Tamar Rowing Club fears it will not be able to operate if the Tamar river is not fixed

Throwing their support behind the Tamar Action Group, which has been convened to try to find a way to fix the river, the rowing club believed their plight added further significance to the goal of the group.

Rowing club captain Henry Youl, a high-level rower who competes for the Tasmanian Institute of Sport as well as rowing for Tamar, said mud build up around the club's pontoon makes the river unusable for periods of the day.

"An hour to an hour-and-a-half either side of low-tide, if not more, there's 20 metres between the water and our pontoon. It's basically sitting on a bed of mud," he said.

Our River - Exploring the health of the Tamar Estuary:

"We're a rowing club and we're looking at the tides going 'we can't row' when we should be able to get onto the water any time of the day, really.

"We come down here in the morning - because we work and have set times we can actually row - and it all depends on the tide whether we can get out on the water or not."

Mr Youl said, while noting it would only stand as a "band-aid fix", that raking the river was at least something that helped.

"Recently we've noticed even if there was water under the pontoon, there's a big mud bank in the middle of the channel and we can't actually get through channel - and that's since the raking stopped," he said.

Mr Youl said, aside from the situation besieging the pontoon, his close relationship with the river enabled him to notice how quickly it was deteriorating.

"We're noticing the changes in the river, you can tell when you're out there rowing, there's corners that you take all the time and then one day you go there and there's mud. We're learning that the river is changing very quickly," he said.

"You wonder how badly it's going to change in 20 or 30 years if nothing is done."

Club president Peter Clutterbuck agreed that raking was beneficial for the club, but dredging and more significant interventions needed to begin to happen.

It was a sentiment that former president Jim Guy held.

Mr Guy said he had been involved with the club for 50 years and remembered how he used to be able to land his boat at the Royal Park waterfront, something that he cannot do anymore.

Our River - Exploring the health of the Tamar Estuary:

He said years ago when concerns about the river were raised it was commonly accepted that changes needed to be made to sustain its health.

"Going way back it was recognised that something has to be done on a regular basis and has to be timed when flood waters come down," he said.

Mr Guy said inaction would see the river further deteriorate to the point that it would not just be the rowing club that could no longer make use of it.

"Everybody wants to use this river, but without something being done it's going to diminish the opportunity," he said.

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