Search

It is 30 years since the Australian environmental movement enlisted the term "wilderness" to protect Tasmania's remote Franklin River from hydroelectric development. Environmentalists deployed "wilderness" strategically during the conflict to build public support for their no-dam campaign, aided by national and international media who used the term liberally, while Tasmanian news media and pro-development elites acknowledged the term's inherent political qualities by suppressing its use. Our interest is in the political and media framing of "wilderness" since the concept was "branded" by government and industry at the turn of the twenty-first century. Drawing on continuing environmental conflict over Tasmania's remote Tarkine region as a case study, we ask to what extent media portrayals of "wilderness" have changed since the Franklin dam was stopped and the Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness Area was created in 1982. Using content analysis of related articles in the local media and qualitative analysis of international travel journalism about Tasmania published over an extended period, we find that place branding has contributed to the routinization of "wilderness" and to a shift in the focus of mediated conflict from "wilderness" to "tourism." The Tasmanian experience demonstrates that while the actions of the environmental movement can valorize place, branding can depoliticize contested natural areas. Yet brands that incorporate or allude to "wilderness" may have the unanticipated consequence of valorizing "wilderness" transnationally, in a manner that the environmental movement would struggle to emulate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2004, the Australian Government introduced a new federal heritage regime based around the National Heritage List (NHL). This regime has a significant governance defect; the heritage minister controls the list rather than an independent heritage body, exposing it to political manipulation. This article reviews the NHL listing process and compares it to a ‘best practice’ model. A case study on the Tarkine, a wilderness area in north-west Tasmania, demonstrates how the NHL has been managed and the influence political factors have had on its administration. The case study reveals that the concerns about the politicisation of the NHL are well-founded and that changes ought to be made to ensure the regime fulfils its objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two ecological models have been put forward to explain the dynamics of fire-promoting and fire-sensitive vegetation in southwest Tasmania: the alternative stable states model of Jackson (in Proc Ecol Soc Aust 3:9-16, ) and the sharpening switch model of Mount (in Search 10:180-186, ). Assessing the efficacy of these models requires high resolution spatio-temporal data on whether vegetation patterns are stable or dynamic across landscapes. We analysed ortho-rectified sequences of aerial photography and satellite imagery from 1948, 1988 and 2010 to detect decadal scale changes in forest and non-forest vegetation cover in southwest Tasmania. There was negligible change from forest to non-forest (<0.05%) and only a modest change from non-forest to forest over the study period. Forest cover increased by 4.1% between 1948 and 1988, apparently due to the recovery of forest vegetation following stand-replacing fire prior to 1948. Forest cover increased by 0.8% between 1988 and 2010, reflecting the limited ability of forest to invade treeless areas. The two models include interactions between vegetation, fire and soil, which we investigated by analysing the chemical (phosphorus, nitrogen) and physical properties (clay, silt) of 128 soil samples collected across 34 forest-non-forest boundaries. Phosphorus in the upper horizon was typically lower in non-forest vegetation compared to forest vegetation, which is consistent with proposed fire-vegetation-soil feedbacks. Mineral horizons were dominated by sand, with low levels of clay under all vegetation types. Available field evidence lends support to the Jackson () alternative stable states model as the most suitable model of vegetation dynamics on nutrient poor substrates in southwest Tasmania although modifications of the timeframes for transitions toward rainforest are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which determined the presence and distribution of the amphibian fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) within and immediately around the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) and identified the risk factors associated with the distribution of the disease to direct appropriate management actions. In the survey conducted, Bd was detected at only 1 of the 33 sites within the TWWHA and at 15 of the 29 sites surrounding the TWWHA. It was shown that for all the surveyed sites within and around the TWWHA, the presence of Bd was strongly associated with the presence of gravel roads, forests and altitude.

The article presents a study that examines the unpublished ecological studies on the natural wilderness in the Port Davey-Bathurst Harbour marine in Tasmania. It offers the natural resource exploitation history, the natural resource management history, and aquatic research history that occurred in the place. It discusses the major threats to biodiversity values of the region including the boating impacts, fishing impacts, and effluent impacts.

The impact of introduced ship rats (Rattus rattus) on recruitment of the megaherbPleurophyllum hookeriBuchan. (Asteraceae) was examined on subantarctic Macquarie Island, an island with no extant native terrestrial vertebrates.Pleurophyllum hookeri(Asteraceae) forms a dominant component of the Macquarie Island vegetation and is restricted to the subantarctic. The Macquarie Island population ofP. hookeriis the most extensive and intact. Introduced ship rats (Rattus rattus) are well established in tall tussock grassland of Macquarie Island. We detected rat activity for the first time withinP. hookeriherbfields, in autumn 2000. We found rats were destroying up to 90% of racemes. By excluding rats from caches of inflorescences that they had formed, we found they were having a significant negative effect on initial recruitment and seedling survival within the caches. However, because of high seedling mortality after 1 year, there was no sustained impact of the exclosures onP. hookeriseedling density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major 5 year review of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area management plan 1992 by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service resulted in a new plan in 1999. As part of the process, a 1997 draft circulated for comment had flagged significant changes in management prescriptions: these changes represented responses from the planners to protests from communities who argued that the 1992 document, in the name of wilderness preservation, had ignored their long-standing involvement with land inside World Heritage boundaries. Using a cultural heritage perspective, this paper analyses the 1999 plan (which was virtually unchanged from the 1997 draft), and contrasts it with the 1992 management assumptions. Specific provisions designed to address aspects of community concern are explained. The shift in management emphasis is interpreted as a reflection of recent debates about relationships between wilderness and cultural landscapes, and about community roles in conservation. This change in Tasmania also points to possibilities for gaining support for a broader conservation perspective through a new, different kind of community involvement in the management of national parks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statewide extents of wilderness are mapped and calculated for four historic time-slices that reflect major periods of national park development in Tasmania. The representation of wilderness in the Tasmanian reserve system is calculated for 1937, 1970 and 1992. National parks were established in wilderness areas during all major periods of reserve development. While the total core wilderness area in Tasmania decreased by 63% between 1916 and 1992, the core wilderness area captured in the reserve system increased by 618%, with the largest increase being in the post-1970 period. However, those parks established prior to 1970 suffered an enormous attrition of their wilderness resource. This reflects man-agement policies inconsistent with the maintenance of wilderness during early periods of national park development. The huge increase in wilderness area captured in the reserve system after 1970 suggests that wilderness conservation only became a significant motive behind the expansion of the reserve system in the later decades of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the effect of landscaping and wilderness visions for the Central Plateau on the government policy in Tasmania. Expression of appreciation on wild scenery by the Australian society; Proposition of the Western Tasmania Stage Two National Park campaign by the Franklin victory movement; Regulation regarding horse access to the Central Plateau.

.

.