Battle brewing on 4WD tracks
ABORIGINAL and environment groups are threatening protest and legal action if the expansion of four-wheel-drive tracks on the Tarkine Coast is not brought to a halt.
The state government is forging ahead with plans to reopen at least 90 kilometres of old driving tracks on the North-West Coast, after 15 tracks were closed in 2012 to protect damaged Aboriginal archaeological sites.
Representatives from eight Aboriginal and environment groups united in Hobart yesterday, together urging Environment Minister Greg Hunt to intervene.
Mr Hunt could not be contacted for comment yesterday, but has repeatedly stated reopening the tracks does not require assessment or evaluation under environmental law.
The minister has said realigning former tracks or preparing new ones may compel intervention, and his department is liaising with the Parks and Wildlife Service to monitor the project.
The state government says at least some of the tracks will be reopened by Christmas.
But Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre state secretary Trudy Maluga says she will not let that happen.
‘‘The Aboriginal community will do everything in its power to stop those tracks from reopening,’’ Ms Maluga said.
‘‘We will do court action if need be, and at the end of the day, if we need to do on-body, on-ground action, that’s what we’re going to have to do.’’
Legal action would centre on forcing an injunction on the project until its impact on the area’s cultural and environmental values could be assessed under federal law.
The groups fear that if four-wheel-drives are allowed back onto the closed Arthur Pieman tracks, middens sites, hut depressions and seal hides dating back thousands of years will be instantly destroyed.
The state’s peak Aboriginal organisations refused to comment on the position of the Circular Head Aboriginal Corporation, which is in favour of the proposal.
Braddon Liberal MHA Adam Brooks maintained the government was listening to the community by reopening the tracks, pushing Labor leader Bryan Green to articulate his position.
Mr Green said he was not wholly opposed to reopening the tracks, but called for further details on when and where $300,000 the Liberals promised to upgrade the tracks would be spent, and how the region would be managed appropriately.
BACK: Andrew Perry, of Environment Tasmania, Clyde Mansell, of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, Peter McGlone, of the Tasmanian Conservation Trust, Trudy Maluga, of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, and Save the Tarkine’s Scott Jordan. FRONT: The Wilderness Society’s Vica Bayley, Ruth Langford, of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, and Jenny Weber, of the Bob Brown Foundation.