Environment
Logs, not tourists, the driving force for Tarkine Rd
MATTHEW DENHOLM
THE $25 million “tourist drive” through Tasmania’s Tarkine wilderness has been designed to “minimise impact” on logging revenues and will see tourists share sections of the route with laden log trucks.
THE $25 million “tourist drive” through Tasmania’s Tarkine wilderness has been designed to “minimise impact” on logging revenues and will see tourists share sections of the route with laden log trucks.
Documents obtained by The Australian under Freedom of Information appear to cast doubt on the government’s claim that the 134km two-lane sealed road is “all about” tourism. Instead, a project development report for the controversial project, approved on April 6, says that in addition to attracting self-drive tourists, the design is based on protecting wood production.
“The preferred route put forward by Forestry Tasmania is designed to have the maximum appeal to the self-drive market while minimising impact on commercial wood production values (and sustained yield commitments),” the report says.
A feasibility study for the road, also obtained under FOI, confirms that log trucks will use the South Arthur Forest Drive section of the route “in future years”. This was because “adjacent regrowth forests are scheduled for commercial logging”.
Much of the Tarkine rainforest, the largest tract of temperate rainforest in the southern hemisphere, is managed by Forestry Tasmania.
The Tarkine National Coalition, devoted to preservation and promotion of the region, said the admission that logging operations influenced the route explained why FT was unwilling to consider alternatives. “This gives lie to the claim that the road is all about tourism,” Tarkine coalition spokesman Phil Pullinger said.
“It’s never been about tourism. It’s about an agency that wants to keep logging those rainforests while soaking up tourist money.
“Where else in Australia would you have a logging agency managing a globally significant rainforest?”
However, FT insists that it is experienced in managing areas for multiple purposes: timber production, recreation and tourism.
FT tourism manager Ken Jeffreys* said there was nothing wrong in balancing the needs of tourism and timber harvesting. “There is no suggestion that the forest industry is advantaged in any way from the development of the road,” he said.
*All about Ken Jeffreys on SourceWatch: Here