The Southwest Wilderness: The Last Temperate Wilderness on Earth

The Southwest National Park and the broader Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, protecting approximately 1.4 million hectares of southwest Tasmania from the Gordon and Franklin Rivers to the South Cape, represents one of the largest and most complete temperate wilderness areas in the world and the most significant ecological inheritance in Australia. The area's designation as a World Heritage site reflects the combination of its geological significance, its outstanding natural beauty, and the extraordinary biological values of the endemic flora and fauna that the island's long geological isolation has produced.

The Franklin River campaign of the 1980s, which successfully prevented the damming of the Franklin River and became the defining moment of the Australian environmental movement's political effectiveness, gave the southwest wilderness a cultural significance that complements its ecological values. The Franklin blockade, in which protesters including Bob Brown chained themselves to machinery to prevent the construction crews from reaching the dam site, and the subsequent federal government intervention that prevented the dam and led to the World Heritage listing, is the founding story of Australian environmental activism that the landscape the campaign saved embodies.

The South West Cape track and the Overland Track, Tasmania's two most iconic wilderness walks, provide access to the southwest wilderness for the experienced and well-equipped walkers who seek the most demanding Australian wilderness walking experience. The south west in particular, where the tracks cross the quartzite ridges and the ancient King Billy Pine forests of the high country in conditions that can change from clear sun to blizzard within hours, tests walkers' navigation, fitness, and equipment in the way that only genuine wilderness demands.

The endemic species of the Tasmanian Wilderness, including the huon pine that lives for thousands of years, the Tasmanian devil, the quoll, and the wedge-tailed eagle that nests on the dolerite cliffs, create the biological inventory of an isolated island that has developed its own ecological trajectories in the millions of years since Tasmania's separation from the Australian mainland. The conservation of these endemic species and their habitats is the ecological imperative that the World Heritage listing, the national parks, and the conservation management of the area serves.

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