The Mount Stromlo Observatory condemned the ACT Government’s in-fill housing development at North Duffy-Holder yesterday as a threat to an international astronomical project.
It said it would unnecessarily bring forward the day it will have to relocate and it also differed with the Government over the costs of relocation.
The acting director of observatory, Don Faulkner, said he accepted the long-term precariousness of the observatory’s position near a major city. However, the Duffy-Holder development posed a special problem because of its proximity. Alone it would shed up to an extra 10 per cent glow beyond what the observatory was already suffering.
If the ACT Government was determined on its urban consolidation plans, then Duffy-Holder should be the last site, not among the first.
Dr Faulkner accepted that existing glow put Stromlo beyond international guidelines for an optical observatory and if building it now one would put it elsewhere. However, he said the observatory was still doing international-quality work. All additional light was a problem, but the proximity of the Duffy-Holder development was of special concern.
He cited the Macho project as an example. It was a search for massive astronomical compact halo objects _ a search for the 90 per cent of the universe we cannot see, but know is there because we can detect it gravitational effect.
A four-year agreement with two US universities had been signed in November 1990, Dr Faulkner said, before the in-fill program had been publicised. The project would detect the 90 per cent mass if it were compact. It was a great epochal experiment.
US scientists were aggrieved and concerned that the project could be jeopardised by the light from the new development. The project involved the refurbishment of one of Stromlo’s telescopes to make it the largest solid-state electronic camera in the world.
The Assistant Secretary for the land development branch of the Department of the Environment, land and Planning, Colin Adrian, said the ACT Government was consulting with the ANU and Mount Stromlo. It had appointed a consultant whose report would be part of a body of material to go to the Minister. The options to abandon, postpone or go ahead were all still open, but the Government was keen to push ahead with urban consolidation and Duffy-Holder was part of that.
Dr Adrian condemned the Holder-Duffy Residents’ group’s use of the figure of $40 million to $50 million to relocate Mount Stromlo. It said if was a gross exaggeration and a scare figure which did not help debate.
Dr Faulkner, however, said he estimated relocation costs at $40 million. It would not be cost-effective to relocate all the Stromlo telescopes compared to replacing them with one $20 million new one. And there would be a further $20 million needed in replacing support buildings and staff housing.
Dr Adrian said relocating Stromlo had been talked about since the 1960s. The department and government were happy to talk to community groups about the redevelopment and all related issues like traffic control and so on, “”But I can assure you that the figures of $40 to $50 million are a gross exaggeration.”
Dr Faulkner acknowledged that the ACT Government was taking the matter seriously and looking at Stronlo’s concerns. However, he said the ACT’s consultant could not but reinforce Stromlo’s present view about lighting. It was a simple numeric calculation.
He wanted Stromlo’s use prolonged and its inevitable used-by date to expire later rather than sooner.
The president of the Canberra Conservation Council, Jacqui Rees, said, “”The US and Japan recognise Stromlo’s excellence even if the Follett Government doesn’t.”
Japan wanted to exchange access to its $300 million Hawaii telescope for access to Stromlo’s excellence in instrumentation. The Japanese would hold us in contempt for putting a housing development before a research place that would help give Canberra an international reputation for providing intellectual services.
“”Ms Follett can make as many trips to Japan as she likes, but to replace this expertise with a chrysanthemum festival shows the level to which the ACT Government has sunk,” she said.
Dr Faulkner said he was surprised at the degree of community support for Stromlo. People felt Stromlo was part of their heritage.