Peter

Thanks for that. But there is no hope. I refer you to

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8057

The Tarkine is hardly pristine wilderness although the majority is now in National Parks and conservation areas.

According to the National Estate listing it is about 350,000 hectares and is between the Arthur and Pieman Rivers, and extends from the West Coast inland almost to the Murchison Highway.

In the heart of the Tarkine is Tasmania’s largest open cut mine at Savage River, with an iron ore slurry pipeline extending to the Northern coast. The roads into the mine and along the pipeline are just some of the thousands of kilometres of roads that riddle the area.

The loop road proposal is to upgrade and seal of 127 km of existing gravel roads and build a new 5.4 km link. Much of the Tarkine Drive will be north of the National Estate Boundary. The new road will be outside the extensive conservation reserves.

The most important of these reserves is the Savage River National Park and regional reserve. The rainforest located on the Savage River Plateau is the largest contiguous area of cool temperate rainforest surviving in Australia.

Despite a major aim to provide for tourism and recreational opportunities within the regional reserve while maintaining the national park as a core wilderness area, visitor numbers as so low they are not even counted.

Instead tourists and bushwalkers access the area from the South at Corrina using the mining road or the “Fat Man” barge, and by the Western Explorer road in the west.

The Tarkine is difficult to locate on a map; the National Estate listing describes it only in words. The original study was of the NW forests by a taxpayer funded grant to a green lobby group. An AHC consultant (who also had the dual role of being one of the authors of the report) named the file the Tarkine, the English misspelling of the name of one of three Aboriginal groups in the area.

So sealing a part of the northern roads might put the region on the map and create the much needed 1600 jobs predicted as a result of the increased visitor activity