Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Honourable Speaker, I rise this evening to talk about the magnificent Spero‑Wanderer Wilderness. For many people, the Spero‑Wanderer might not sound like a familiar name. It is not something that we talk or hear about a lot. It is commonly referred to as the Southwest Conservation Area, termed the Spero‑Wanderer Wilderness after two of the four magnificent wild rivers that run through there. The other two being the Lewis and the Mainwaring.
The Spero‑Wanderer sounds very mystical, very intriguing, something that we could put our name to here in Tasmania as another great wild place to discover. Unfortunately, the names are not quite from the origins as mystic as that. They are, in fact, the name of two of Thomas Bather Moore’s dogs from the early 1900s. He was an early track cutter in that area and one of the first to discover the riches of that area.
The Southwest Conservation Area, or the Spero‑Wanderer Wilderness, is 138,000 hectares right adjacent to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. It is also jovially known as the area on the map called Christine Milne’s Hand. For members who might not be familiar, when some of the initial Wilderness World Heritage Area boundaries were being drawn up, legend has it that in a debate of where the boundary lines should go, rather than have a nuanced debate around different ecological communities and values of the area, there was a hand slammed on the table, said, ‘No, there will be no more extensions,’ and a line was simply drawn around that hand. Thus was the boundary. Very scientific.
As a result we have an incredible wild landscape that is under protected that could be an incredible asset to our west coast if it was included as a part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. I have been incredibly fortunate to be one of many who walk through this area and visit it. It is incredibly special. The Huon pine stands, particularly along the Spero and Wanderer Rivers, are like nothing else that I have had the pleasure of seeing in this state. There is a tree that we affectionately called the Dixon Tree after photographer Grant Dixon that has a girth of over five metres. It is simply staggering how old that tree must be. This is home to the incredible and endangered Azure Kingfisher, that just flitter along the river, abundant unlike anywhere else. It is home to a healthy Tasmanian devil population with incredible biological genetic diversity. We know this is essential as the devils are facing the facial tumour diseases. To have that population is incredibly special.
I am told if thylacines still exist anywhere, this would be the spot. There are certainly plenty of stories of early trappers being stalked by thylacines and pups along the beach as they were pining along the Spero River there. As the tides come in on the beaches and recede of a morning, you wake up to just a highway of footprints of every conceivable animal that you could wish to find in Tasmania. So if someone said they found a thylacine footprint down there, I do not think too many people would be surprised.
It is also an incredibly rich cultural landscape. The sites that you see that show the rich habitation for thousands of years by the palawa people are extraordinary, and those sites deserve the utmost protection. It is a landscape that is wild, rugged and remote and it has immense solitude, but it is not a place that feels solitary. It feels like it has been inhabited before. You do not feel alone, despite the remoteness there. You are certainly not alone. Often you will find fishermen who are seeking retreat from the wild west coast weather in a lot of the bays around there.
Indeed, some of the threats to the area also include ocean waste. There is a fantastic team, Clean up Tasmania, that do a trip down there every year to help clean up some of the waste that washes up on those otherwise very wild beaches. We have to do all that we can to support them to continue to keep that area clean. Some of the other threats include some illegal quad bike activity. There is a series of scattered old mining exploration leases that are sitting abandoned at the moment.
This is an incredible part of Tasmania that is so underprotected and unknown. We have to do all that we can to help ensure that the outstanding universal values that the Spero-Wanderer Wilderness has are properly protected. I note that photographer, Grant Dixon, has an exhibition on at the moment at Wild Island, just across the road. I encourage all members to have a look at this magnificent wild place. The exhibition is called Forgotten Wilderness: the Spero Wanderer Region, and it is showing until 1 December.
