Writing in The Guardian (Jan 1), Penny Green finds Nicholas Shakespeare’s investigation into settlers In Tasmania produces an interesting result …

Penny Green writes:

… Tasmania is an enigmatic place and Shakespeare captures it with an appreciative eye – coastal, remote and deeply beautiful, with still largely unexplored ancient rainforests, perfect bays, mountains, lakes and pure white, glistening beaches.

But in many ways Tasmania is as much about extinction and loss as it is about unique wilderness and physical beauty. Its remoteness gives cover to a dark history and a careless and corrupt present that is only alluded to in the book …

… all mark a persistent inability by those governing Tasmania to value its environment. The logging issue is the most important. For more than 30 years Tasmania has been squandering its greatest asset – the exotic old-growth forests of eucalyptus, myrtle, sassafrass, leatherwood and celery-top pine. The destruction of these rainforests through clear-felling and napalm in the interests of corporate profit is an obscenity.

The wealth has not trickled down into the state’s economy and Tasmania remains the poorest of Australia’s eight states and territories, its rate of unemployment the highest …

Read the rest …

Here