Why the Tarkine Rainforest Matters to the World
Stand quietly in the Tarkine long enough and the forest starts doing things you don't expect.
A Black Currawong calls from somewhere in the canopy.
The myrtle beeches hold the mist in their upper branches long after it has cleared everywhere else.
Beneath the moss-covered root systems at your feet, a network of fungi is doing work that has been uninterrupted for longer than most things you can think of.
This is takayna/Tarkine. And once you understand what you are standing inside, it is hard to take it for granted.
What Is the Tarkine Rainforest?
The Tarkine is the largest cool temperate rainforest in Australia, covering 450,000 hectares of Tasmania's wild northwest. Its boundaries run from the Southern Ocean coastline in the west to the Arthur River in the north, the Pieman River in the south, and the Murchison Highway in the east.
It is worth being precise here. When people talk about Australia's biggest rainforest, they are usually thinking of the Daintree in Queensland, which is tropical and ancient in its own right. The Tarkine is a different thing entirely: a cool temperate rainforest, characterised by myrtle beech, sassafras, leatherwood, Huon Pine, and King Billy Pine, draped in moss and the particular green light that comes from a canopy that rarely opens.
The dual name, takayna/Tarkine, reflects the deep connection of Tasmanian Aboriginal communities to this country. takayna is the Tarkiner people's name for this region, and it predates European settlement by tens of thousands of years.
A Forest That Predates Almost Everything
The Tarkine's origins trace back to Gondwana, the ancient supercontinent that began breaking apart roughly 180 million years ago. The cool temperate rainforest that covers the Tarkine today is a direct descendant of that Gondwanan forest.
Some parts of the rainforest are believed to have never seen fire. Full forest regeneration after fire takes between 100 and 200 years, and in areas that have remained untouched, the ecosystem builds a complexity that cannot be replicated or fast-tracked.
The Huon Pine is perhaps the most tangible expression of this. A few things worth knowing about it:
It grows only in western Tasmania, reaching its northernmost point at Corinna on the Pieman River
Individual trees can live for more than 3,000 years
The wood is naturally rot-resistant and carries an oil that has preserved it for millennia
The MV Arcadia II, the only Huon Pine river cruiser still operating anywhere in the world, was built in 1939 and still runs cruises on the Pieman from Corinna
The Species That Live Here
More than 250 vertebrate species live in the Tarkine, of which over 60 are rare, threatened, or endangered. The Tarkine is one of the most significant wildlife habitats in the Southern Hemisphere.
Mammals:
Tasmanian Devils - one of their healthiest remaining populations, largely free of the facial tumour disease that has affected numbers elsewhere in Tasmania
Spotted-tail quolls, wombats, Bennett's wallabies, and brushtail possums
Platypus on the Pieman River at dawn and dusk
Birds:
Azure Kingfisher - a flash of blue along the riverbank in the early morning
White-Bellied Sea Eagle nesting on the Pieman
Orange-Bellied Parrot, one of the world's most critically endangered species
Green Rosellas, Black Currawongs, Olive Whistlers, Grey Goshawks
Below the surface:
Freshwater crayfish, including the Burrowing Crayfish endemic to Tasmania and Victoria
Large Land Snails and Walking Worms found nowhere else on Earth
Hundreds of fungi species, with some turning up in autumn that exist nowhere else in Australia
Why the Tarkine Matters Beyond Tasmania
The significance of the Tarkine extends well beyond state borders. Cool temperate rainforests store carbon at a remarkable rate and for extraordinary periods, and old-growth forests like the Tarkine are among the most effective carbon sinks that exist. The biodiversity they support, shaped by millions of years of evolution in isolation, disappears permanently when the habitat that holds it disappears.
The Tarkine has been subject to ongoing conservation debate for decades, with pressures from logging, mining, and road development pushing against its ecological value. The forest is listed on the Register of the National Estate and sits adjacent to several protected areas, including the Arthur Pieman Conservation Area, the Pieman River State Reserve, and Savage River National Park. Formal listing, though, is not the same as formal protection, and the forest's status continues to be contested.
When you walk the Huon Pine Boardwalk or paddle the Pieman River through old-growth forest, you are not visiting a managed version of wilderness. You are inside something genuinely rare.
40,000 Years of Human Connection
Long before European settlement, the takayna region was home to Tasmanian Aboriginal people for at least 40,000 years. Three main clan groups lived across the region:
The Tarkiner, in the north - the region takes its European name from them
The Peternidic, along the Pieman River
The Manegin, near the mouth of the Arthur River
These were maritime people who moved with the seasons, living close to the coastline and rivers. Middens, hut depressions, and other cultural sites remain scattered through the takayna landscape, fragile links to a human history that stretches back further than most cultures on Earth.
Tasmanian Aboriginal communities maintain a deep and ongoing relationship with this country, and that relationship is part of what the takayna/Tarkine is.
Corinna: Inside the Forest, Not Outside It
If you are not yet familiar with Corinna, it is worth knowing what kind of place it is before you visit. Corinna Wilderness Village is a small, remote eco-tourism retreat on the banks of the Pieman River, at the southern end of takayna/Tarkine. It is not a resort or a lodge. It is a working wilderness village, with self-contained cottages, a restaurant and bar, and a handful of experiences that put you directly inside the landscape described in this post.
The eco-cabins and wilderness cottages sit among the trees. The walks depart directly from the village. The river runs past the front of the property.
From Corinna, you can:
Walk the Huon Pine Boardwalk in 20 minutes and stand beneath a tree that was growing before European settlement of Australia
Kayak to Lovers Falls through a river corridor that has changed very little in thousands of years
Cruise the Pieman aboard the Arcadia II through a landscape most Australians will never see
Sit on a verandah in the evening and watch the forest settle into darkness without a screen in sight
None of this requires specialist knowledge or technical experience. It requires getting here, and that tends to be paid back in full.
The Tarkine Rainforest Is Worth the Journey
Tasmania's wild west coast is not the easiest part of the country to reach, and the Tarkine is not the easiest part of Tasmania. That is, in a quiet way, part of the point.
The takayna/Tarkine is one of the last places where you can stand in old-growth cool temperate rainforest and feel that this is what much of the world once looked like. That it has survived is remarkable. That you can stay inside it is something worth taking seriously.
The heart of the Tarkine is waiting. The Pieman River is still running.
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