Wellington Park could charge visitors to drive up Kunanyi/Mount Wellington under a new funding model being developed by the park’s management trust, with the potential to raise up to $8.6 million a year.
A draft business case recommends introducing vehicle access fees, an optional shuttle service and commercial licence agreements to fund the park, which currently relies almost entirely on local council funding.
People walking, running or cycling into the park would continue to have free access.
Amy Russell, general manager of the Wellington Park Management Trust, said the park now attracts 583,000 visitors a year – more than Cradle Mountain and Freycinet combined – but funding has not kept pace.
“The mountain itself is almost totally funded by Hobart City Council to the tune of about five million dollars a year,” she told Pulse.
She said Glenorchy Council spends just under $1 million a year on the area above Tolosa Park.
“It’s not sustainable, and we all know that improvements are needed for safety and amenity purposes, and we need to identify new revenue that’s going to support that,” Russell said.
The report, put together by consultancy firm Evolve Tourism, estimates 87% of revenue would come from interstate and international visitors, meaning for every $1 paid by Tasmanians, around $6.80 would be contributed by visitors from outside the state.
Under the best-case modelling, the trust could generate an annual net operating surplus of up to $5.3 million.
Russell said the exact cost per vehicle had not been settled and remained redacted from the released document because “there’s a sliding scale that’s being tested and there hasn’t actually been a recommendation that’s been settled on.”
Revenue would be split roughly evenly between reimbursing councils for maintenance costs and investing in a master plan covering traffic improvements, toilets, boardwalks and signage.
The report warns that without a new revenue model, risks grow around visitor safety, bushfire preparedness, infrastructure failure and environmental damage.
Introducing fees could reduce visitation by an estimated 29%, or around 183,000 fewer visits a year, which the report frames as a positive outcome for congestion and environmental pressure.
Russell acknowledged locals would likely resist paying for something that has been free.
“Interstaters and internationals, they know and expect to have to pay to go in because it is the norm elsewhere,” she said.
However, under the Australian Constitution the trust cannot charge interstate visitors more than locals.
“From a federal legal perspective, we can’t make it free for locals and then charge New South Wales people and Queenslanders – it has to be one fee for all,” Russell said.
The trust is waiting on the state government’s Our Mountains Future review before finalising its position.
Russell said the timing of that review remained unknown.
