Wild Heart of Tasmania

A living history of Lake Malbena and the Western Lakes

Greg French

• Publisher: Affirm Press
• Year: 2023
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781922930941
• Subtopic: Ecosystems & Habitats
• Index: Biological Sciences

Wild Heart of Tasmania is a lively collection of stories centred around a highland wilderness. It portrays bushwalking and backcountry fishing as a way of life, and historic bush huts as social fabric.In the early 2000s, Greg French was approached by a talented young fly fisher to write a foreword to a proposed book. Greg helped the aspiring author and shared his most treasured backcountry destinations. Then bewildering events surrounding a quaint hut on a remote island turned everything on its head.The application for a commercial development in the middle of one of Tasmania's most treasured wilderness zones blindsided traditional users. Subsequent events blindsided the State Government and the developer. No one could have guessed how much national media coverage would be generated by the ostensibly tiny Lake Malbena proposal.What is it about the Western Lakes that fuels such passion? Where does lifelong and multi-generational attachment to the land fit into the narrative? What are the ramifications for ecotourism in Tasmania? And why should any of this matter to the rest of Australia?Wild Heart of Tasmania is an inspirational tale for those who love wild places and wildlife, and a cautionary one for those who believe Australia's national parks to be well protected and its democracy sacrosanct. Quirky communities and quirky people never seemed so important.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• The western lakes – an overview
• Palanquin
• Strahan, frances and lake ina
• First impressions of the western lakes
• Lake meston
• In season
• Lake mackenzie
• Lake nameless
• Christys creek
• Crosscountry from augusta to mackenzie
• Lake antimony
• Blue peaks lakes
• Discovering the malbena hut
• Western lakes backpack expeditions
• Floods and blizzards
• World fly fishing championship
• Visit to a petroglyph
• Leisure anglers keeping the environment serene
• Basing ourselves in the malbena hut
• Flying cowboy
• Meeting reg hall’s daughter
• Track rangering
• Olive lagoon
• Pillans lake track
• Allisons hut
• Lake pogana
• Circular marsh
• Lake linnhe
• Johnsons lagoon
• Walking track management strategy
• New ironstone hut
• Pillans hut fire
• Parks and wildlife workshops
• Back to the petroglyph
• LAKES reformed
• Meston caretaker
• Track assessment group
• Wild drake
• Foxes and thylacines
• Tlc at skullbone plains
• Trailer
• Building at skullbone
• Liz mcquilkin’s licence conundrum
• From ina to malbena
• Review of the 1999 management plan
• The traditional access to malbena
• The bergers
• Queen victoria museum and art gallery
• No support
• Meet me in the lobby
• Fire in the heart
• Central highlands council
• Tribunal hearings and the supreme court
• Reclaim malbena
• Aboriginal consultation
• A wilderness legend
• Doomsday bunker
• Walking on water
• Return to lakes louisa and adelaide
• Whiteleys helicopter crash
• Parsons track
• Common ground with liz mcquilkin
• Supreme victory
• The boat that bob built
• Kerrisons, pillans and field huts revisited
• Rite of passage
• Eulogy
• The future
• Postscript
• Acknowledgements
• Picture section