Forest in the Tarkine’s south. Picture: Nick Carson.
RMIT student Nick Carson is one of many environmentalists who oppose mining in Tasmania’s Tarkine region.
Last month Mr Carson, a member of the Australian Students Environmental Network, traveled to Launceston to attend the 2013 Students of Sustainability Conference.
A passionate activist, Mr Carson and smaller group of students from the conference went on a road trip around Tasmania – a trip which included a visit to the Tarkine as well as a non-violent direct action protest at a veneer mill in Smithton.
“We all had a look at proposed mining sites as well as the areas of native forest earmarked to be destroyed to get the resources underneath it,’’ Mr Carson said.
“It’s an amazing area, very very wild.
“These are some areas where human beings, at least since the European invasion, have been to very very little.’’
On the Western Explorer Road through the Tarkine Wilderness area. Picture: Flickr/ToniFish
The Tarkine region has no formal boundary, only recently did Tasmanian Deputy Premier Bryan Green announce the name ‘Tarkine’ refers to “an unbounded locality” on Tasmania’s North-West.
Environmental group Tarkine National Coalition offers its own definition and is lobbying to get the area listed as a National Park and World Heritage Area.
A Federal Government assessment of the Tarkine’s national heritage value found it was likely to have outstanding heritage value and then Environment Minister Tony Burke announced a heritage listing of 15,000 hectares, much smaller than environmental groups had hoped.
This year two mines were approved by the Federal Government to operate in the Tarkine and many more are in the pipeline.
Venture Minerals’ Riley Creek mine, an iron-ore mine with an estimated life of two years, was approved last week.
The north-west coast of Tasmania is recognized as one of the most disadvantaged regions in Australia.
Burnie’s Nathan Newton hopes the mines bring jobs and prosperity for the region.
He set up the Pro Tarkine Development Coalition Facebook page last year, now with over 4000 members, and he’s been lobbying in support of mines in the Tarkine ever since.
Mr Newton says the areas in which mines are proposed are ‘‘not pristine’’.
“So much of this is pushed on mainland people, but they don’t know,’’ he said.
“I think a lot of those people are misled into believing that all of the Tarkine is pristine wilderness, when it is not all pristine wilderness.
“They think all of us are just rednecks cutting down trees.’’
