Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Honourable Speaker, winter traditionally marks the off season for tourism in Tasmania. This year many small businesses and operators are heading for a slower than normal season after a swathe of events were cancelled.
More year‑round tourism opportunities are needed to help mitigate seasonality and to provide a more stable income for reliant businesses. There is a myriad of presently untapped opportunities to upscale all‑season tourism in Tasmania. There are underutilised chances in niche, low to no impact but high yielding tourism market segments. Two of these nature‑based opportunities I would like to touch on this evening are tall tree tourism and dark sky tourism.
Last week The Financial Review published an article on the value of tall tree tourism around the world. Aside from their ecological wonder and sheer towering beauty, tall trees and their landscapes can tell cultural stories and provide health and wellbeing benefits to visitors.
The Financial Review says Australia’s most successful tall tree destination is the Daintree Rainforest because it is one of the oldest rainforests in the world and has been listed as a World Heritage Site since 1988. Well, Tasmania can top that. Here we have trees including the Huon Pine and Nothofagus gunnii, which are ancient paleo‑endemic species. Our Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, the TWWHA, was listed earlier than the Daintree in 1982, and has had numerous boundary extensions. Some of those extensions have encompassed exemplary tall trees. Other magnificent forests – some of the biggest, most unique on this planet – are yet to be properly protected, including the Grove of the Giants in the Huon Valley, which was featured on The Project this past Saturday night. If not for their life-supporting carbon sequestration, let us protect these trees for their natural wonder.
In 2023, the Big Tree State report estimated that an initial investment of $745,000 across eight potential tall tree tourism sites would generate 139,000 visitor days and over $2 million in revenue for regional communities year round.
That initial investment required to generate that income includes simple maintenance of existing roads to the remote forests and some new signage promoting the sites, the wonder and safe visitation. The Tree Project has produced a Visitor Best Practice guide to protect these precious places from being over-loved or damaged. The Tree Project is an exemplary example of grassroots organisations leading in sharing Tasmania’s extraordinary tall trees with the world. There is more to be done. The government has to step up to help protect these towering giants and sustainably promote them as a low impact and wholesome tourism experience.
The long winter nights in Tasmania are prime viewing time for our clear and dark skies. Constellations and stars have governed cultures around the globe since humankind has lived on this extraordinary planet. The night sky is humanity’s unifying heritage. However, artificial lighting and rising satellite numbers are increasing the brightness of our night skies at an alarming rate. It is estimated that over 80 per cent of people in America cannot view the stars. Excessive energy burning artificial light is causing greater harm.
Beyond interrupting the awe of the starry vista, it has altered the environment by disrupting ecosystem functionality. Migratory birds, beetles, and sea turtles all use the night sky to navigate. Many plants require daily light to dark cycles, as do nocturnal animals for foraging and mating; even one of the densest populations of wildlife on Earth, humans, need the dark to sleep properly.
Communities across the world are rallying to save their dark skies by gazetting dark sky parks and reserves and sanctuaries; mechanisms which work the same as national parks or conservation areas do for the land. Tasmania has an enormous opportunity to jump in and have one of the highest accredited dark sky places on Earth in the south-west. By virtue of being uninhabited, the south-west provides a relative baseline nocturnal environment. The area is subject to national park and the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) management plans, which already prohibit mass industrial or urban development which would otherwise generate light pollution at a scale to compromise the area’s dark sky values.
Dark sky tourism is a rapidly growing visitor segment. Let us ensure Tasmania taps in to generate new economic benefits for the state. The government needs to get a move on if Tasmania is to shine in this new competitive space. We are already missing out on a global profile. For example, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History exhibition in the United States last year featured South Australia’s River Murray International Dark Sky Reserve as a brilliant example of the southern hemisphere night sky.
Tasmania’s more superior crystal-clear viewing of the Milky Way, if listed as a dark sky sanctuary, would catapult our state onto that international league as a leader. Tasmania is home to some of the last great wilderness areas on Earth. Amplifying those qualities by also protecting sky country should be a priority. A world-class night sky viewing experience for tourists and locals alike is just the stroke of a pen away. It is as easy as flipping a light switch. Let us declare south-west sky country Tasmania’s international dark sky sanctuary.
