Tarkine
| Tarkine Tasmania |
|
 Tarkine
|
The Tarkine is a large wilderness area in north-west Tasmania, Australia. The area has a high concentration of Aboriginal sites and has been described by the Australian Heritage Council as "one of the world's great archaeological regions".[1] The Tarkine is not formally recognised and in recent decades has featured prominently in the Australian media as a subject of contention between conservationists, and mining and logging interests.
Contents |
[edit] Etymology
The earliest use of the term "Tarkine" was in the 1830's when George Augustus Robinson wrote in his diaries of entering the Tarkine in search of the Tarkineer Aboriginal band. The modern use of the term was popularised by conservationists in the 1980s. The word is a diminutive of the name "Tarkineer", which is the Anglicised pronunciation of one of the Aboriginal tribes who inhabited the Western Tasmanian coastline from the Arthur River to the Pieman River before European colonisation.
[edit] Location
The Tarkine is, on the basis of high conservation values,[2] roughly bounded to the north by the Arthur River, to the east by the Murchison Highway, to the south by the Pieman River, and to the west by the Indian Ocean. The wilderness area covers approximately 4,500 km². It can be entered from several points, with the most common being via Sumac Road from the north, Corinna in the south, Waratah in the west and Wynyard from the north-east. Wynyard has an interstate airport and sealed road access into the Tarkine.
[edit] Natural and archaeological values
The Tarkine represents Australia's largest remaining single tract of Gondwanan rainforest and is the largest wilderness dominated by rainforest in Australia.[3] It contains approximately 1,800 km² of rainforest, around 400 km² of eucalypt forest and a mosaic of other vegetation communities, including dry sclerophyll forest, woodland, buttongrass moorland, sandy littoral communities, wetlands, grassland and sphagnum communities. Significantly, it is has a high diversity of non-vascular plants (mosses, liverworts and lichens) including at least 151 species of liverworts and 92 species of mosses. Its range of vertebrate fauna include 28 terrestrial mammals, 111 land and freshwater birds, 11 reptiles, 8 frogs and 13 freshwater fish. The Tarkine provides habitat for over 60 rare, threatened and endangered species of flora and fauna.[4]
The large wilderness area comprises a number of wild rivers, exposed mountains, globally unique magnesite and dolomite cave systems and the largest basalt plateau in Tasmania to have retained its original vegetation.
There are also large sand dune areas extending several kilometres inland. Some of these contain ancient Aboriginal middens.
[edit] Political History
The vast majority of the Tarkine is administered by the State-controlled entity Forestry Tasmania, which has enabled the State-controlled department Mineral Resources Tasmania to release mining exploration licence areas and grant licences for mining in the Tarkine. The combined result is that the Tarkine has seen decades of logging and some mining operations. Aside from this, the Tarkine remains largely pristine. The relatively small number of private properties clustered around the isolated town of Waratah, and the few private properties that skirt the wilderness area are, generally, not considered significant environmental threats.
[edit] Early Conservation Movement
The campaign to protect the Tarkine began in the 1960s. A formal conservation proposal was put forward by the then Circular Head Mayor Horace (Jim) Lane for the establishment of a 'Norfolk Range National Park'. Lane's proposal was not realised.
From the late 1990s, the area came under increasing national and international scrutiny in a similar vein to the environmental protests surrounding Tasmania's Franklin River and Queensland's Daintree Rainforest. The case for protecting the Tarkine was significantly advanced with the Federal Government’s Forestry Package in 2005 adding 70,000 hectares to reserves in the Tarkine.
Around 80% of the Tarkine is now protected from logging, however only 5% is protected from mining.
[edit] Proposed Tarkine National Heritage Listing
In December 2009, the Tarkine was listed as a National Heritage Area following an Emergency National Heritge Listing. The Emergency Listing was in response to a proposed Tarkine Road, which would have coursed through old growth forest and detrimentally affected the natural values of undisturbed areas. In December 2010, the incoming Environment Minister Tony Burke allowed the emergency listing to lapse in the face of numerous mining proposals in the Tarkine. This was despite recommendations from the Australian Heritage Council to permanently list the Tarkine. Minister Burke has further extended the period for reassessment of the Tarkine, with the Australian Heritage Council is now due to re-report on the suitability of the Tarkine as a National Heritage location by the end of December 2013. Conservation groups have declared this an unacceptable delay, and have voiced concerns that this leaves the Tarkine unprotected from mining while the reassessment takes place.
[edit] Proposed Tarkine National Park
Significant advances have been made by the conservation movement, headed by Scott Jordan of the Tarkine National Coalition, to see the status of the Tarkine elevated to national park. The prospect of a Tarkine National Park remains likely in light of the Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement,[5] which was signed on 7 August 2011, by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings. The agreement established a $276 million package to transition Tasmania out of native forest logging, while conserving large areas of high conservation value vegetation. Julia Gillard stated that the Agreement would better protect the Tarkine, describing the wilderness area as "very important".[6]
According to the deal, Professor Jonathan West of Australia's Innovation Research Centre will, by the end of 2011, independently assess areas currently considered to be of high conservation value. Legislation will then, possibly, be passed through the Tasmanian Parliament by the end of June 2012 to convert high value areas into formal reserves, such as national parks.
[edit] Mining Threats
Currently there are two mines operating in the Tarkine, with one being a small silica quarry and the other a large open cut iron ore mine at Savage River. Both existing minnes are excised from conservation asks. There are also 56 current exploration licences over the Tarkine and 10 mines proposed over the 2012-2017 period. Of these proposed mines, nine are proposed to be open cut mines. Conservation groups such as the Tarkine National Coalition oppose new mining and mining exploration in the Tarkine.
[edit] References
- ^ Richards, Thomas and Sutherland-Richards, Phillipa, 1992, Archaeology. In: Forgotten Wilderness: North-West Tasmania. A Report to the Australian Heritage Commission. Harries, D.N. (editor) Tasmanian Conservation Trust, Hobart
- ^ http://www.lynxgeos.com/HCVmap/
- ^ http://www.premier.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/148164/tasmanian-forest-agreement-verification.pdf
- ^ http://www.premier.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/148164/tasmanian-forest-agreement-verification.pdf
- ^ http://australia.gov.au/AGOSP/global_site/library/documents/Tasmanian_Forests_Intergovernmental_Agreement.pdf
- ^ http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-07/20110708---forest-deal-signed/2827926
[edit] External links
- [1] The National Tarkine Coalition's not-for-profit website
- Lysis Films - QuickTime Video of Tarkine
- Landscapes of the Soul - Tarkine photos and prose
- Road to Nowhere A review of the video Manifestations, about protests that took place in the Tarkine in 1994/95.
