Beginnings 2
THE TASMANIAN Field Naturalist's Club was formed in 1904 and a primary objective was the creation of 'living museums' to remedy this problem. There were many other interests which became allied with the cause, but at the centre of the movement was the National Park Association and, in particular, its Honorary Secretary, William Crooke. He was first and foremost a conservationist. In 1913, for instance, he led a deputation to the Public Works Department to lodge a complaint; the department itself was felling timber in the Russell Falls reserve.
The falls area had become the focus for the national park movement and, when Crooke made his public call for a larger and more effective reserve, he was careful to do so in terms that would unite a broad base of support; the area was to be 'not merely a reserve marked on a map, but a thoroughly valuable and useful and popular feature of Tasmania for residents and tourists alike' . The potential increase in railway revenue that could flow from a popular recreation ground was emphasised in the case put to the government.
The conservationists were concerned to preserve an area far greater than that immediately adjacent to Russell Falls, but their particular beauty was a great asset. Nobody who had seen them would willingly have them despoiled. They have always been the emblem of the area and appeared as frequently on early 'views of Tasmania' as they do today on tourist posters. For very many people Russell Falls are the park: some 75 per cent of visitors do no more than picnic near the main gates and take a leisurely stroll down to stand where the water crashes into the rocks at their base.
The popularity of this spot is not only to do with its accessibility; it really is a 'magic' place. The track leads down a narrow forest valley dominated by giant swamp gums, but the principal impression for the walker is of a cool, green fern glade. Most noticeable are the manferns, the bare, woody stems of which rise three and four metres high to be capped by large umbrellas of fronds. The light filters down through this canopy onto a myriad smaller species which line the clear falls' creek and surround the rotting, fallen trunks which, in turn, support a profusion of mosses and fungi.
The waterfall itself is remarkably orderly. A broad, even curtain of water drops exactly 45 metres in three stages of 15 metres each. It is fringed for its entire height by forest and part of the appeal lies in the fact that it is almost impossible to view without a feathered border of rich green foliage framing the scene.
Despite such scenic wonders, the government was not easy to convince. Protracted negotiations followed from William Crooke's first public statements, but the then Minister for Lands, the Honourable Edward Mulcahy, could be persuaded to do no more than increase the size of the reserve to 2,024 hectares. With a change of government and further negotiations, the idea of a national park became more established and, finally, in 1915, the new Minister, the Honourable James Belton, reserved an area of 10,927 hectares encompassing most of the Mt Field range, the principal lakes and, of course, the falls.