Mining heritage

eritage values, or, further heritage listing of the Tarkine could be a threat to the mining opportunities. It depends which side of the argument you are on. Tarkine National Coalition spokesman Scott Jordan and Save Our Heritage Group convener Tony Fletcher explain why they are on opposite sides of the argument. VALUING RECENT LAND USE

THE Tarkine brand name overlays a

very large but loosely defined area of

far north-west Tasmania. As a brand

name it has a high level of recognition.

Most would agree that an effort to build

on a highly recognisable brand name to

sell the attributes of a region is desirable.

Concern in the community is aroused

however when the ‘‘green machine’’ uses

the brand name to drive a campaign to

have the entire area listed as National

Heritage and eventually classified by the

State Government as a National Park. If

successful the campaign of the Tarkine

National Coalition will perpetrate an

injustice on local people leading to

negative impacts on both the Tasmanian

economy and the quality of life of its

people. The potential for conflict looms

large.

Let’s get a few things straight.

The Tarkine, as nominated for National

Heritage listing, is already protected.

Land tenures include a national park, a

conservation area, regional reserves,

nature recreation areas, and State

reserves.

The management objective of these

tenures is legislated under the National

Parks and Reserves Management Act

2002. To state that the Tarkine is

’unprotected’ is both false and misleading.

A significant part of the Tarkine is the

100,000 hectare Arthur Pieman

Conservation Area. The area is clearly

defined with a management plan and a

community of interest.

The Arthur Pieman Conservation Area

is a multiple use area. For thousands of

years Aboriginal bands took their summer

holidays in the area. They hunted,

gathered, procreated and used fire as a

land management tool.

For the last two hundred years we of the

modern world have explored, mined,

logged, built roads and hewed tracks,

prospected, hunted, fished, grazed cattle,

camped, built homes, developed farms,

harvested kelp, delivered tourism

experiences and developed communities.

The region is part of the Mt Reid

Volcanic Zone— one of the most highly

mineralised areas in the world.

During all this time man has nurtured

nature to sustain the special values of the

region. A dynamic process of assessment

and management continues today.

The Save Our Heritage group, formed in

2010, seeks through the state process

reasonable variations to the management

plan so that the social and cultural

heritage of the last 200 years is not

undervalued.

The Tarkine Coalition however, seeks

intervention at the federal level in an

effort to ride roughshod over state

processes. They hope that a Green balance

of power in the Senate will enable them to

achieve their goals.

We coasters visit the Arthur Pieman

very regularly. We have a proven social

and cultural attachment. It is where our

heart is.

Sadly it seems the Greens and their

supporters see the Tarkine as a cash cow.

A means to gain more national publicity.

An opportunity to imagine a crisis. A

further chance for publicity through hype

and hyperbole. A WILD REFUGE TO PROTECT

THE Tarkine is a wild and ancient

landscape. This magnificent area

contains the largest temperate

rainforest in the southern hemisphere,

some of Australia’s richest Aboriginal

archaeological sites, globally significant

karst systems and a refuge for over 60

rare, threatened and endangered species.

Notably it is the last disease-free refuge

for the Tasmanian devil, and remains the

only hope to this critically endangered

species survival in the wild.

In 2009, the Cradle Coast Authority’s

Tarkine Tourism Development Strategy

identified a tourism industry around the

Tarkine supplying 1100 jobs by 2017, in a

way that respected and valued the unique

values of this area.

The imminent moratorium on logging

negotiated through the Statement of

Principles agreement will end logging in

the remaining HCV forests in the

Tarkine, removing the traditional longstanding

barrier to the proposal for a

national park.

The area was nominated for National

Heritage Listing in 2004. Between 2009

and 2010, an emergency national heritage

listing was in place as a result of the

threat from the Tarkine Loop Road

proposal.

Environment Minister Tony Burke

allowed that listing to lapse in December

2010, despite receiving advice to the

contrary. That has now emerged in a

leaked Australian Heritage Council

report recommending a listing of 433,000

hectares of the Tarkine as a National

Heritage Area. The nominated area

excludes existing, operating mines in the

area. No current jobs are at risk.

So why did the minister reject the

advice of the AHC?

Enter the new players on the block.

Three companies, with plans to establish

new open cut mines in the Tarkine.

Each of these proposed mines will have

a detrimental effect on the Tarkine’s

national heritage values. Mines,

particularly open cut mines, affect subsurface

hydrology, impact on

watercourses, involve clearing of large

areas for pits, tailings dams and rock

dumps, and involve chemical processes in

processing of ore. They add fleets of heavy

vehicles to the roads raising the mortality

of herbivorous native wildlife and the

carnivores such as the Tasmanian devil,

which feeds on the carcasses.

For Tony Burke to state as he has that

there are no grounds for the

reintroduction of the emergency listing is

blatantly untrue. Section 324JL of the

Environment Protection and Biodiversity

Conservation Act states that:

Minister may include place in National

Heritage List if under threat

(1) If the Minister believes that:

(a) a place has or may have one or more

National Heritage values; and

(b) any of those values is under threat

of a significant adverse impact; and

(c) that threat is both likely and

imminent;

It is clear that all three criteria have

been met. What is lacking is the

minister’s courage. Mines have become

the sacred cow of Australian politics, and

the environment the sacrificial lamb.