Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 12
Environmental Management in Tasmania:
Better Off Dead?
John Paull
Introduction
My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth it is to me
That I must love a loathed enemy (Shakespeare
1597
:34).
To be loathed too early and loved too late is a tragedy. For the thylacine, in modern-
day Tasmania, it has come to this, you cannot walk out of your front door without
being confronted by the thylacine. Any trip to the CBD of Tasmania's capital city,
Hobart, is witness to a procession of thylacines. This endemic carnivorous marsu-
pial, persecuted in life, once at the top of the Tasmanian food chain, has made the
successful transition from loathed and living, to loved and iconic.
The thylacine has trodden the path from millennia of co-existence with humans,
to European 'discovery', to colonial and state government-sponsored persecution
and ultimately extermination, to the ubiquitous graphic icon that it is today, embla-
zoned on the forward and rear number-plates of Tasmanian-registered vehicles, and
on a plethora of government, private and tourist artifacts.
According to Beresford and Bailey (
1981
:6), the Premier of Tasmania, Eric Reece,
proposed in 1968 that “Tasmania would probably benefit more” from the thylacine:
… if it was extinct and joins such departed species as dinosaurs, moa birds, and kiwis. The
now almost legendary Tasmanian Tiger has done much to create an awareness about
Tasmania abroad. In recent years this elusive animal has had the same effect on
anthropologists as flying saucers have had upon those who scan the skies (Reece quoted in
Beresford and Bailey
1981
:6).
Tasmanian environmental management practices have witnessed the thylacine
despatched to the grave. Now, an image of a thylacine is the state government's
symbol, presenting and projecting the quintessential Tasmania to local and visitors.
Is this imagery a statement of triumphalism or tragedy?
Search WWH ::
Custom Search