Tension brews over Little Dog Island development application

A development application for a six-bedroom visitor accommodation house on the island, less than a kilometre offshore from Flinders Island, has been advertised with the Flinders Council.

Proponent Clem Newton-Brown worked with the Flinders Island Aboriginal Association Incorporated for the application and has promised to protect heritage sites.

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Licence holder on neighbouring Big Dog Island, Emerenna Burgess, said the proposal was on a rookery where her community's ancestors once worked.

"As an Aboriginal personal with strong cultural connections to this area and a long interest in muttonbirding, a significant cultural activity and one of the few economic opportunities unique to Aboriginal people, I'm appalled by this development, its location on an important bird rookery and attempt to appropriate Aboriginal culture for commercial gain," Miss Burgess said.

"Muttonbirding is central to the identity of Aboriginal people and one of the most important activities on the cultural calendar.

"This is the thin end of the wedge for commercial tourism on the outer islands of the Furneaux group and if this proposal gets up, we fear for other islands including Little Green and Vansittart."

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She said there was precedent of the wider community causing harm to Aboriginal places of importance.

"This is another example and I refuse to stand idly by while a huge part of my identity as a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman is at risk of being lost," Miss Burgess said.

Some other members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community have also raised concerns over the proposal, signing and sending a letter to the council stating they were opposed to the development for a number of reasons.

"I believe that a muttonbird rookery, with a long association of Aboriginal occupation and use, is not an appropriate location for a private, commercial tourism operation and the visual and visitor impacts that will come with it," the letter stated.

Not all of the Island's Aboriginal community opposes the development.

FIAAI chairperson John Clark said the organisation fundamentally wasn't against development, including the one Little Dog Island.

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Mr Newton-Brown said his proposal had gone above and beyond legislative requirements over a two year period of gathering information, consultation and have amended the proposal accordingly.

The proposal is on freehold private land, which is controlled by a planning scheme that permits tourism uses and residential accommodation.

Whist traditionally the island has been used by amateur birders, there is no regulation preventing a landowner from denying access.

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