ABOUT THE TARKINE WILDERNESS
We need wilderness. We need it as an antidote to our fast-paced modern lives and to remind us of our place in the world. We need it as a source of inspiration – creative and spiritual. However, across the globe, wilderness is rapidly disappearing as we continue to exploit natural resources, despite the growing understanding that the sustainable management of wilderness will take us much further into the future.
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The Tarkine is one of the world’s remaining great wild places. In 2013, CNN travel voted it the number one wilderness destination in the world, describing “a wonderland of wild rivers, secret waterfalls, giant tree ferns, rare birds and the near-extinct Tasmanian devil”. It has twice been put forward by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for World Heritage listing, and the Australian Heritage Council has ranked it of equal heritage value to the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Claire National Park. Despite its world-recognised significance, less than 5% of the Tarkine is protected as National Park, and it is under grave threat from immediate logging and proposed mining interests (Read more here).
Located in the north-west of Tasmania, the Tarkine spans 447,000 hectares, an area almost twice the size of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It contains Australia’s largest temperate rainforest, the second largest tract in the world. Walking through the ancient forests of the Tarkine, you will be awed by the majesty of the towering myrtle-beech trees and by the stillness of this world shrouded in moss. In summer, leatherwood trees scent the air with honey and their little cup-shaped white flowers cluster in river bends, brilliant against the tannin-stained water. These vast forests of myrtle, leatherwood and sassafras are relics of Gondwanaland, forming a link with forests in Patagonia, Papua-New Guinea and New Zealand.
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The micro world of the Tarkine is as wondrous as it’s towering trees, rushing rivers and raging coastline. New species of moss and fungi are discovered each year, making it a haven for fungi enthusiasts! Blanketing a shady hollow or fallen bough, one can count innumerable mosses – feathery, velvety, umbrella-shaped, comb-like… If you look closely you might see red, yellow, white or blue mushrooms, their hoods as small as pin-heads, or perhaps a bright purple one that looks more like coral than fungus. You may even notice a tiny transparent snail negotiating it’s way through this miniature forest. (Read more about the Tarkine Rainforest)
photo Caitlin Pheasant
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Photo Danny White
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As well as rainforest, the Tarkine encompasses heathland, button grass plains, freshwater wetlands, woodland and open forests, wet eucalypt forests, rugged mountain ranges and one of the country’s wildest coastlines. These diverse habitats shelter more than 60 species of endangered and threatened species, including the Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle, the Spotted-tailed Quoll, the White Goshawk; the Tayatea (Giant Freshwater Lobster), the Masked Owl, the Southern Bell Frog, the Orange-Bellied Parrot, the Eastern Barred Bandicoot, and the Huon Pine.
In it’s remoteness and huge scale, the Tarkine is also the last refuge of the iconic and critically endangered Tasmanian Devil. It is ironic and humbling that the same place that was once proposed, and rejected, as a sanctuary for the last Tasmanian Tigers could serve that very purpose for its relative, the Tassy Devil. But only if we can learn from history.
The creatures of the Tarkine can be shy, but you will notice traces of them everywhere: Tassie devil footprints on the beach, and their eerie cries echoing through the forest at night; dead trees carved back to ‘totem-poles’ by raucous parties of black cockatoos; a glimpse of a Tasmanian Wedged-Tailed Eagle gliding over a forest clearing... (Read more about the Tarkine wildlife)
The creatures of the Tarkine can be shy, but you will notice traces of them everywhere: Tassie devil footprints on the beach, and their eerie cries echoing through the forest at night; dead trees carved back to ‘totem-poles’ by raucous parties of black cockatoos; a glimpse of a Tasmanian Wedged-Tailed Eagle gliding over a forest clearing... (Read more about the Tarkine wildlife)
photo Aawa White
With no landmass between the Tarkine coast and the tip of South America, the Tarkine contains some of the world’s wildest coastline. It has the longest uninterrupted expanse of ocean and some of the cleanest air on earth. At times the wind builds up such a pounding surf that the beach is coated in thick foam, while ephemeral lakes lie still and glassy as mirrors behind the dunes. The coastline shifts from jagged and rocky to smooth, impossibly wide sandy beaches, with enormous sand dunes barring the heathland and grassy woodland to the east. Rivers and streams the colour of strong black tea cut through the sand to the ocean, and huge clumps of kelp are strewn in bays; green, red, yellow and brown-black. Sometimes an enormous sea-bleached tree trunk will be lodged a good 500m from the high tide mark, providing a perfect scroggin stop and leaving one to wonder at the force of the storm that must have carried it there. (Read more about the Tarkine Coast)
Bird life is abundant. More than 130 different species of birds live in and migrate through the Tarkine, in particular its coastal areas. One of these, the critically endangered Orange-Bellied Parrot, forages along the Tarkine coast as it migrates north from its breeding grounds in the south-west of Tasmania. Less than 50 of these parrots are thought to exist in the wild today. Off-road vehicle use along the Tarkine coast threatens their foraging habitat and the nesting sites of birds such as the Pied Oystercatcher, Hooded Plover and Fairy Tern. (Find out more about the Tarkine’s birdlife)
photo Dan Broun
While many of the Tarkine’s trees are older than any building in Australia, the indigenous history of the Tarkine stretches back perhaps 30,000 years. This makes it a place with deep emotional significance for aboriginal and other Australians. It is named after the Tarkiner people, one of three clan groups who inhabited the area. When walking along the coast, the whole coastline can seem like one continuous midden, so expansive are these deposits of ancient abundance, and if you’re lucky enough to pass by a particular rocky outcrop, you might find yourself looking at a 10,000 year-old petroglyph. Due to the richness and diversity of Aboriginal sites along the Tarkine coast, it has been described by the Australian Heritage Council as “one of the world’s great archaeological regions”. However, in recent years petroglyphs have been vandalised as a result of a lack of restrictions and policing along the Tarkine coast. 4WDs are effectively free to drive over the dunes, destroying not only delicate habitat but also archaeological sites, leaving deep tyre tracks though middens.
There is so much at stake. The natural qualities and heritage values of the Tarkine are too precious to lose. We must prevent short-term economic interests from depriving future generations of the privilege we have had in experiencing this remarkable wilderness.
Help us spread the word about the Tarkine Wilderness!
Click here to learn more about Tarkine Association Victoria (TAV), and here to find out how you can get involved.
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Header photo by Danny White |
