Tasmania's (not so) wild west

On my way up through western Tasmania the other week, I called in for lunch at the visitor centre at Lake St Clair. I know the area quite well, having visited several times in the past, and having even completed a Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair full adventure once.

It's been smartened up a lot in recent years. Here's the new official start/end point of the 5-10 day epic.





Here's a view of part of the King William range, which I remember conquering about 25 years ago.

The Franklin River used to be a very distant destination. You walked for a day or two to get a glimpse of it, or you rafted down it, at risk of life and limb, for a week or more. Now you can peruse the upper reaches at least, via a very comfortable, well-made walking track off the Lyell Highway. It was magnificently green.



And here's Frenchmans Cap, a particularly iconic South-West Tasmanian wilderness destination, glimpsed in the distance from a highway car-park. It's typically a 5-day walk into Frenchmans. I did it once, when it involved days of trudging across the muddy 'Sodden Lodden' Plains. I understand they've built boardwalks recently that take most of the challenge out of the Sodden Lodden, but it's probably still a good hike.

I stayed the night in good old Queenstown. 'Queenie' was once a busy mining mecca, with its massive copper mine, whose smelters denuded and poisoned the surrounding hillsides. While I was there I don't think I saw any locals on the streets at all. Just a few tourists. There's talk of the Mt Lyell mine opening again soon maybe.


Upper reaches of the Franklin River

Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of the .......... enlarged Gardens of Stone National Park

The Gardens of Stone National Park has been a bushwalking playground of mine for a few years now. It's about two hours north west of Sydney, and it's packed with unique features and wilderness values galore. It's worth World Heritage status, without a doubt.

Except that much of the relevant, precious, area is not actually protected. Not a part of the National Park. And it's mostly because of mining - coal mining in fact.

The dirty, dying, coal mining industry still goes on around here. There are longwall mine shafts under much of the area, and subsidence, pollution, and unexpected swamp drainage is going on largely unchecked.








So it's good to see there's a well organised campaign on to extend the Gardens of Stone National Park. Here's a link to the Colong Foundation's campaign: https://www.colongwilderness.org.au/campaigns/the-gardens-of-stone/about-gardens-of-stone

 The other day I attended a photographic exhibition organised as part of the campaign. I'm sure they won't mind me directing you to the photo gallery: https://www.colongwilderness.org.au/gardens-stone-focus-photographic-competition-gallery

I put in a bid to buy one of the fine pictures in their silent auction. I haven't heard back yet from them, but fingers crossed.

It reminds me a bit of Tasmania 35 years ago, when the Franklin-Lower Gordon Wild Rivers campaign was underway. Fabulous photography played a huge role, as the Australian public was educated about the unique beauty of an area which was about to be dammed and flooded by an uncaring and out-of-control government bureaucracy, for no known public benefit. That one had a happy ending. Lets hope history repeats itself here.