The Wielangta forest is in south-east

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It is notable for its role in a 2006 court case that called into question the effectiveness of Australia's cooperative Commonwealth-State forest management regime known as

Regional Forest Agreement The Regional Forest Agreements (RFA) are 20 year plans for the conservation and sustainable management of Australia's native forests, and are intended to provide certainty to commercial forestry operations while protecting environmental values. The ...

Name

Wielangta is an Aboriginal name of high trees.

Environment

The Wielangta forest is part of remnant glacial refugia forest and contains blue gum eucalypt forest and pockets of cool temperate

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

. The forest is a key habitat of rare and threatened species, including the

Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle The Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax fleayi'') is an endangered bird of Tasmania. It is a subspecies of the more common wedge-tailed eagle. Description ''Aquila'' is a genus of large eagles that have long, rounded wings with de ...

, swift parrot,

Wielangta stag beetle ''Lissotes latidens'', commonly known as the Wielangta stag beetle or broad-toothed stag beetle, is a species of stag beetle which is only found in an area centred in Wielangta Forest in eastern Tasmania ) , nickname ...

spotted-tail quoll The tiger quoll (''Dasyurus maculatus''), also known as the spotted-tail quoll, the spotted quoll, the spotted-tail dasyure, native cat or the tiger cat, is a carnivorous marsupial of the quoll genus ''Dasyurus'' native to Australia. With male ...

and eastern barred bandicoot. A rare orchid (''Genoplesium nudum'') has also been discovered in the forest. The forest forms part of the

South-east Tasmania Important Bird Area The South-east Tasmania Important Bird Area encompasses much of the land retaining forest and woodland habitats, suitable for breeding swift parrots and forty-spotted pardalotes, from Orford to Recherche Bay in south-eastern Tasmania, Australia ...

, identified as such by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

because of its importance in the conservation of a range of woodland birds.

Logging controversy

The forest is under the control of

Forestry Tasmania Sustainable Timber Tasmania (formerly Forestry Tasmania) is a government business enterprise wholly owned by the Government of Tasmania, Australia. It is responsible for the management of public production forest in Tasmania, which is about 80 ...

, with logging being allowed. The logging of the forest has been contentious due to the impact on rare and threatened species. Environmentalists called for the Wielangta forest area to be incorporated into a broader reserve offering full protection to environmental and biodiversity values. Some parts of Wielangta were granted formal protection in the recent Supplementary

(Tasmania). In 2006

Australian Greens The Australian Greens, commonly known as The Greens, are a confederation of Green state and territory political parties in Australia. As of the 2022 federal election, the Greens are the third largest political party in Australia by vote and th ...

Senator, Bob Brown, took the issue of Forestry Tasmania's failure to protect endangered species in Wielangta to the Federal Court, particularly the

, broad-toothed stag beetle and swift parrot. His case was initially successful, establishing that forestry activities were impacting on those species, but an appeal by Forestry Tasmania on the interpretation of a part of the agreement was successful. In February 2007, the Tasmanian State Government and the Australian Federal Government responded by changing the text of the State's Regional Forest Agreement and making further legal appeals pointless. The new clauses make it clear that the word 'protection' relates only to whether the two respective governments deem a species to be protected rather than the meaning of the word being based on actual evidence of such. In June 2009 Brown received a bill from Forestry Tasmania for the costs of the case and of the appeals. After a public appeal for assistance he declared he would be able to make the payment by the deadline and not risk losing his seat in the

Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...

.Forestry Tasmania's bill will be paid on time, says Brown
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Wielangta tram

The Wielangta tram was a more than long forest railway, which ran on steel and wooden rails along the Sandspit River from the Wielangta forest to the sawmills in the Wielangta settlement and from there to the east coast opposite of

Maria Island Maria Island or 'wukaluwikiwayna' in alawa kani) is a mountainous island located in the Tasman Sea">island.html" ;"title="alawa kani) is a mountainous island">alawa kani) is a mountainous island located in the Tasman Sea, off the east coast of ...

, where the sawn timber was loded onto ships via a pier on Rheban beach south of Orford.''Van Diemen's Land Steam Co.''
Retrieved on 10 January 2019. Its steam locomotive had been built by Russell Allport & Co in Hobart. In its heyday Wielangta had several sawmills, a general store, a bakery, a blacksmith and a school.Jennifer Marohasy
The Story of Wielangta: How Environmentalists Mistake ‘A Timber Town That Disappeared’ for Pristine Wilderness.
22 November 2006. Retrieved on 10 January 2019. The sawmill settlement was inhabited by about a hundred pioneers. They worked there from 1911 to 1924, before the sawmill was closed due to the lack of wood in the area and the workers moved on. The settlement was devastated by bushfires in the 1920s and abandoned in 1928. File:DL094 003 (27423290535).jpg, Transport of fly wheel, 1911 DL094 005 (27351717631).jpg, Transport of mill boiler EL089 001 (20902385773).jpg, Transport of mill equipment DL094 007 (27389230286).jpg, Bridge DL094 006 (27324800322).jpg, Logging DL094 004 (27324810662).jpg, Break time

References

External links

Forestry Tasmania
Bob Brown vs Forestry Tasmania trial
{{coord, 42, 40, S, 147, 50, E, type:forest_region:AU-TAS, display=title, format=dms Tasmanian forests Important Bird Areas of Tasmania Logging railways in Australia