Wielangta Tramway

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Wielangta Tramway
Allport locomotive on the Wielangta Mill Tramway, around 1911
Allport locomotive on the Wielangta Mill Tramway, around 1911
Wielangta Tramway
Wielangta Tramway
Route of the Wielangta Tramway
Wielangta Tramway Trail
Route length: More than 6.5 km
Legend
   
 Forest
   
 Sawmills in Wielangta
   
 Jetty at Rheban Beach near Orford

The Wielangta Tramway was a more than 6.5 km long forest railway 75 km east of Hobart , Tasmania , which operated from 1911 to 1924.

location

The forest railway ran on steel and wooden rails along the Sandspit River in the Wielangta Forest from the forest to the sawmills in the Wielangta sawmill settlement and from there to the east coast across from Maria Island, where the sawn timber was loaded onto ships via a jetty on the beach at Rheban south of Orford was shipped.

Surname

Wielangta is a local Aboriginal name for tall trees ??.

history

Settlers in front of a hut in the Wielangta Forest, around 1910

In its heyday, Wielangta had several sawmills, a general store, a bakery, a forge and a school. The sawmill settlement was inhabited by about a hundred pioneers. They worked there from 1911 to 1924 before the sawmill 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.

  • Steam boiler transport

  • bridge

  • Log transport

  • Rest

Deforestation controversy

Sandspit River in the Wielangta Forest

The deforestation of the forest that has regrown since the closure of the forest railway is permitted under the control of the Tasmanian forest authority Forestry Tasmania . However, logging in the forest is controversial because of its effects on rare and threatened species. Environmentalists demanded that the Wielangta forest area be incorporated into a larger reserve that comprehensively protects the environmental and biodiversity values. Some parts of Wielangta have been formally protected under the recently amended Tasmanian regional forest agreement.

In 2006, the Australian Senator of the Greens, sued Bob Brown of the Tasmanian Forestry Department in federal court because they have endangered species in Wielangta not adequately protected, especially the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle (Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, Aquila audax fleayi ), a Schröter (broad-toothed stag beetle, lissotes latidens ) and the swift parrot (swift parrot, lathamus discolor ). His case was initially successful when he discovered that forestry activities were affecting these species, but the Tasmanian Forest Agency's appeal process regarding the interpretation of part of the state, regional forest agreement was successful.

In February 2007, the Tasmanian State Government and the Australian Federal Government responded by changing the text of the state, regional forest agreement, thereby rendering further legal remedies ineffective. The new clauses make it clear that the word “protection” only refers to whether the two governments consider a species to be protected, and not to the actual meaning of the word.

In June 2009, Brown received an invoice from Forestry Tasmania for the cost of the case and appeals. After a public appeal for help, he stated that he could make the payment on time and did not want to risk losing his seat in the Australian Senate.

trail

Today a 6.5 km long hiking trail runs along the former route, which can be hiked in one direction within 1.5 hours. The trail has few gradients. An August 2012 report indicated that there were fallen trees on the trail and that it was overgrown with ferns and sharp-edged grasses.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Beck: The Wielangta and Blackman Bay tramways. The Light Railway Research Society of Australia, LR 52, p. 4.
  2. ↑ a b Van Diemen's Land Steam Co.
  3. ↑ Wielangta Tramway Trail (6.5km). Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  4. ↑ a b Jennifer Marohasy: The Story of Wielangta: How Environmentalists Mistake 'A Timber Town That Disappeared' for Pristine Wilderness. November 22, 2006. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  5. ↑ Logging of contentious coupes in Wielangta in South East Tasmania begins , press release, The Wilderness Society, May 26, 2005.
  6. ↑ Damien Carrick: Wielangta Forest Federal Court decision. ABC Radio National, Tuesday February 20, 2007 at 5:30 pm. The species are named after 2:42 min. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  7. ^ Imran Church: Fauna v Forestry: The Wielangta Forest Litigation. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  8. ^ Brown versus Forestry Tasmania [2006] FCA 1729 (December 19, 2006), Federal Court (Australia).
  9. ^ Forestry Tasmania versus Brown [2007] FCAFC 186 (November 30, 2007), Federal Court (Full Court) (Australia).
  10. ↑ Bob Brown Senate Threat. Illawarra Mercury.
  11. ^ I took advice on court costs, says Bob Brown. Examiner.
  12. ^ Brown's seat at risk over legal bill.
  13. ↑ Forestry Tasmania's bill will be paid on time, says Brown ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / bob-brown.greensmps.org.au
  14. ↑ Donald Knowler: Talking Point: Protecting our slice of paradise . Mercury, October 27, 2016.
  15. ↑ Wielangta Tramway Trail - Trail Description. Retrieved January 10, 2019.

Coordinates: 42 ° 42 ′ 22.7 ″  S , 147 ° 51 ′ 39.3 ″  E