“Wilderness thus became the domain of the nobility, an environment where they alone could develop and display a number of artistocratic qualities. Friction arose between the peasants – inhabitants of open, unobstructed outdoor spaces – and the noble occupants of the forest, and that friction persisted as long as the peasant felt excluded from a portion of the landscape that he believed was his by right of heritage.”
John Brinckerhoff Jackson, 1994
Tasmanian Forest, Photograph taken by Jennifer Marohasy in May 2005
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part 1 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000797.html
part 2 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003015.html
part 3 http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/003044.html
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
This photograph looks like forest that is outside but near to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The TWWHA is a huge area covering over 20 per cent of the entire island of Tasmania.
Since 1982, well over $100 million has been jointly provided by the Australian and Tasmanian Governments in its management.
At 20 per cent of Tasmania’s land area, the wilderness reserve represents a major contribution to the conservation of the world’s natural and cultural heritage. Taken together with the TWWHA, protected areas cover almost 45 per cent of the entire land area of Tasmania.
The World Heritage property boundary is approximately 1227km. Of this, 72 per cent abuts reserves and only 12 per cent is production State forest. In 1989 the TWWHA was extended by 78 per cent from its previous boundaries, Australia is not contemplating further extension.
Old growth forest values are well represented in the TWWHA and other reserves outside the TWWHA. Of the total area of 1.23 million hectares of old growth forest almost one million hectares (approximately 80 per cent) are currently protected in reserves.
Tas Forestry had a habit of leaving odd little patches of bush like the one above in Jen’s photo as selections for future tourists but the best was well picked over long before the TWWHA came into existence. I recall a lot was hastily logged before it was submerged under huge water impoundments for hydro electric power schemes.
Pulpwood & timber cutting followed by wildfires as droughts deepened cleaned out the best native forests long before most these old forests could be reserved. See this outline as the logging industry grew more powerful.
http://www.tfca.com.au/gallery.htm
Just to clarify: the above picture was taken from the Tahune Forest Airwalk looking down at the Huon River. You can read more here: http://www.nafi.com.au/library/viewarticle.php3?id=54
Jennifer is right to point out that the photograph is at the Tahune air walk, a great place to visit see http://www.forestrytas.com.au/visiting/visitor-sites/south/tahune-airwalk
In regard to the photos Gavin relies on; these are a sample of harvesting methods in earlier times, whilst they include lots of harvesting in the Arve, the Styx and Florentine Valleys, there are also photos of NE and NW Tasmania and even NSW!!
In relation to old growth in the TWWHA there are over 100,000 of tall eucalypt forest as part of the 406,000 hectares (approx) of RFA-defined old growth forest that are located within
the TWWHA – about one third of the property’s area. Many furniture craftsmen will also know that Huon pine that was to be inundated by Hydro schemes was harvested and stockpiled and is still being released for sale today.
But is this wilderness with an airwalk? 😉
Cinders: I’m sure our readers will agree the advocates of the harvest can mostly relate to the size of their truck. Have another look at those pictures hey.
Gavin, you claim that Timber Tas had a habit of leaving “odd little patches” of old growth for tourist purposes is either bog ignorant or downright malignant.
The forest estates were managed as a whole unit with portions allocated for production and other portions maintained for habitat services. The portions that were maintained for habitat services were interspersed with production coupes so that any displaced wildlife would have abundant close refugia.
And this need for the adequate spacing of production areas and refugia sometimes meant that some bits of high visual appeal were harvested and some bits of lesser appeal were retained. The aim was to better serve the needs of the wildlife, not the needs of itinerant urban photographers seeking grist for interior decore.
And it is now a fact of history that it was the mix of healthy regeneration and retained refugia that was used by the greens to claim that the state forests were too precious to leave outside the reserve system.
Your statement is in direct contradiction of the facts. Please withdraw it.
>Your statement is in direct contradiction of the facts. Please withdraw it.
LOL!!! Pot calling the kettle black or what Mott! Another Mott classic. You wouldn’t know a fact if it fell on you. And since when have you EVER withdrawn the insults, porkies or crap you’ve innundated us with. Now what was that with the ‘wildlife plummeting thread?’
Ignore him Gavin. The rest of us try to.
What is wilderness? It certainly isn’t TWWHA, although that may be as approximate as one can hope for today.
Absolute wilderness is that boundless place in the eye of the mind of the beholder where no human footprints can be found and for which all those enter there and become lost have no hope of rescue. Only the most reckless trapper or sibylline shaman venture into the wilderness, as a pebble falls to the bottom of the deepest pool, in the hope of returning to civilization with a fortune in furs or a secret wisdom or allegory thereof. Long before crass and foppish adventurers claimed the wilderness it had already fallen to a more mythopoeic mob for whom survival was merely one of many options.
Wilderness exists today, as always, mainly in the mind’s eye. Once long ago it was always just out there beyond the last black stump. Actually, it still is.
Today it is called Mars or the mid-ocean ridges.
And, humankind, as always, have little stomach for it.
Travis: No need to worry, done that. My folks have been down there working round the bush for generations. I have seen a lot of change though. In the 1950’s I crawled into some rough places dragging a couple of fishing rods behind me. That was usually on a tip off after somebody close had made a fresh logging road.
As the contest to develop wilderness heated up I got my car into more remote forests via the new logging network and picked up trails to abandoned mines based on the folklore of previous pioneers. Depending on how quickly I responded to the opportunity I got to see a lot of ancient timber before major coups were clear felled at the edge of what is now the recognised world heritage areas.
In later periods I returned to work for new mining companies to get closer to other major works in the remaining wilderness. On weekends I tramped around with engineers and surveyors discussing the likely views from Cradle Mountain as our new hydro dams filled. By then hiding roads and transmission lines from higher peaks in the region was considered worthwhile.
Previously I had charted a light plane or two to keep track of it all. A lot happened during the 70’s. Decades later I had a word or two for anyone tasked with summing it up on the road to an RFA.
Wes has a point: Call it fate what ever, but one day my family were up the river on Reg Morrison’s big Huon pine boat when three adventurers I won’t name paddled out of the mist near the junction with rut sacks full of archaeology that would prove our southernmost cave inhabitancies during the ice age.
There is not a place on earth that has not been trod by fellow man that leaves his calling card everywhere he goes. Sometimes it’s a but, more often bottle glass. Guess we can’t change that.