Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader
An extraordinary find by bushwalkers on the Wilson River in takayna recently, has exposed the terrible flaws in the way that stunning, wild country is managed.
A Huon Pine forest of a scale not seen outside the remote Olegas Truchanas Reserve in Southwest Tasmania was subsequently surveyed and studied and found to contain trees up to 3000 years old, trees seeded at the time the pyramids of Egypt were being constructed.
These extraordinary specimens are not protected, they are within a mining exploration area and adjacent to the proposed Mt Lindsay mine – a mine that would destroy pristine rainforest and will divert five creeks to build a tailings dam in an area of extreme rainfall.
More ancient Huon Pines are located along the Stanley River, directly below the Mt Lindsay site. Contamination from heavy metal waste water is highly probable.
This globally significant, totally unique area needs to be immediately protected and the Mt Lindsay mine proposal stopped.
This area has untapped potential for tourism and to give the town of Tullah a much needed boost to guarantee it’s future. We all know mines are boom and bust by nature. Well, the Mt Lindsay proposal will only succeed in busting an area primed for a tourism boom.
The Premier and Minister for Tourism is backing in his mates in mining but is blind to the potential of sustainable, nature based tourism. He is increasingly visionless and devoid of any ideas that aren’t proposed by Liberal party donors.