The future security of Tasmania's Tarkine Wilderness concerns us all

Why should the preservation of Tasmania’s Tarkine Wilderness area concern you or space be permitted in this Victorian newspaper to discuss its preservation?

The subtle, but important beauty
 of the Tarkine Wilderness.

That Tasmanian wilderness has, unquestionably, long-term importance for your well-being and generations to follow that far exceed the short-term intentions of the profiteers who are blinded to its beauty, and inherent value to humanity, by the potentially mineral-rich dirt beneath.

Visit the area and you will be stunned by the beautiful intrigue of the forest.

The 430 000ha wilderness in north western Tasmania is home to Australia’s largest tract of cool temperature rain forest; it has many Indigenous archaeological sites, contains several sites of international geo-conservation significance, and has several iconic threatened species, including the giant freshwater crayfish and the Tasmanian devil.

The Tarkine was the last great unprotected wilderness in southern Australia, but now following a decision by Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke, it is now, save a slither on the coast, exposed to an unremitting onslaught from the mining industry.

Minister Burke’s decision is effectively a crime against all Australians, not to mention in a broader sense the people of the world, and all should rebuke him for his insensitivity to this priceless piece of infrastructure inherited by all.

It took thousands, if not millions of years for the Tarkine forests to become what they are today and yet the urgency with which miners operate will see that timeless work undone in just a decade or so.

Nineteenth century American author, poet, philosopher, historian and development critic, Henry David Thoreau, said the preservation of the world was in our wilderness.

Burke has obviously never been a student of Thoreau, nor does he care about or understand that decisions he makes today create situations with which people will still be wrestling when he is long under the earth he has sacrificed to profit.

It seems he is attuned to the short-term needs of profit and stands with those who endorse what was described at Melbourne’s recent Sustainable Living Festival as the “dinosaur economy”.

Australian Conservation Foundation speaker, Chuck Berger, briefly explained the extinction of dinosaurs and argued the dynamics of the world’s present economics will have a different, but strikingly similar result for humans.

The Burke decision for Tasmania’s Tarkine Wilderness is remarkably out of step with what the world actually needs and is as “Jurassic” in shape and form as the dinosaurs.

Yes, we should be concerned about how “our” Tarkine Wilderness is treated for although we may never go there it still contributes intimately to our lives through a playing a role in the stabilization of our climate and is home to countless species we may not know about or ever see, but are a crucial part of the web of life.