Coroner & Legal
Arthur-Pieman & 4WDs: Minister Wightman, Feds need to approve
CONSERVATION AREA’S 94 NEW 4WD TRACKS NEED FEDERAL APPROVAL
Minister Must Refer Tracks Decision to Commonwealth
Paul O’Halloran MP
Greens Member for Braddon
Sunday February 12 2012
The Tasmanian Greens today reminded the Environment Minister Brian Wightman MP that his decision to re-open four-wheel-drive tracks in the Arthur Pieman Conservation Area still needs approval under federal laws set up to protect endangered species, Aboriginal heritage and the wilderness of this stunning area.
Greens Member for Braddon Paul O’Halloran MP said that the Minister, late last week, opened nearly 100 tracks that were previously closed and illegal to use, a move that could potentially threaten species listed under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999).
Mr O’Halloran said that the laws require any action that could potentially threaten an EPBC-listed species to be approved by the Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke.
“Before a single off-road vehicle is allowed on these tracks, Minister Wightman needs to ensure that reopening them is not in breach of the law,” Mr O’Halloran said.
“The Arthur Pieman is a Conservation Area, and the State Minister cannot simply open up previously illegal four-wheel drive tracks without referring the decision to the Federal Environment Department.”
“The opening of these tracks will potentially impact threatened shorebird species, Aboriginal cultural heritage and the wilderness values of the Tarkine coast.”
“Without assessment and approval under the Act, every recreational vehicle user who drives on these tracks will technically be committing an offence.”
“The State and Federal governments must act immediately to ensure recreational vehicle use of these tracks is lawful, and is not destroying the values that make this area so unique,” Mr O’Halloran said.
• Old growth, new life
Leisa Tyler walks in the vast Tarkine wilderness in Tasmania’s north-west, among some of the oldest forests on earth.
Until recently the great, mysterious wilderness of 4500 square kilometres in Tasmania’s north-west didn’t have an official name. Largely inaccessible and rarely visited, it was nicknamed the Tarkine by conservationists in the 1980s after a tribe of Aborigines who once roamed this place.
Bordered by a desolate coastline pounded by the Roaring Forties, it has buttongrass plains to the horizon, 100-metre-tall eucalypts, ancient rainforests and wild rivers. It’s also known to have the second largest tract of temperate rainforest in the world – a thick swathe of rare red-heart myrtle forest that dates to the Gondwana period.
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It’s on the edge of this wilderness, off an old mining track near the west-coast town of Waratah, two hours’ drive west of Launceston, that I join Rob Fairlie, of Tarkine Trails, a small trekking company based in Hobart. We’re heading into this wilderness for a three-day walk, based at the company’s newly built Tarkine Rainforest Retreat, a camp in the deepest, darkest depths of the forest.
Fairlie and two school friends established Tarkine Trails in 2002, initially under the name Tiger Trails. Their aim was to take small groups of trekkers across Tasmania’s toughest walking trails, including the six-day Overland Track and eight-day South West Track. The company would supply the food and gear needed for a week in the wild and walkers would share the burden of carrying it – 18-22 kilograms each. Then, in 2004, Fairlie established a few trails in the little-explored Tarkine and added them to his walking inventory.
With this newly built longhouse in the Tarkine, the company is hoping to compete with a clutch of luxury walking tour operators already working in the state, including Maria Island Walk and the Bay of Fires Lodge Walk. By offering shorter and more comfortable walks that cater for the more leisurely traveller, Fairlie hopes to attract people who wouldn’t normally visit the north-west wilderness.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/activity/great-outdoors/old-growth-new-life-20120223-1tq17.html#ixzz1nR6I3EB2