Beginnings 1

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IN THE BEGINNING WAS

Mt Field

TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY

CHRIS J TAPPERE

Tasmania's historic national park, Mt Field, was conceived early, but problems remain

EARLY THIS CENTURY two men took an unusual and somewhat adventurous holiday. Leaving Hobart, they travelled north through New Norfolk and on through the picturesque Derwent Valley with its sparkling river and rolling patch­work of fields bounded by hedge­rows. Then, going west along the line of the Tyenna River, they abruptly left this familiar, imported landscape and plunged into the harsh Tasmanian bush.

From the tall, open gum forest of the valley they entered the cool, dark rainforest and began the trackless as­cent of the Mt Field highlands. They emerged to spend their time in an area of high, jagged mountain ridges, broad, alpine heathlands and suspended lakes surrounded by strange, primeval foliage. It was all clearly a most satisfying experience, but both men finished their holiday with a profound sense of un­ease. On leaving the solitude they were soon confronted with the scars of timber-getting and the relentless march of settlement.

Leonard Rodway was a Hobart dentist who held the courtesy title of Tasmanian Government Botanist; Herbert Nicholls was a barrister who subsequently became Tasmania's vice-regal administrator and, ultimately, Sir Herbert Nicholls. Back in Hobart they enlist­ed the support of William Crooke, a man of some political influence, and the National Park Association was formed and lobbying begun.

While the credit for this initiative must go to these men, they were n the first with the impulse for conservation in that particular part of Tasmania. In Her Majesty's Department of Lands and Surveys, on a day September 1884, the following memorandum was dispatched: 'Mr. Frodsham is requested to survey 300 acre, [121 hectares] of land surrounding Russell Falls in order that the Falls may be reserved, and he is also requested to survey a road giving access to the same.'

Surveyor Frodsham duly carried out his duty and the road was cut across the land belonging to a Mr L M Shoobridge. In March 1885, a scar 13 years after the creation of the world's first ever national park (Yellowstone in the USA), the Russell Falls reserve was declared. Tasmania was, in fact, the first Australian Stat to legislate provisions for the protection of scenery. They were embodied in the rather unpromising-sounding Wastelands Act of 1863. The sites for such reserves were usually suggested by the district surveyors of the Land Department, although occasionally, initiatives came from other concerned organisations.

By the turn of the century the limitations of this system of Crown reserves were becoming obvious. The only effect was to withdraw an area temporarily from sale of lease and reserves could be, and were, revoked at the whim of the minister of the day. Further, there were no provisions for active management or conservation.

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CHRIS TAPPERE who holds an Honours Degree in Arts from the University of New England in New South Wales. managed public radio stations 2MBS-FM and 7CAE-FM before going freelance.