Media release – Hands Off Quamby Bluff, 15 May 2024
Quamby Bluff Takes The Stage At Tourism Awards Night – Community Efforts to Protect Quamby Bluff From Logging Showcased at Awards Night
Tonight two members of local community group Hands Off Quamby Bluff will be awarded prizes in the Great Western Tiers Tourism Associations visual media competition. The competition celebrates the undeniable beauty of the kooparoona niara / Great Western Tiers and the Meander Valley in Tasmania. This year awards have been given for high quality digital images and video of the region in the categories of landscape, people and multimedia.
Members of Hands Off Quamby Bluff who were recipients of the awards shared the following statement:
Katie MacLaren won the category of people for her image ‘Forest Defender’. The category showcases people as they relate to kooparoona niara / Great Western Tiers and Meander Valley. Katie’s image, of a Tasmanian devil researcher in the forest of Quamby Bluff, was a ‘delicate capture of our precious forests and their importance to the community’ according to judges comments.
“Quamby Bluff is loved by many. The winning image celebrates the passion and dedication of pictured researcher, Chelsea Hummer, and forest defenders like her. Knowing these beautiful forests, the home of threatened species like the Tasmanian devil, are threatened with more of Forestry Tasmania (now trading as Sustainable Timber Tasmania)’s poor management is devastating for the community.” said Katie MacLaren.
Jules Campbell’s submission, ‘Message From the Mount’ was highly commended and was an image of a heart-shaped plume of smoke arising from a high-intensity burn off after Forestry Tasmania (Sustainable Timber Tasmania) logged and burnt forests on Quamby Bluff that border the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
“This heart shaped smoke signal emerged from Quamby Bluff as her native forest was sent up in flames by Forestry Tasmania. My image captured this message from the mountain” said Jules Campbell.
When accepting the awards at the award night held at The Empire Hotel in Deloraine they said “We hope winning this competition can help efforts to protect the forested slopes of Quamby Bluff from further logging by Forestry Tasmania (Sustainable Timber Tasmania).”
Katie, ‘People’ category winner, also works for the Wilderness Society (Tasmania) as the Launceston Office and Outreach Coordinator. Through her role, she has been working closely with the Hands Off Quamby Bluff community group for some time. In a recent survey conducted by Wilderness Society staff, volunteers and members of Hands Off Quamby Bluff, a game camera was placed in Forestry Tasmania (Sustainable Timber Tasmania) coupe HU304A at Quamby Bluff. Footage of a Tasmanian devil was found on this game camera.
Hands Off Quamby Bluff calls on Forestry Tasmania to cancel future logging plans on Quamby Bluff in lutruwita / Tasmania. Future logging on Quamby Bluff will degrade the value of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and one of lutruwita / Tasmania’s most significant Indigenous Cultural Landscapes.
Quamby Bluff is a large dolerite monolith standing before the Great Western Tiers and Central Plateau World Heritage Area. The towns of Deloraine and Meander have Quamby Bluff as their southern backdrop. Smaller villages flank the mountain, where its presence dominates the landscape.
The Hands Off Quamby Bluff community group is raising awareness of the destructive logging of the forests of Quamby Bluff. In 2022, Forestry Tasmania clearfelled and burned over 20 hectares of forests on the slopes of Quamby Bluff. It has future plans to log up to an additional 110ha hectares of forests.