A blatant ripoff in both theme and content from a recently released tune by the Herd – but all the same, a great way to start a new post.
Tasmanian politics entered a new era last week with the resignation of the premier, Paul Lennon. To all of us, both new, temporary and old tasmanians who aspire to something other than a dated view of ‘progress’, this is a good thing. In almost the same week, ANZ bank showed some courage and neglected to fund the Gunn’s pulp mill project. Good news on most fronts, then. Despite the Australian federal government’s continuing approval of a project that appears to be Yet Another Expensive White Elephant.
A birthday party saw Bel and I driving across Tasmania and back, to Low Head. Our first trip up the east tamar valley, past the site of the proposed mill and several other magnificent pieces of industrial wonderland. You would ask, on first impression: ‘whats the big deal about the pulp mill? Surely one more industrial plant here won’t make much impact!’. However – the big issues here are the ones you won’t see, unless you venture sufficiently far off the beaten track into the strip-mines of Tasmania’s forests. I’d recommend a tour of the Florentine and Styx valleys should you ever head south to Tasmania. You should also take a look up some side roads off of the main drag to Fortescue bay, and check out the wood mining operations around Ben Lomond.
These are all areas that will come under increasing pressure, should the pulp mill go ahead. And with them, the associated problems of encroaching on an ever-smaller amount of ‘wild space’. The forests, and the creatures in them, have no place else to go. And once removed, may never return.
To finish on a happier note, the birthday party was great! Slightly hung over, we crept back to Hobart… and now? back to work – pushing back the frontiers of science!