Southwest National Park

About

Southwest National Park is an Australian national park located in the south-west of Tasmania, bounded by the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park to the north and the Hartz Mountains National Park to the east. It is a part of a chain of national parks and state reserves that make up the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Covering an area of 6,183 km2 (2,387 sq mi), it is Tasmania's largest national park. The park is well known for its pristine wilderness, remoteness and unpredictable severe weather. The area is largely unaffected by humans. Although evidence shows Aboriginal Tasmanians have visited the area for at least 25,000 years, and European settlers have made occasional forays into the park area since the 19th century, there has been very little permanent habitation and only minimal impact on the natural environment. Within the area there is only one road, to the hydroelectricity township of Strathgordon. The southern and western reaches of the park are far removed from any vehicular access. The only access is by foot, boat, or light aircraft. The tiny locality of Melaleuca in the extreme south-west provides an airstrip and some very basic facilities, mainly managed...

South West Tasmanian Aboriginal Nation and Black War

South West Tasmania has been inhabited for approximately 40,000 years, and isolated from mainland Australia since the Bassian Plain flooded 8,000 years ago.

Tools, bones and fireplaces found in caves in what is now the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park date aboriginal occupation in south-west Tasmania back to at least 34,000 BP. The South West nation was one of nine across the state, and contained four known clans the Mimegin, Lowreenne, Ninene and Needwonne. They were nomadic hunter gatherers, with staple foods including shellfish, crayfish, seals, penguins along the coast, and wallabies, wombats and birds along the buttongrass plains.

There is some evidence to suggest that repeated burning of buttongrass moorlands by the South West Nation has caused it to propagate more widely than is natural. This was done to increase areas where wallabies and wombats can forage for hunting purposes.

European sealers hunted in Tasmania from 1798, shortly followed by settlements around the Derwent River, to the east. Conflict between the aboriginals and Europeans soon followed, cumulating in the Black War and the near-destruction of Aboriginal Tasmanians.

The South West of Tasmania was first seen by Europeans in 1642 by Abel Tasman, but it was not known to be an island until Matthew Flinders and George Bass circumnavigated it 156 years later.

The first European overland expeditions into the region were conducted in the early 1830s by George Augustus Robinson, who was guided by Truganini, Woureddy and several other Indigenous people. Many landmarks in the region were named by him. During these expeditions, Robinson, acting under the policies of the local British colonial government, removed all the Indigenous residents from the area.

The far south west was first surveyed from land by James Sprent in 1854 when he reached Port Davey, becoming the first European to notice Federation Peak which he dubbed "the Obelisk". He later published this work as 'Map of Tasmania and Adjacent Islands'.

The core of the national park, an area of 239 km 2 (92 sq mi) surrounding Lake Pedder was first created in 1955, and called the Lake Pedder National Park. It was a glacial outwash lake, which hosted numerous endemic species including the Lake Pedder earthworm and Pedder galaxias. Lake Pedder was famous among bushwalkers for its majesty and unique pink quartz sand. Dr Peter Hay reflected, "Had it still existed, it would have the same sort of status in Australian mythology as other landscape icons like Uluru and Kakadu and the Great Barrier Reef."

In 1968 the Tasmanian Government expanded the area to 1,916 km 2 (740 sq mi), renaming it the Southwest National Park. However, it was actually as scenic reserve, with protections removed so that the area could form a catchment of the Tasmanian Hydro Electric Commissions (HEC) Upper Gordon River hydro-electric generation scheme. The aim was to increase Tasmania's capacity to generate hydro-electricity, and attract secondary industry with the incentive of cheap renewable energy. The original Lake Pedder was controversially flooded in 1972, with the issue attracting attention of environmentalist groups around the state as they unsuccessfully opposed the dam. They later reformed, and successfully halted the Franklin River Dam, the first success of the greens movement in Australia.

In 1976 the national park was extended towards southwest and incorporated most of the Port Davey State Reserve, and continued to expand until it reached its present size in 2000.

The Southwest National Park was a biosphere reserve under the United Nations Biosphere Program from 1977 until its withdrawal from the program in 2002. Its designation as a biosphere reserve was due to the important world heritage values and human use values it contained. [ citation needed ] Some of these values included being a key breeding zone for the critically endangered Orange-bellied parrot, remnants of Aboriginal occupation and other historic heritage sites such as the Melaleuca – Port Davey Area Plan (Tasmania Parks and Wildlife 2003, p 2). This was followed by a World Heritage listing in 1982 which was then expanded to its current size.

South West Tasmania has been inhabited for approximately 40,000 years, and isolated from mainland Australia since the Bassian Plain flooded 8,000 years ago.

Tools, bones and fireplaces found in caves in what is now the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park date aboriginal occupation in south-west Tasmania back to at least 34,000 BP. The South West nation was one of nine across the state, and contained four known clans the Mimegin, Lowreenne, Ninene and Needwonne. They were nomadic hunter gatherers, with staple foods including shellfish, crayfish, seals, penguins along the coast, and wallabies, wombats and birds along the buttongrass plains.

There is some evidence to suggest that repeated burning of buttongrass moorlands by the South West Nation has caused it to propagate more widely than is natural. This was done to increase areas where wallabies and wombats can forage for hunting purposes.

European sealers hunted in Tasmania from 1798, shortly followed by settlements around the Derwent River, to the east. Conflict between the aboriginals and Europeans soon followed, cumulating in the Black War and the near-destruction of Aboriginal Tasmanians.

The South West of Tasmania was first seen by Europeans in 1642 by Abel Tasman, but it was not known to be an island until Matthew Flinders and George Bass circumnavigated it 156 years later.

The first European overland expeditions into the region were conducted in the early 1830s by George Augustus Robinson, who was guided by Truganini, Woureddy and several other Indigenous people. Many landmarks in the region were named by him. During these expeditions, Robinson, acting under the policies of the local British colonial government, removed all the Indigenous residents from the area.

The far south west was first surveyed from land by James Sprent in 1854 when he reached Port Davey, becoming the first European to notice Federation Peak which he dubbed "the Obelisk". He later published this work as 'Map of Tasmania and Adjacent Islands'.