study undertaken last year showed that silt raking is most effective when followed by a flush of water, such as rainfall or a release from the Trevallyn Dam. 

Launceston Flood Authority chairman Alan Birchmore said in the past, the organisation's contractor kept a channel of about one metre of water for Tamar River Cruises. 

"We'd love to help him but we can only do that if there was a water flow," he said. 

"He's got a good solid business that he pursues diligently and it breaks my heart to see him get stuck.’’

Bass Liberal MHR Andrew Nikolic said he had put a proposal to the State Government for regular water releases from the Trevallyn Dam to assist silt raking when water storages permit.

Hydro Tasmania advised that there were no plans for further flushes from the Trevallyn Dam due to the Basslink fault and record low rainfalls. 

Do you care about the Tamar estuary?

The Examiner will soon launch a series on the state of the waterway, examining its issues, exploring its possibilities and celebrating its value.

We want community members to feature in the launch of this series, starting with a photo shoot at Royal Park today (Thursday) at 4pm.

Who would like to join us?