Green business is good business in Tasmania, whose reputation as an environmentally sound tourist destination is on the rise.
Tasmania, that greenest of Australian states, is at the heart of a growing worldwide trend towards holidays that have only minimal impact on the environment. So it should be. More than a third of the state is World Heritage-listed, national park and forest reserve. The wildlife is ever-present: from brushtail possums as big as cats, to wombats, pademelons, Bennett’s wallabies and quolls scooting out of your headlights.
But it’s not only bushwalkers making do with cold showers who contribute to responsible holidaymaking. Ecotourism in Tasmania now has the breadth of an almighty Eucalyptus regnans. In some places you can have an espresso coffee, watch a wide-screen TV, then take a hot bath under the stars and be totally guilt-free, knowing you are considering the environment.
After nearly a decade of running wildlife-focused open-boat ecotours, Bruny Island Charters has been so successful that it recently branched out to provide similar tours off the Tasman Peninsula. “In recent years, there has been more interest in ecotourism worldwide,” says marketing manager Trina Mangels. “In general, people are more in tune with what’s happening with the environment. They don’t necessarily want to rough it, but they want to experience what’s left that’s untouched – and Tasmania has so much of it.”
Freycinet Adventures has noticed a similar trend with its quiet three-hour paddle across Great Oyster Bay to beautiful Freycinet National Park.
The options in eco-friendly accommodation are ever-growing. The danger is that the word “eco” has now become the ubiquitous equivalent of “lite” or “diet” – and it can be difficult to distinguish between operators who are genuinely trying to make tourism more sustainable and others who are merely “greenwashing”.
Even Forestry Tasmania is getting in on the eco act. It has set up multimillion-dollar facilities in key places where you can have exciting and novel experiences in nature. The second most popular tourist attraction in the state, after Port Arthur, is the raised platform of the Tahune Airwalk, south of Hobart. A new addition is a swinging bridge walk over the Huon and Picton rivers. Forestry also operates the 110m thrill slide at Dismal Swamp, now called Tarkine Forest Adventures, which propels you at frightening speeds down into the world’s only sinkhole filled with a blackwood forest; and a new attraction at Scottsdale, where you can fly from tree to tree like a sugar glider.
Paul Dimmick is co-owner of Huon Bush Retreats, a solar-powered, carbon-negative ecotourism operation on 11sq km of private nature reserve. “It’s not that we had an idea to exploit the environment for profit,” he says. “Saving the environment came first – then we needed to build a business model to pay for that.”
Whether it’s a focus on observing and conserving wildlife, caring for and experiencing beautiful places, or minimising visitor impact, Tasmania bulges with holiday options in all shades of green. “It’s not that common for people to get up close and personal with a pristine environment,” Mangels says. “People come away very touched by what they see.”
These are some of the island state’s most compelling and successful ecotourism initiatives.
Stay
Huon Bush Retreats
300 Browns Road, Ranelagh.
Mount Paul
Mount Paul, Freycinet Peninsula.
Mountain Valley
Loongana.
Peppermint Ridge Retreat
290 Woodbridge Hill Road, Woodbridge.
Rainbow Retreat
Gillies Road, St Marys.
See and Do
Bruny Island Charters
915 Adventure Bay Road, Bruny Island.
+61 3 6293 1465.
Creative Paper Tasmania
East Mill, Old Surrey Road, Burnie.
+61 3 6430 5831.
Grandvewe Cheeses
59 Devlyns Road, Birchs Bay.
+61 3 6267 4099.
Kings Run Wildlife Tours
Bass Highway, Marrawah.
+61 3 6457 1191.
Mount Wellington Walks
20 McVilly Drive, Hobart.
+61 439 551 197.
Platypus Encounters
Shale Road, Latrobe.
+61 3 6426 1774.
Source: Qantas The Australian Way February 2009