To whom this may concern,
I recently spent 10 days touring Tasmania contributing close to $6K to your ‘Clean and Green’ local economy. But for how much longer?
Tasmania needs to decide if it wants to be a resource quarry for Asia or a Green destination for visitors from the mainland and all over the world.
At the end of my visit, I came to the conclusion that Tasmania is Green by default – success through neglect.
It’s not that Tasmanians care about precious remaining wilderness, but rather the population is so small that human impacts have been somewhat minimised.
Just as revealing was the fact that Tasmanians don’t travel. They seemingly know very little about their state and have never travelled around it – this presumably is why they don’t appreciate the jewel in the crown they have.
Whilst touring the Franklin I met a woman from London; she had visited the state 15 years ago and returned with her new partner to revisit the “Big Tree” and less well known “Chapel Tree” in the Styx Valley.
She was typical of the overseas visitors I encountered, and herein lies the reason these areas are listed as WORLD Heritage.
But now with Abbott (Sauron) and the new State Liberal Government intending to trash more of the place, I suggest your postcards reflect a more accurate picture of the new look NOT so clean and green Tasmania, more ‘Mordor’ (Queenstown).
Finally, the amount of roadkill was deplorable.
Some locals said it is the demise of Tassie Devils, some said it is the effects of habitat reduction, others blamed tourists!
Most tourists are already tucked up in their motel rooms, caravan parks and pubs spending their tourist $$$ and too exhausted to be screaming around killing native animals at night.
In my experience it’s the locals who drive like lunatics without regard to other motorists or wildlife.
Tourism Tasmania – what a rap!
Yours faithfully,
Kate Cooke is a tertiary educated, middle aged mother from the “leafy” North Shore of Sydney (Liberal FATHERLAND – hardly Hippie heartland – sadly) who cares passionately about the environment and all the other LESS destructive species on it.
