West Tamar Council has many communities facing the river, and has, as a council, focused two of its latest community masterplans towards beautifying and improving river access.

However, because the estuarine system is so large and encompasses many local government areas, the council's general manager and mayor are hoping for a collaborative approach to any solution.

Our River - Exploring the health of the Tamar Estuary:

"Zone one, while it might be encircled by the City of Launceston, is everyone's problem," West Tamar general manager Rolph Vos said.

"It's our issue as well, what happens there affects us, and so we want to be part of the solution."

Mr Vos also chairs the Tamar Estuary and Esk Rivers program, and as such has a keen understanding of the issues facing the estuary.

Water quality in the zones in the West Tamar municipality may not be as bad as in the Launceston zone, but Mr Vos said anything that happened up river would soon make its presence felt in other part os the estuarine system.

An example of that is the sediment raking trial, conducted by the Launceston Flood Authority (set up by the City of Launceston council).

"Raking in zone one, had a profound effect on the water quality in our zones, we found there was contaminants found as far as Clarence Point," Mr Vos said.

West Tamar mayor Christina Holmdahl said the council had put a lot of focus on turning its communities towards the river.

She said it was something they did get feedback on, from residents.

"What residents are saying is that they want to be able to use the river a lot more, even more than what they are doing now," she said.

Two masterplans for crucial communities on the river, Gravelly Beach and Beauty Point, have recently had their heads of agreement signed, securing funding from the federal government to progress them.

The Gravelly Beach Project will link the shopping area with the foreshore, providing significant additional recreational space and amenity upgrades and will include two precincts.

Precinct one, or the Rose Bay playground and boat ramp area will be redeveloped with new toilets, an upgrade to the wastewater treatment and the council will install new barbecues and replace the pontoon.

The second precinct will be the Gravelly Beach Village Centre and include the installation of a new rock wall and reclaimed area opposite the village hub for landscaping and turf. Master planning is also underway for redevelopment of Beauty Point, considering its increasing popularity as a tourist destination, due to its close proximity to Greens Beach.

Mr Vos said the West Tamar Council wanted to be part of any discussions relating to potential solutions to the estuary's health, and wanted to be informed and educated.

He said any changes, or projects that were endorsed for Launceston would have an impact on West Tamar's portion of the estuary.

"For example the Tamar Lake proposal, we don't support the establishment of the barrage, because you would push the silt and sediment problem further up the river, on the sea side of the barrage," he said.

Ms Holmdahl said West Tamar Council had sought advice on the potential adverse impacts of the barrage, and were unsatisfied, and so remained opposed to that as a solution to Launceston's silt problem.

"But whatever solution is proposed, we want to be well informed and educated on scientific impacts," she said.

Ms Holmdahl and Mr Vos said they supported the work of TEER and the Tamar Estuary Management Taskforce, and would be awaiting the sediment management report, due this year.

West Tamar's portion of the estuary faces a reasonable problem in rice grass, but Mr Vos and Ms Holmdahl said it was complex.

"We have supported projects in the community where there have been small-scale removal of rice grass," Ms Holmdahl said.

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She said it was still unclear whether it was even possible to remove rice grass, but it had impacted on the channel in places such as Gravelly Beach.

Rice grass was identified as a problem for a planned marina proposed by West Tamar tourism operator Allan Virieux.

The Rosevears Hotel owner said he'd spent much of his own money on environmental and ecological reports to find a solution to the rice grass.

However, one of the biggest problems is the impact of rice grass removal - which is not a supported solution.

Mr Vos and Ms Holmdahl said the council was working collaboratively with Mr Virieux to find a solution to progress the proposed marina.

However, the issue of rice grass remained a problem for the developer to solve.