Calls for ‘Completion’ of TWWHA on 40th Anniversary

Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 14 December 2022

World Heritage anniversary marked by call on Albanese complete the job

Today is the fortieth anniversary of the listing of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. News of the listing came through as the Tasmanian Wilderness Society’s blockade of the Franklin dam works began, centred in Strahan, on 14 December 1983.

The Bob Brown Foundation has called on Prime Minister Albanese to ‘complete the job’ of establishing the ultimate Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area by nominating takayna / Tarkine and other contiguous areas in western Tasmania and restoring Lake Pedder.

“Tasmania has one of the most valued, famous and diverse of all the more than 1,000 World Heritage sites around the globe,” Bob Brown said yesterday. “But there is a missing quarter. The takayna/Tarkine rainforest, a kaleidoscope of wildlife and priceless, ancient Aboriginal heritage, if added to the existing 1.584 million hectares property, will bring international acclaim when it is done.”

“So too would the restoration of Lake Pedder. What a gift to the planet on this  40th anniversary, if Minister Plibersek would nominate its restoration as the Australian flagship project in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration”, said Christine Milne who congratulated all the activists and campaigners who marched for the rivers and forests over the past forty years.

“People power forced the original listing and by putting Greens in balance of power in 1989 and in 2010, major extensions were secured including the awe inspiring forests along the eastern boundary.  When the forested area was threatened by Prime Minister Abbott, people marched again to secure it, just as they have done recently to prevent the destruction of wilderness values at Lake Malbena,” Christine Milne said.

“While it was Tasmanian Labor Premier Doug Lowe who drew up the original nomination, and Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser who officially promoted it to the World Heritage Committee in Paris, Bob Hawke was the new Prime Minister who used the listing to save the Franklin River from damming in 1983. Forty Years later Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should complete the task by nominating the ‘Missing Quarter’, including the Tarkine, by restoring Lake Pedder, by funding the ongoing protection of wilderness values in the face of increased risk of fire and damage from feral animals and by preventing commercial development,”  Bob Brown said.

Bob Brown Foundation has launched an online card today for activists, campaigners, organisations and concerned citizens to sign on, calling on Prime Minister Albanese and Federal Environment Minister Plibersek to extend, enhance, restore and secure the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

“Our wilderness is the envy of the world, let’s keep it that way by enhancing its resilience, protecting what is unprotected and securing it for future generations,” Milne said.

Media release – Restore Pedder, 13 December 2022

On the TWWHA’s 40th Aust is absent from first UN restoration projects

Coinciding with today’s 40th anniversary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is the United Nations launch of the first restoration flagship projects, and Australia is not included.

“40 years ago, Lake Pedder was included within the World Heritage Area with the intent that it will be restored. In 2023 Minister Plibersek has a once in a generation opportunity to place Australia as a global leader in ecosystem restoration, and Lake Pedder meets every project criteria,” said Christine Milne, convenor of Restore Pedder and former Australian Greens leader.

“Restoring the temporarily flooded Lake Pedder can demonstrate, particularly to young people inheriting the climate-biodiversity crisis, the Australian Labor Government’s commitment and determination to redress environmental mistakes of the past,” said Restore Pedder Campaigner, Tabatha Badger.

Today at the COP15 United Nations Biodiversity forum, the world’s first ten flagship restoration projects have been announced. Australia has missed the first round of flagship projects but Plibersek’s decision on Pedder may come in 2023 as she will need to sign off on the costly Edgar dam strengthening project.

“The dam strengthening project cannot guarantee the dams won’t fail in an earthquake, but as outlined in the State of the Environment Report, restoring Lake Pedder will be a symbol of hope to the world,” said Ms Milne.

The case study of restoring Lake Pedder featured in Australia’s, otherwise damning, State of the Environment report, outlined the window of opportunity, stating; “the current United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030, provide an opportunity to closely examine restoration of Lake Pedder, an action that would restore a key geomorphic attribute of Outstanding Universal Value and restore wilderness value, an attribute that underpins the maintenance of the integrity of the values of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.”

“Tasmania, and all future generations, are greatly indebted to the conservationists who have campaigned for the Wilderness World Heritage Area, across four decades, but the job is yet to be completed; the integrity of the TWWHA will be marred while its heart, Lake Pedder, remains submerged,” concluded, Ms Badger.

Restore Pedder campaigners will take to Canberra in early 2023 to lobby the Federal Government to restore the original Lake.