MEDIA RELEASE 27 January 2006
TARKINE BREAKTHROUGH A round-table meeting of industry, community and government representatives in Burnie this week has laid the foundations for coordinated tourism development of the Tarkine area of the Cradle Coast region. The meeting, convened by the Cradle Coast Authority, included representatives from the Arthur-Pieman Management Committee, Burnie, Circular Head and Waratah-Wynyard Councils, local tourism associations, Tourism Tasmania and other State Government agencies, Forestry Tasmania, Aboriginal interests and the Tarkine National Coalition. Representatives from the West Coast were invited but unable to attend. In what participants described as a breakthrough meeting, consensus was quickly reached on a working definition of the Tarkine as ‘a distinct region of unique natural and cultural landscapes, human histories, remote communities and land uses, framed by the catchments of the Arthur and Pieman Rivers, the Murchison Highway and the Great Southern Ocean’. Cradle Coast Authority Executive Chairman, Roger Jaensch, was impressed by how quickly the group came to a common view. ‘People have been talking about the Tarkine more positively in recent times, but it’s not on any maps and we expected there would be widely differing views on what it is and where to find it’, he said. ‘It soon became clear we were all talking about the Tarkine as a region with many special places and things going on inside it, not a place with specific boundaries - something like the Kimberley region of WA’. ‘The big advantage with this approach is that the Tarkine exists in its own right and belongs to everyone. It is bigger than any one interest group and it is up to all of us, working together, to look after it’ Mr Jaensch said. The meeting also agreed on the need to improve access, information and infrastructure for visitors to the area, and creation of a long-term plan for future tourism development and management of its impacts. The group will meet again in February to develop these concepts in more detail and will request a meeting with Federal Government representatives regarding funding allocated under the Community Forest Agreement. Other issues for future meetings include briefings on infrastructure projects in the area, presentations from existing tourism businesses and development of a tourism brand for the Tarkine. Contacts Roger Jaensch, Cradle Coast Authority John Dabner, Circular Head Tourism Association Kevin Hyland, Waratah-Wynyard Council Peter Pullinger, Tarkine National Coalition
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