In the past few days, Tasmania – like the other southern states – has been hit by some foul weather, with high winds causing chaos, felling trees, blowing off roofs and cutting power supplies.
While the full extent of the damage from the latest storms is still being assessed, authorities admit they are still struggling to repair the infrastructure damage caused by the last serious battering from the weather back in June.
The floods caused then were the worst in 20 years and caused an estimated $180 million damage. Tasmania’s Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) has said it is still working through a list of 40-70 flood-affected area and its work will stretch into next year.
“In some cases it’s access to popular locations, in others it’s knocking over a job if we can do it,” PWS operations manager, Stan Matuszek, told the Mercury newspaper. “But certainly the high priority ones are where communities are impacted and affected and that’s the ones we’re focusing on.”
The popular Walls of Jerusalem National Park is closed due to significant flood damage to road infrastructure.
Mr Matuszek said the service was doing its best to restore access to popular areas, even if that meant implementing partial closures.
“We have done that in some places. Where we can provide safe access, it’s being done,” he told the Mercury. “For example, there is some damage at Freycinet but people can still access those tracks.”
The Marakoopa Caves near Mole Creek are also expected be closed to the public for a significant time.
Mr Matuszek acknowledged the closure would affect the tourist season.
“We’re trying to get on top of doing a lot of work before the end of the summer,” he said. “In terms of what impact on tourism that’ll have, I couldn’t tell you … know it’ll have a significant impact in terms of what it’ll cost us to get the job done.”
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