Groundswell Activists Stage a Threatened Species Banquet

All Images: Dan Broun

Threatened Species Day is an Australian national day held each year on the 7 September to acknowledge the death of the last remaining Tasmanian tiger at Hobart Zoo in 1936.

To mark Threatened Species day, a group of activists from Groundswell Tasmania are replicating the satirical theatre of a black tie Threatened Species Banquet at Salamanca Market in Hobart today. Guests at the banquet include the Tasmanian Liberal Premier, Will Hodgman, and the Federal Environment Minister, Greg Hunt, who will heartily tuck in to a series of gourmet threatened species dishes. The people dining today are contributing to the decimation of Tasmania’s wild habitats, and are implicit in the degradation of our fauna-rich ecosystems. Groundswell Tasmania’s spokesperson, Dr Lisa Searle said that today’s performance aims to highlight the ongoing risks to threatened species in Tasmania – and that the number of threatened species continues to grow.

“There are 680 threatened species in Tasmania, and many of these species are endemic to our state. A lot of the threatened species in Tasmania were present on the mainland in the past, but have been forced to extinction through the same processes that now threaten them here.” said spokesperson for the group, Dr Lisa Searle. “These threatening processes include habitat destruction for the purposes of mining, agriculture and native-forest logging, and impacts of introduced pests and diseases.”

“The politicians dining at today’s banquet are the people who hold the power for the future of these species. They should be making threatened species a priority and acting accordingly to ensure that Tasmania doesn’t lose any more of these precious plants and animals. Extinction is forever.” said Dr Searle.

Groundswell Tasmania is calling on the State and Federal Government to acknowledge the ongoing threats to these species in Tasmania and to ensure that prescriptions and recovery plans are well implemented. Groundswell Tasmania is also encouraging everybody from all walks of life to do something to celebrate National Threatened Species Day and to recognise and consider the protection of our unique threatened flora and fauna.

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