A group backed by more than 40 businessmen, including high profile developer Errol Stewart, has launched a campaign aimed at starting a conversation about the health of kanamaluka/ Tamar Estuary.
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The group has started a social media campaign and says it would love to see the health of the estuary improved for future generations.
Tamar Action Group chairman Andrew Lovitt said there were four problems with the estuary - mud, invasion of sea grass, rising sea levels and inaction.
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He said the goal of the campaign was not to provide a solution, but to show the government that the people of Northern Tasmania were not happy with the status quo.
"This is something for our grandchildren. We will mostly be passed on in 10 years' time because the average age [of TAG], I hate to say it, must be 75 or something like that," Mr Lovitt said.
"It is for two generations down ... what sort of place are we going to leave them and from a selfish point of view what do we want to leave them - a river that is viable and a town that is healthy."
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TAG treasurer David Vautin said improving the health of the estuary would provide a myriad of tourism and business opportunities.
He said Launceston could rival Queenstown, New Zealand as a tourist destination.
"The process we are going through now is to fix the Tamar some way or another. [We are trying] to get the support of the community behind that and then we worry about the solution," Mr Vautin said.
Prominent developer Errol Stewart said the build up of mud flats was particularly impacting river users.
Mr Stewart owns the Silo and Seaport hotels as well as a 70 berth marina on the river. He said he was being forced the move the marina due to the continual build up of mud.
"[The marina] sits in the mud if there isn't a regular raking program or a regular dredging program," Mr Stewart said.
"As the build up of the mud continues the mud bank will get higher and higher. That means the marina which is sitting closer to the edge of the board walk sits on the mud and the marina that sits out sits on the water.
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"That is not necessarily anybodies fault, but we have got to take an action to fix that and I've advised some of the authorities that we are going to move our marina because we have to."
Mr Stewart said while the mudflats would always be a feature of the estuary something needed to be done to stop their continued growth. He said the goal of the TAG was to show governments and councils that the people of Northern Tasmania want action.
"I don't think it is reasonable to let the mud to continue building at the level it is building at the moment without any programs to solve it in some way," Mr Stewart said.
"I think we need to have a robust look at what [the alternatives are]."
Government's and councils have been addressing the health of the estuary for years. Continual upgrades to sewage facilities around Launceston have helped reduce the amount of untreated sewage which ends up in the river.
Work upstream has also helped reduce the level of nutrients and pathogens in the water.
In 2017 the state and federal governments announced about $95 million worth of funding to improve the health of the estuary as part of the Launceston City Deal.
Since then the Tamar Estuary Management Taskforce and Tamar Estuary Esk Rivers Program have been working to improve water quality throughout the catchment.
The latest Health of the Tamar report card saw improvements across the catchment, but the stretch of river between Launceston and Legana still received a D rating.
Mr Lovitt acknowledged the work which had been done to improve the river. He said the aim of the group's push was to speed up the recovery process.
"The purpose is to get the numbers of the public up, if we have got tens of thousands of people saying we want it fixed politicians of all persuasions are going to take notice," Mr Vautin added.
- This article is apart of an ongoing series exploring the health of the Tamar Estuary.
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