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Tamar Ridge Vineyard - owned by Gunns Ltd. The mill will be built on the bank behind the vineyard.

A view across Dalrymple Harbour from behind Inspection Head where cruise ships dock and tourist attractions Seahorse and Platypus World are located. The mill will be built on the opposite bank.

Gunns Ltd: ' Design and engineering expertise will be engaged to ensure the mill blends in with the existing environment.'

Proposal : ' The site will cover 650 hectares' (6.5 sq.kms).'

Proposal: ' Pulp will be shipped from a new berth facility to be constructed adjacent to the Bell Bay mill.'

Proposal: ' These ships are expected to have a capacity of 50,000 tonnes of pulp. The draft requirements for these ships would be about 12 metres.'

The proposed mill site at Longreach:

Comment: Difficult to hide a 190 metre above river level stack belching steam, a huge wharf , and a 6.5 sq.km industrial site. There will probably also be some lighting at night although Gunns Ltd have promised to keep it down to a minimum. In other words, it's going to turn what is a pleasant forested river embankment into an industrial site. There's another worry here: Over the years effluent discharges from Bell Bay factories polluted the estuary. These poisonous heavy metal sediments could well be disturbed by the work on the new wharf sending these poisons up and down the river with the tides.

Comment: To get this picture into perspective, the hill behind the plant is over 260 metres tall and those are large gum trees around it. But isn't there something missing? What about the wharf, the warehouse used to store the pulp, and the pylons, roads and lights? And the plume arising from the stack and the steam being expelled from various other parts of complex? And eventually there could be a paper mill added on as well (although, not for some time). The Gunns picture on the above link is a simulation looking down as if in an aircraft. However, the following picture has used the information from Gunns to show us how it will look from ground level. To get it into perspective, the whole site from the existing power station to the chip mills is about 4kms:

At night the mill will be lit up:

The Valdivia pulp mill at night.

The NTDG study tour thought the mill would have a visual impact. Ms. Archer said the size of the mill at Stendal staggered her and that a complex that size on the banks of the river would take some getting used to. Mr Ireland agreed that it was big and awesome - you will see this mill big time. The proposed mill at Longreach will have nearly double the capacity of Stendal.

Gunns Ltd: ' The latest technology ensures that only one stack is required from modern pulp mills. For most of the year, emissions would be difficult to view.'

Comment: You certainly will be not able to see it at night! A little cynical perhaps? Photos of the brand new mill at Tumut show steam rising from various parts of the complex as well as the stack but that is a paper mill as well.

NTDG study tour: Mr Ireland was concerned about a cloud of steam that surrounded the mill at Stendal - although this could have been due to very cold weather.

A look at a map of the Tamar estuary shows this mill, situated on the side of the river at Longreach, will be visible to many of the residents of Rowella, Kayena, Beauty Point and Ilfraville as well as from tourist vantage points along the Tamar and the wine route right up to Brady's Lookout and the cruise ship terminal at Inspection Head.

Click here to view photos of other pulp mills

VERDICT: The opponents are right that it will certainly be highly visible but only time will tell if this deters tourists.

Note: A mill at Hampshire would only be seen by people who went there specifically to view it.

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