Tourists visiting Aussie World Heritage site face restrictions after controversial act

There are concerns Tasmania's widespread burning program could harm the state's reputation as a travel destination.

Michael Dahlstrom
·Environment Editor
Updated ·3-min read

Visitors to Australia could have their access to a popular UNESCO World Heritage site restricted after authorities controversially set fire to neighbouring land on Wednesday. Locals fear the morning’s clear blue skies will soon be choked with smoke across regions of Tasmania after the state government's logging agency began its annual burning program.

While logging company Sustainable Timber Tasmania (STT) says the practice promotes “natural regeneration” and is crucial in “reducing fuel loads” on land it has cleared, conservationists refer to the practice as “fire bombing” and warn it kills endangered species including the state’s iconic Tasmanian devils. One was found dead in a burrow after a burn in 2023.

Jenny Weber from the Bob Brown Foundation told Yahoo News STT had logged right up to the edge of an access road to the Hartz Mountains National Park, an easy 60km drive from the capital, Hobart. “It's obscene that people going to a World Heritage site to visit the beautiful wild Tasmania are going to be impacted by Forestry Tasmania burning. It's just not acceptable.”

Three large plumes of smoke above Dover in Tasmania.
Forest near Dover was set on fire as part of a planned burn program in Tasmania. Source: Bob Brown Foundation

Related: Anger as 'great browning' spreads along 1,000km of Australian coast

The burn program began in April across selected state-owned forests in the state's north and south. STT says it only lights fires when weather conditions are favourable and that it tries to minimise the impact of smoke on its neighbours.

In a Facebook post STT warned visitors it was considering carrying out planned burns on Hartz Road, Geeveston, which is located near the World Heritage site. "This period of restricted access will be in place in the interest of public safety," it said.

Why the forest was burned

  • Planned burns are lit by STT, a state government-owned business

  • They are usually conducted using helicopters

  • They are lit after a forested area has been logged

  • The fires are lit to remove debris and allow for regeneration through aerial sowing

What does the 'fire bombing' look like?

Pictures shared with Yahoo News by the Foundation highlight the scale of the program. They show land where carbon-rich forests once towered close to the coastal town of Dover on fire, and emitting huge plumes of orange smoke into the atmosphere. Video below shows black clouds dominating the sky as a chopper soars above the flames.

Asked if she thinks tourists visiting Tasmania are interested in seeing the state's cleared forests and burning program, Weber's answer was a simple "no".

The smoke plumes from a distance. Forested hill and cleared land in the foreground in Tasmania.
STT argues the fires are important in reducing fuel loads. Source: Bob Brown Foundation

Are giant fires what tourists to Tasmania want to see?

Tourism Australia sells Tasmania to the world by highlighting its “captivating” environment and “diverse” cultural experiences. But Weber is concerned that logging forest close to famous tourist sites is undermining the state’s reputation.

“Wild places and forests are the number one reason people come to Tasmania,” she said.

“But today, you’d be driving past smouldering logged areas that are emitting huge mushroom clouds of smoke. It's shocking, obnoxious behaviour.”

Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? Get our new newsletter showcasing the week’s best stories.

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest stories

  • Millions of Aussies facing 10 consecutive days of rain as weather systems 'stall'

    Some parts of the country could see rain for 10 successive days. Find out why and where the biggest falls are expected to hit.

  • Trendy suburb’s iconic palm trees ‘set alight’

    Four signature palm trees running along a popular foreshore went up in flames on Sunday night after they were “set alight”.

  • British tourist ‘aware and able to communicate’ in hospital after shark attack

    Peter Smith, 64, was savaged 10 metres off the shore in Courland Bay, on the north coast of Tobago.

  • Scientists Say New Material Can Suck Carbon Out of Atmosphere Faster Than Trees

    Scientific Alchemy A team of scientists in the United Kingdom say they have discovered a porous material that has the potential capacity to store large quantities of greenhouse gases, The Independent reports, making it one possible tool in the arsenal to fight climate change. The scientists detailed how they used computational models to develop this […]

  • Tobago shark attack: Peter Smith now 'able to communicate'

    Peter Smith's wife has thanked friends who fought the shark during the attack on Tobago's coast.

  • You Haven't Lived Until You've Seen This Alligator Clumsily Try to Climb Over a Fence

    See You Later A particularly head-strong alligator had a hell of a time climbing a fence, as seen in a video making its rounds on Reddit. "As scary as they can be, alligators just don’t look as threatening when climbing a fence," the video's title posted to the AnimalsBeingDerps subreddit reads. The footage is just […]

  • Tornado kills at least 5, injures 33, in Chinese metropolis as region battles deadly floods

    Authorities say 141 factory buildings were damaged by the tornado in Guangzhou, a city of 19 million people.

  • Car Narrowly Avoids Huge Chunk of Flying Debris as Powerful Tornado Hits in Oklahoma

    A storm chaser and his partner got a little too close to a tornado for comfort near Marietta, Oklahoma, on April 27, with dramatic video showing the car they were in narrowly avoiding falling debris as a powerful, damaging twister crossed their path.The scary moment came during a Facebook Live stream by Jesse Rossi. In the video, Rossi and his partner can be heard wondering about the cloud formation ahead of them before realizing that they are facing a tornado.A few moments later, as the pair look to pull over off Interstate 35, a large chunk of debris falls straight in front of the car, narrowly missing them.The National Weather Service confirmed a powerful EF3 tornado had hit the area. Several buildings were destroyed and extensive damage sustained along I-35. Credit: Jesse Rossi via Storyful

  • New Mexico reaches record settlement over natural gas flaring in the Permian Basin

    New Mexico has reached a record settlement with a Texas-based company over air pollution violations at natural gas gathering sites in the Permian Basin. The $24.5 million agreement with Ameredev announced Monday is the largest settlement the state Environment Department has ever reached for a civil oil and gas violation. It stems from the flaring of billions of cubic feet of natural gas that the company had extracted over an 18-month period but wasn’t able to transport to downstream processors.

  • Growing wildfire risk leaves states grappling with how to keep property insurers from fleeing

    Months after a catastrophic fire burned more than 2,200 homes in Hawaii, some property owners are getting more bad news — their property insurance won't be renewed because their insurance company has deemed the risk too high. Insurance providers, state regulators and researchers are grappling with how to keep the insurance companies in business while keeping residents and their properties insured and protected. “I think most of the insurers, you know, I’m very grateful that they’re committed to the Hawaii market, so we haven’t seen wholesale withdrawals,” after the Aug. 8, 2023 fire burned through Lahaina and killed 101 people, Hawaii Insurance Commissioner Gordon Ito said during a Wildfire Risk Forum for insurance commissioners held at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

  • Floods kill dozens in central Kenya after dam bursts

    Dozens of people have been killed after a dam burst in central Kenya as the death toll from month-long rains and flooding rises to more than 140.

  • Wild corals are suffering from heat stress. Could this Netherland’s zoo project come to the rescue?

    A Netherlands zoo has planted self-bred corals that could one day repopulate heat stressed reefs.

  • ‘Snow deluge’ years on the decline across the US West, thanks to climate change: Study

    While climate change is in general increasing the ferocity and frequency of severe weather events, the same effects may not apply to the massive snow dumps that occasionally pummel the U.S. West. The quantity of snow that falls during so-called “snow deluge” years — such as the big 2023 snow season in California — is…

  • Dozens killed in Kenya as weeks of heavy rain devastate region

    At least 71 people have been confirmed dead and 110 people are in hospital following floods near the town of Mai Mahiu in Kenya’s north-western Nakuru county, Nakuru governor Susan Kihika confirmed to CNN on Monday.

  • Fossil fuel tax could raise £580bn to fight climate crisis, new report finds

    Tax of £3.99 per ton of carbon pollution in wealthy countries could help fund green transition and compensate victims

  • Baby among at least five killed as tornadoes leave trail of destruction in central US

    Officials said at least 100 people were injured in Oklahoma, where four of the five died, as the extreme weather flattened buildings, ripped off roofing and threw vehicles down the street. The destruction was extensive in Sulphur, a rural town of about 5,000 people, as experts said nearly 40 twisters are believed to have carved their way through central areas across the weekend. It comes after extreme weather left a trail of destruction in other central areas on Friday.

  • Powerful tornadoes ravage US central states, killing at least five

    An exceptional number of tornadoes have ravaged parts of Oklahoma and nearby Great Plains states, leaving at least five dead, authorities and local media said Sunday. After 78 tornadoes were reported Friday, mostly in Nebraska and Iowa, a separate weather system Saturday brought 35 tornado reports from northern Texas and Oklahoma to Missouri, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.The storms dumped up to seven inches (18 centimeters) of rain in some places within hours, and meteorologists warne

  • CCTV Captures Dramatic Lightning Storm Over Grandview

    The National Weather Service (NWS) issued warnings over the possibility of severe thunderstorms, tornados and flash flooding across western Missouri, on April 27.CCTV footage captured by Becca Chartier shows multiple dramatic lightning storm illuminating the night sky over Grandview.The NWS forecast “multiple rounds” of severe weather to persist through the weekend, bringing large hail and damaging gusts in excess of 70 mph. Credit: Becca Chartier via Storyful

  • Bread, beer and biscuit prices could rise as wet winter hits UK crops – analysis

    British farmers are facing losses after struggling to establish key crops over autumn and winter due to the warm wet weather.

  • RPT-INSIGHT-As solar capacity grows, some of America's most productive farmland is at risk

    Dave Duttlinger's first thought when he saw a dense band of yellowish-brown dust smearing the sky above his Indiana farm was: I warned them this would happen. About 445 acres of his fields near Wheatfield, Indiana, are covered in solar panels and related machinery – land that in April 2019 Duttlinger leased to Dunns Bridge Solar LLC, for one of the largest solar developments in the Midwest. On that blustery spring afternoon in 2022, Duttlinger said, his phone rang with questions from frustrated neighbors: Why is dust from your farm inside my truck?