Walking On Air

Besides fresh local foods and some of Australia's most unbelievable National Parks, the one thing that's pretty much impossible to ignore when you head to Tasmania, is the struggle between conservation and industry when it comes to the State's forests. We've all hear about the protests and uproar that are inevitable when the government gives the green light to timber companies in Tassie, but the talk is nothing until you see the huge semi-trailers rolling down the hills, jam packed full of trees bigger than the one currently covered in Chrissy decorations in Sydney's Darling Harbour.


But while the bare mountains are horribly disturbing, Forestry Tasmania has plenty of creative minds on board to help shift the focus from the current timber cutting to the amazing forest that still remains. Even though Greens leader Bob Brown calls Tassie home, you would have to be naive to think that Tasmania has been transformed into an environmental conservation leader. The state does deserve some credit however, for putting a whole bunch of educational tools in place to help people see the natural environment up close and hopefully get inspired to protect it.


The Tahune Forest AirWalk, swinging bridges and visitor centre is one such tool. And you'd be surprised how many people are willing to make the 30km drive, straight into the bush, to experience what it's like to walk up in the forest canopy for themselves. Yep, we decided to check it out too.




Based over the amazing Huon river, the AirWalk is a little pricey at $20 an adult (I really hope that money is going to protecting those Huon pines...) but if anything's going to make you trade in your office job to found your own climate change protest group, then this will. You feel so small walking with these forest giants and the view up over the tree tops to where the Huon river splits in two is pretty darn cool too. Oh and there's two fun swing bridges over the rivers on the 2hour walk back to the info centre that will keep the kids (and big kids like Luke) entertained.


Being in Tassie, it's a little hard not to think about your impact on the environment and all the ways that you can try and lighten your carbon footprint. Yeah, so driving a VW Kombi across the country isn't quite as 'cool' as a new hybrid, but we're just hoping the lack of TV, microwave, second car and oh, house, that we're going without on our trip is cutting back our emissions enough to justify our wheels.

Yours in the great outdoors,

Odette