Conservation

Green Pages

A selection of environmental news briefs from around the country.

Edited by Becca Brady

Destruction behind locked gates: the secret attack on Tasmania's Wentworth Hills

Waykaywirinu

Precious forests in the vicinity of the world-famous Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair NP are under assault from logging operations.

Tasmania is famous for Lake St Clair, Australia's deepest freshwater lake and the southern gateway to the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. Unbeknownst to many, some of Australia's worst logging is flattening eucalyptus forests at their highest reaches within 50km of this famous destination, and bushwalkers finishing at this stunning lake after their iconic traverse of the world-renowned Overland Track drive out through forests that are being flattened at an alarming rate. These Waykaywirinu/Central Highlands forests are habitat for rare and critically endangered wildlife, and are the watershed for Hobart, forming the headwaters of Timtumili Minanya/River Derwent.

Forests hundreds of years old are being shipped off as woodchips, while their ancient ferns end up in hardware stores as garden mulch or stepping stones. We say these are the oldest forests in Australia currently being logged because the trees are so large that log trucks can carry only one or two logs at a time. Measuring a forest by the size of trees stacked on the back of log trucks is a tragedy, but the continual stream of trucks rolling out of these forests is proof of relentless destruction despite repeated public appeals for it to stop. At the federal level, the ALP is circulating a draft national forest policy written by the native-forest logging industry.