Tarkine Wilderness
The Tarkine is one of the world's great wild places. It is an expansive 447,000 hectare wilderness area of recognised World Heritage significance in the North-West corner of Tasmania, Australia's island state. The Tarkine contains remarkable natural and cultural values, including one of the world's most significant remaining tracts of temperate rainforest.
A relict from the ancient super-continent, Gondwanaland, the Tarkine contains Australia's largest tract of temperate rainforest, and is home to more than 60 species of rare, threatened and endangered species. These include such unique animals as the Giant Freshwater Lobster - the world's largest freshwater crustacean, and the Tasmanian Wedge Tailed Eagle - Australia's largest Eagle, and the famous Tasmanian Devil.
The rain forests of the Tarkine, some 177 000 hectares, include the largest unbroken stand of rain forest in Australia. These rain forests are recognised as being one of the most significant tracts of temperate rain forest on earth.
The basalt soils of North-West Tasmania provide prime conditions for luxuriant rain forest growth, and the rain forests of the Tarkine make up the largest tract of tall rain forest in Tasmania. In tall (Callidendrous) rain forest, Myrtle trees can grow up to 50m tall and 4m in diameter, providing a dense canopy and open under story. Callidendrous forests are typically carpeted by a vast array of mosses, lichens and ferns, resembling well tended botanical gardens. This area was assessed as 'high-quality wilderness' as part of the Regional Forest Agreement and has been recommended for protection and World Heritage nomination on a number of occasions. The Tarkine currently has a nomination for National Heritage with the Federal Environment Minister.
The Tarkine and its rain forests, having survived unchanged for many millenia before white man arrived, are a global treasure.
The Tarkine is also one of Australia's most important Aboriginal regions, and contains a diverse array of landscapes, from giant forests to huge sand-dunes, sweeping beaches, rugged mountains and pristine river systems.
The word Tarkine is adapted from the name of one of three bands of Aboriginal people (Tarkineer) that made up a tribe that once lived in north-west Tasmania. Evidence of Aboriginal occupation in the region includes innumerable middens, hut depressions, artefact scatters, ceremonial stone arrangements, petroglyph's, and spongolite (a particular rock used to make stone tools). At least 244 archaeological sites have been identified in the area, and although surveys have been less than comprehensive, estimations of up to 1000 sites have been made (Richards and Sutherland-Richards 1992).
The Australian Heritage Commission has assessed the Tarkine as "one of the world's great archaeological regions" (1990, cited in Richards and Sutherland-Richards 1992).
There are groves of the tallest hardwood trees on the planet, numerous wild rivers, and spectacular mountain ranges. Until recently the forests of Tarkine were inaccessible for walkers. In collaboration with the Tarkine National Coalition, Tarkine Trails has opened a forest trail that provides access to the ancient forests the Tarkine is famous for. It is without doubt, Australia's best kept wilderness secret, but one that will not last forever, so we urge you to join us sooner rather than later while this remoteness and isolation lasts.
