Australia 2002
Tasmania - Environmental damage
While Tasmania is a land of immense beauty, its natural resources are under threat. This page contains some examples of environmental damage.
The barren landscape of Queenstown
Mining
Between 1896 and 1923 over 3 million tonnes of timber were cut down to feed the smelters of the Mt Lyell Copper mine. At its peak, the furnaces were consuming 2000 tonnes of wood per week. By 1900 the combination of Sulphur fumes and heavy rainfall had changed the area into this barren moonscape.
Since the smelters closed in 1969 there has been some regrowth on the lower slopes, but it is estimated that the impact will last some four to five hundred years.
The Queen River in 2002 - The water is coloured brown from the Sulphur laden soil. There is still no aquatic life in this stream.
The acidity of the Queen River is still at extremely high levels, and there is no aquatic life.
The Mount Lyell mine closed down in 1994, but the lease was taken over by Copper Mines of Tasmania, who have planned another ten years of operation. Tailings from the mine are now dumped into a multimillion-dollar dam.
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Pieman catchment - A lake in the making
Hydro-electric power
While hydro-electric power by itself is a clean source of energy, large areas of Tasmania have been (and will be) sacrified for the generation of electricity.
The planned damming of the Franklin River caused widespread outcry amongst the general public in Australia, and led to the fall of the Labor government in 1982.
De protests eventually resulted in the Franklin Blockade, led by Dr. Bob Brown, in December 1982, the same day that the Australian Democrats' World Heritage Protection Bill was passed in the Senate. On December 14, fifty three people were arrested. The blockade continued until March 1983, during which time 1400 people were arrested and many jailed.
Premier Gray, however, defied the federal government and continued to work on the dam. In March and April 1983, the Federal Government brought in both regulations and legislation to stop the dam.
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A Logging truck with softwood from a plantation
Logging
Probably the most controversial item in Tasmania is the logging of oldgrowth trees. Tasmania's magnificent oldgrowth forests are under threat from unsustainable logging. Often this valuable wood is used only for woodchipping.
The stakes are high. Lost oldgrowth forest is replaced by tree plantations or farmland.
There is strong polarization between the parties involved, which often result in brutal attacks on logging equipment.
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