The Tarkine: Too Precious To Lose

From Senator
Christine Milne
2 — 3
I dream of restoring a virtual Gondwanaland through a network of protected
places. My time as Global Vice President of the International Union of the
Conservation of Nature gave me the confidence to know this dream is possible.
During the 2004 World Parks Congress in Durban I ventured to the wild coast
of South Africa and felt immediately at home amongst what seemed familiar
vegetation, in spite of never having been there before. Similarly, in South
America and New Caledonia that same sense of belonging and instinctive
knowing seeped into my being. Imagine the fantastic opportunity we now have
to study the evolutionary processes from a common origin of place and species
and to celebrate both similarity and difference.
It is not beyond us in 2014. Technology makes it possible to demonstrate the
links between these landscapes. But it won’t happen unless we have a shared
vision and the political and community will to protect and nurture what
remains.
Tasmania is “my blood’s country”. i This beautiful, wild, remote island on the
edge of the world, is globally recognised with a World Heritage listing for its
wilderness, its tall forests and its Aboriginal cultural heritage.
But it is the Tarkine, the wild and beautiful north-west of Australia’s island
state, that links my home to places as near as Western Australia and as far flung
as Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, New Caledonia, South Africa, Madagascar,
the Arabian Peninsula and India. We share the inspiring, life affirming
evolutionary story of Gondwanaland.
I was born in north-west Tasmania and grew up there. The cleanest air in the
world was what I breathed, and the small towns along the coast, dotted between
rich patchworks of farmland, forests and mountains, was my life’s experience. It
wasn’t until I began travelling overseas that I realised my landscape connected
me with so much of our shared humanity.
We must save the Tarkine and make it a national park. It is the missing link
in restoring Gondwanaland. Most of the other outstanding examples of
Gondwanan heritage are already protected; we need to place the Tarkine into
that global story.
Of itself it is a place of exquisite beauty, of magnificent karst systems, of aweinspiring
myrtle beech forest, of wild coast. It is home to the world’s largest
carnivorous marsupial, the Tasmanian devil. Its skies are home to the soaring
wedge-tailed eagle. Its forest floors are decorated with fungi found in few other
places in the world. It is rich in cultural heritage and continued significance for
Tasmania’s first people; on its coast you can find their middens and rock art. It
stands alone as an example of nature’s wonder but as part of a bigger story, as
the last piece in the global restoration of Gondwanaland, it is compelling.
I will not rest until the Tarkine is protected. So little of the natural world
remains intact. The ravages of habitat loss, inappropriate development, invasive
species and the overriding impact of climate change make the task urgent and
overwhelming.
Now is the time. Please help us to protect the Tarkine as a national park and
let’s celebrate our common humanity and restore a virtual Gondwanaland.
Photo above: Senator Christine Milne in the Tarkine, Rob Blakers;
Opposite: Giant Myrtles, Mt Lindsay Minesite, Rob Blakers.