THE IMPACT OF THE WORLD HERITAGE CONVENTION ON THE MANAGEMENT ON KARST IN TASMANIA

Kevin Kiernan, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania

Advances in the management of karst in Tasmania have been intertwined with broader questions of land resource allocation and also political relations between the Commonwealth and State Governments. Wilderness conservation issues have been particularly important as there are extensive karsts in the Tasmanian wilderness. The protection of archaeological sites in karst and caves became a major question in the debate over the proposed Gordon-below-Franklin-hydro-electric development which was aborted for environmental and legal reasons after the area was placed on the World Heritage List. Karst figured prominently in more recent deliberations over the future of the Southern Forests which adjoin the existing World Heritage Area and had been proposed for addition to it. A quasi-judicial inquiry failed to resolve the Southern Forests issue although it determined that one karst area and a number of other sites were worthy of listing as World Heritage in their own right. A subsequent political decision to nominate most of the inquiry area as World Heritage on the basis of its natural and cultural values has resulted in the proposed protection of at least 20 additional karst areas. However, the incorporation of karst into national parks and reserves, and even into World Heritage Areas, has not guaranteed its protection in the past. While a large area has been nominated as World Heritage the status has been degraded since mineral exploration and mining have explicitly not been excluded. Hence the continued survival of the karst is likely to be more dependent upon public expectations for the sanctity of World Heritage Areas than upon its legal status or tenure. The price of conservation, like that of liberty, would seem to be eternal vigilance.

Figure 1

INTRODUCTION

When I first set out to write a paper on the impact of the World Heritage Convention on the management of karst in Tasmania it seemed a simple enough task - a straight forward chronicle of the karst areas included in Australia's latest World Heritage nomination, events leading to the nomination, and the implications for management of these areas being listed. But it very quickly sunk in that the impact of the Convention extends much wider than this. This reason is that due to the intricacies of the Australian constitution, the advent of the World Heritage Convention has provided an opportunity for the Commonwealth Government to intervene in land-use at a State level to an extent that has never before been possible. Thus, while actual inclusion of karst areas in World Heritage nominations has important implications, the threat of listing and the intrusion of the Commonwealth Government into areas traditionally the domain of State Governments has contributed to wringing some important initiatives out of the Tasmanian Government. The advances in the management of Tasmania's karst that have occurred in the last few years, whether it be the advent of new cave reserves, the inclusion of karst areas in new national parks, or improvements in the management of forestry activities on karst, are complexly interwove with one another. Hence it seems most practical to attempt to explain these events concurrently. Inevitably it will be necessary to traverse ground that may not at first glance appear to be related to cave management per se. However, some cave conservation and management situations can neither be understood nor satisfactorily resolved unless what is happening in the wider political and social environment is taken into account.

Background

Things have never been the same in Tasmania, or indeed in Australia, since the proposal to destroy Lake Pedder and its huge beach of quartz sand - a national park - beneath the waters of the Middle Gordon hydro-electric power scheme (Johnson, l972 and Southwell, 1983). Pedder revealed a host of nested sub-issues. At the root of it all was the future and direction of Tasmania, and important questions about who was actually running the place. Karst issues virtually did not figure in the public campaign - indeed, it was not for some years that cavers became aware of karst inside the proposed storage perimeter, and that it posed a major engineering problem.

Much of the funding for the scheme was provided unquestioningly by the Commonwealth Liberal Government in Canberra. The conservation movement argued that Pedder was a place of national significance, held in trust by Tasmania. A Federal election in late 1972 brought a Labour government to Canberra that was of a very different complexion to its Tasmanian counterpart, and it honoured a pre-election promise to establish a committee of inquiry in a bid to save the lake. An interim report released in June 1973 recommended a moratorium on the flooding with the costs to be borne by the Federal Government. The Commonwealth ultimately offered a blank cheque to Tasmania to fund an alternative scheme but the offer was not taken up. Land-use in the States was still held to be a State responsibility and coercion considered constitutionally beyond the role of the Commonwealth Government. Later it was argued that Southwest Tasmania formed part of a set of southern temperate wilderness areas, with Southwest New Zealand and Andean Patagonia, that was of international significance (Neilson, 1975; Kiernan, 1977). This led to the proposal that the Tasmanian wilderness should be protected as a World Heritage Area (Kiernan, 1978a).

Pedder spawned bids to increase Federal environmental powers, including the Environment Protection (Impact of Proposals) Act. The Federal Environment Minister of the day, Dr Moss Cass, was also noting that the Australian Constitution gave precedence to laws promulgated by the Commonwealth where these were necessary to give effect to Australia's obligations under international treaties. He reasoned that this might ultimately provide a mechanism empowering the Commonwealth to take a stronger stand for the environment.

But for the cavers these were still days spent largely oblivious to the presence of karsts in Southwest Tasmania (Figure 1) (Kiernan, 1974), although on the peripheries of the area they had found the deepest and longest caves in Australia. When a proposal arose to quarry limestone at the Precipitous Bluff on the south coast karst was very obviously imperilled. Yet an expedition I led to the area in 1972 in response to this threat consisted primarily of mainland cavers with only limited participation by their Tasmanian counterparts (Middleton and Montgomery, 1973; Pavey, Fisher and Radcliffe, 1973; Kiernan, 1975). Several legal challenges to the proposed mining were mounted by the conservation movement - out of concern for wilderness more than karst - but these ended in failure (Wessing, 1978). Conservationists' costs were met by the Federal Government. Precipitous Bluff was later included in the Southwest National Park nevertheless. It was also cited by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam as a major component of Australia's threatened heritage when his government established the Committee of Inquiry into the National Estate, which led directly to the passage of the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975. The Commission became responsible for establishing a list of Australia's most important natural and cultural assets, known as the Register of the National Estate. This is more symbolic than directly protective, since it imposes no direct restrictions on land-use in listed areas. However, Federal Ministers must ensure that there is no "feasible and prudent" alternative before acting in a way that is detrimental to a listed area.

Cavers increasingly became involved in planning parklands. Within the government administration speleologists like Greg Middleton and Andrew Skinner gained influential positions in the new Tasmanian National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) - Others were involved at an activist level in developing proposals for the wilderness, the future of which seemed plagued by a piecemeal, issue by issue approach rather than an integrated approach to planning for the region as a whole. In 1974 I gained the acceptance of the UTG State Conference for a vastly expanded Southwest National Park to be adopted as policy. Its boundaries included extensive areas of karst, and linked the Southwest National Park in the south to the Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park in the north. This was the first formal proposal for a national park to include the Franklin River. Ultimately a proposal slightly larger than my own was developed by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). The State Government responded to continuing pressure with some minor additions to the Southwest National Park, including Precipitous Bluff, and a series of State Government enquires finally led to declaration of the ACF boundaries as the Southwest Conservation Area (SWCA). The latter was useful more for its formal recognition of the area's importance than for any legal protection it offered.

The World Heritage Convention

If any of the Tasmanian wilderness was to have a long term future it seemed obvious that the initiative would have to come from Canberra, and would probably have to be based upon the constitutional provision giving precedence to the Commonwealth where international treaties were involved. The advent of the Convention for the Protection of the World's Natural and Cultural Heritage, established under the auspices of UNESCO, provided this opportunity (Kiernan, 1978a). The World Heritage Convention provides a basis for international cooperation to preserve the earth's greatest wonders. It recognises individual countries hold treasures in trust for the rest of the world. The World Heritage List includes the Pyramids of Egypt, the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef and the Taj Mahal. In New Zealand it includes Fiordland National Park, Mt Cook National Park and Westland National Park - and could justifiably include these as part of a rather larger area (Hutching and Potton, 1987).

For natural properties to be accorded World Heritage status they must meet at least one of the following criteria. They must:

1. be outstanding examples representing the major stages in the earth's evolutionary history; or
2. be outstanding examples representing significant ongoing geological processes, biological evolution and man's interaction with his natural environment; as distinct from the periods of the earth's development, this focuses upon ongoing processes in the development of communities of plants and animals, landforms and marine and fresh water bodies; or
3. contain superlative natural phenomena, formations or features, for instance, outstanding examples of the most important ecosystems, areas of exceptional natural beauty or exceptional combinations of natural and cultural elements; or
4. contain the most important and significant natural habitats where threatened species of animals and plants of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation still survive.

In some cases individual sites may not possess one of the requisite qualities but when viewed in their broader environmental context and considering surrounding features the whole area may qualify to demonstrate an array of features of global significance. Nominated sites must meet conditions of integrity: they must contain all or most of the key inter-related elements (criterion i); they must be of sufficient size and content to remain viable (criterion ii); they must contain those ecosystem components required to permit continuity, such as the catchment of a waterfall (criterion iii); and they must be of sufficient size to contain the necessary habitat requirements for the survival of the species (criterion iv).

A separate set of criteria exist for cultural properties. They must:

1. represent a unique artistic achievement, a masterpiece of the creative genius; or
2. have exerted great influence over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world , on developments in architecture, monumental arts or town planning and landscaping; or
3. bear unique or at least exceptional testimony to a civilisation which has vanished; or
4. be an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural ensemble which illustrates a significant stage in history; or
5. be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement which is representative of a culture and which has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change; or
6. be directly or tangibly associated with events or with ideas or beliefs of outstanding universal significance.

The state of preservation of the property and its authenticity in design, materials and so forth must be taken into account.

Australia is the only country to have enacted laws specifically for the purpose of protecting its World Heritage sites. Australia has no truly national system of national parks (apart from those in the Territories) but State-controlled parks to which the honorific title "national park" is sometimes applied. Many of these meet the standards required of national parks by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).

THE WORLD HERITAGE CONVENTION AND TASMANIA'S KARST

While the possibility of Federal intervention was actively promoted by the Labour Government in the early 1970s any erosion of States' rights has traditionally been anathema to the Liberal Party. Despite this in his 1975 Federal election policy speech Liberal Party leader Malcom Fraser proposed that special management arrangements be made for south-west Tasmania. However, both the Federal and State Governments were unprepared to make the first approach - so much for cooperative federalism. In May 1978 the Prime Minister wrote to the State Premiers inviting them to suggest sites that should be nominated for inclusion on the World Heritage List. In December 1980 the Tasmanian Government proposed that the Southwest National Park be nominated but the Australian Committee for the World Heritage Convention rejected the area as being too small and proposed that the full Southwest Conservation Area should be nominated. Since then the extent of the nominated area has been increased due to two major issues, one concerning the Franklin River and the other concerning the Southern Forests.

The Gordon-below-Franklin dam

To add a further 180 megawatts to the State grid, or about 7% of the present installed capacity of the system, the Hydro Electric Commission (HEC) proposed in the late l970s that a minimum of $(Aus)550 million should be spent damming the Gordon River below its confluence with the Franklin River (Thompson 1981; and Dombrovskis & Brown, 1983). Because very extensive areas of unexplored karst were to be flooded a series of exploratory trips were mounted by cavers - again primarily from the mainland - to document the karst and perhaps contribute to the campaign to protect the wilderness (Middleton, 1979 and Kiernan, 1979). The trips generated both information and publicity for the area. In response to public pressure the HEC conducted a rather inadequate study of the caves (Naqvi, 1979), amd also of potential archaeological sites (Paterson et al, 1983), both studies concluding that nothing of significance was at risk.

Among the discoveries we made during the 1977 expedition was a spacious cave on the lower Franklin. It was given the name of Prime Minister Malcom Fraser, being one of a number of caves named after the political leaders who would have to decide the fate of the area, in an effort to focus their attention on the natural values at stake. In 1981 I revisited Fraser Cave and found it to be a major archaeological site. Subsequent excavation revealed it to be immensely rich in bones and stone tools and the southernmost known outpost of humanity during the last Ice Age (Kiernan et al, 1983). The international archaeological fraternity leapt to the defence of Fraser Cave (Lewin, 1982; Green, 1981; and Jones, 1987).

When the HEC proposal for the Lower Gordon power scheme was presented to State Parliament in 1979 it received the wholehearted support of the Liberal opposition, but Tasmanian Labour Premier Doug Lowe struggled to prevent the Franklin becoming an issue in the subsequent state election. After the re-election of Lowe's government, and after great debate and inquiry, the State Government resolved that the Gordon-below-Franklin dam should not proceed. This was the first time an HEC recommendation had been rejected. The HEC mobilised a major campaign against the decision. A select committee of the Legislative Council recommended the HEC proposal should be adopted and the two houses of the Tasmanian Parliament reached a stalemate, the council refusing to pass the government's legislation for an alternative development further upstream on the Gordon River. In May 1981 the Lowe government threw down the gauntlet to the Legislative Council by declaring a Franklin - Lower Gordon Wild Rivers National Park and adding it to the World Heritage nomination. Later, in response to a Commonwealth initiative, the state government also added the Cradle Mt - Lake St Clair National Park to the nomination.

A referendum was proposed to break the deadlock. Lowe was under considerable pressure from within his party and was finally forced to limit the choice to one of the two dams rather than including the option of no dams (Lowe, 1984). This sparked a 46% informal vote, 33% of electors writing "no dams" on their referendum papers. After a remarkable series of manoeuvres the ALP dumped Lowe as Premier only a week after an aggressive Victorian, Robin Gray, had become leader of the Liberals. Both Doug Lowe and his former Whip Mary Willey resigned from the ALP and joined Australian Democrat Dr Norm Sanders, previously the second Director of the Wilderness Society, on the cross benches. When Parliament resumed Sanders, on crutches after a caving accident in the Franklin Valley, moved a motion of no confidence which brought down the State Labour Government. The Liberal Party won government in Tasmania and immediately put through legislation for the Gordon-below-Franklin dam. It revoked that part of the national park that included Fraser Cave, although the area retained its WHA status nonetheless. On-site work hastily commenced. The World Heritage nomination was lodged with the World Heritage committee on 13 November 1981. On 15 April 1982 the ICUN recommended acceptance of the nomination on the grounds that it met all four criteria for inclusion as natural heritage, while ICOMOS reported that it met three of the six criteria for including properties on the list as cultural heritage - the Franklin caves looming large.

In November 1982 a Senate Select Committee inquiry established with the support of the Australian Democrats and the Federal Labour opposition, concluded that there was no urgent need to commence a new power scheme in Tasmania, that the Franklin should not be flooded and that the Commonwealth should honour its obligations under the World Heritage Convention (Archer et al, 1982). Their conclusions were based on economic arguments and on the importance of Fraser Cave - the name of which had now been changed to the Aboriginal, Kutikina, a word that was reverberating on the commercial airwaves of Australia in the chorus of a popular song. Things had progressed a long way from the initial decision by cavers to explore the karst in an effort to contribute to the conservation case. Prime Minister Fraser was later to remark that the discoveries in Kutikina were what tipped the balance for the Franklin (Williams, 1985). But late in 1982 Federal Cabinet decided not to intervene on the Franklin because even sympathetic Ministers considered that the maintenance of states' rights was more important than protecting the wilderness. However, by this time Federal Labour Opposition Leader Bill Hayden had committed his party to stopping the dam if elected. A series of "no dams" write-ins on ballot papers during mainland elections culminated in a massive 40% "no dams vote" in late 1982 for the Federal seat of Flinders in Victoria.

The events of 14-15 December 1982 were critical. Firstly, a blockade of HEC siteworks on the Gordon River by conservationists began. Secondly, 19 Federal Liberal backbenchers protested against Cabinet's decision not to intervene in Tasmania. Thirdly, at its meeting in Paris the World Heritage Committee inscribed the Tasmanian wilderness on the World Heritage List, despite some attempts by French delegates to delay a decision pending resolution of the debate in Australia. Conservationists rallied outside Parliament House in Canberra. Finally, in response to the Paris decision, four government members crossed the floor in the Senate to vote with the ALP to pass the Australian Democrats' World Heritage Properties Protection Bill. On 19th December conservationists from around the country resolved to end their traditionally non-partisan approach and campaign for the ALP if the existing Liberal Government did not halt the dam.

The blockade by conservationists proved a major success. The blockade focussed enormous attention on the dams, especially after the State Government passed special laws that ultimately led to over 1000 arrests and provoked Norm Sanders to resign from the Tasmanian Parliament in disgust (Sanders later successfully contested a senate seat and thereafter focussed his efforts on the Canberra arena). Many dam opponents spent Christmas in gaol. In early January 1983 Wilderness Society Director Bob Brown was released after nearly three weeks in prison and within 24 hours had been easily elected by recount to fill Sanders' seat in State Parliament.

The Franklin was too big an issue to leave unresolved with a Federal election drawing nearer and so the Commonwealth Government sought to buy out the Tasmanian Premier. Within a couple of days of Anthony's statement Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser despatched a confidential letter to Premier Gray offering $500 million compensation if he would abandon the dam, but Gray believed his supporters in the Tasmanian. electorate would not accept such a proposition and, when the offer was revealed publicly several days later, was quick to reject it (this hard line approach ultimately did not serve Tasmania well, for when a halt to the dam was finally forced some months later the compensation payout was only $276.5 million).

On the eve of Australia's mandatory pre-election media blackout, television screens around the country were again filled with scenes of the Gordon River and news of hundreds more arrests. Polls suggest that, overall, about 2% of Australians voted for the ALP because of the dam - 16 marginal seats went to the ALP on swings of less than 2%. All five Tasmanian seats went to the Liberals.

On 3 March the first formal steps were taken to halt siteworks with the introduction of the World Heritage Regulations under the National Parks & Wildlife Conservation Act 1975. On 6 April writs were lodged in the High Court of Australia by both the Federal and State Governments in an effort to bring the matter to a head. On 21 April the World Heritage Properties Conservation Bill was introduced to Federal Parliament and it became law. On 1 July the Court ruled in favour of the Commonwealth, blocking construction of the power scheme. The Franklin caves and about 20 other karst areas appeared safe.

Interlude

Despite the advent of a national park or World Heritage status major management problems arose or persisted in a number of the karst areas. They included difficulties with poorly designed boundaries that cut across an important karst drainage system in the Weld valley; trampling damage by cavers to the alpine vegetation at Mt Anne; difficulties with the park boundary and with proposed roadworks at the Bubs Hill karst; difficulties with site management at Kutikina Cave; and very severe erosion caused by the wakes of tourist vessels along the riverbanks of the lower Gordon karst area, one of Tasmania's most important tourist drawcards (Kiernan, in press a).

It is highly questionable whether the public that clamoured for national park and World Heritage status would have been so enthusiastic and optimistic had they appreciated how bereft of effective management these areas would be left at the very time that escalating public attention was dramatically increasing the pressures upon them. The Commonwealth Government virtually abandoned the Tasmanian wilderness as soon as the headlines had died. The State Government ignored the ever worsening situation on the Lower Gordon. The Tasmanian Government subsequently amalgamated the National Parks and Wildlife Service with the Department of Lands.

Later there were further archaeological discoveries in caves in the Maxwell River Valley, a tributary of the Denison River. These caves lay within an area originally proposed for inclusion in the Wild Rivers National Park but excluded by the Lowe government to allow for construction of its preferred dam on the Gordon River above the Olga confluence. The first rock art of unequivocal Tasmanian aboriginal origin was discovered in Ballawinne Cave. As with Kutikina, news of these new discoveries gained considerable publicity around the world. Sobered by the political impact of Kutikina the Tasmanian Government declared a small area around the site to be protected under the Aboriginal Relics Act although in reality this offered only very limited protection (Middleton, 1988c and Harris et al, 1988).

The Southern Forests

The Southern Forests area comprises an elongate strip of land along the eastern boundary of the Southwest and Wild Rivers National Parks. It included land highly valued for recreation together with areas that are important as buffers for the wilderness further to the west and, in some cases, have wilderness qualities in their own right. The Southern Forests contain at least 20 separate areas of limestone and dolomite. The known karsts include underground drainage systems partly protected within the existing WHA, Australia's only alpine karst, and the longest and deepest caves known in Australia (Goede, 1968; Kiernan, 1978b, and 1987a; Goede 1978; Houshold and Davey, 1987; and Middleton, 1988c).

The eucalypts that tower more than loom above the floor of some Tasmanian forests are the tallest flowering plants in the world. The forest industry has long had a firm grip on them. In 1926 the Tasmanian Parliament passed the first pulpwood "concession" legislation whereby forests on large areas of public land were allocated to particular companies. In 1950 parts of the Mt Field National Park, including important areas of the Junee-Florentine karst, were revoked and granted to Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd. This sparked the first major opposition to the forest industry's carte blanche use of Tasmania's natural resources. Opposition was further stimulated when Tasmania's first woodchip export operation commenced in 1971. A perceived increase in cutting and the incursion of forestry activities into environmentally sensitive areas sparked considerable opposition. This opposition gathered pace in 1976 when part of the Hartz Mountains National Park was revoked.

The Commonwealth demanded an Environmental Impact Statement into the renewal of export licences for Tasmanian woodchips beyond 1990. Because of the Australian Heritage Commission Act no export licences could be issued by the Federal Minister if "feasible and prudent" alternatives existed to the logging of forests in National Estate areas. Public pressure also achieved a moratorium on logging in certain areas, including the Southern Forests and the Lemonthyme area (which adjoins the northernmost extremities of the existing WHA). A major campaign was launched to have the Federal Government apply conditions to logging in environmentally sensitive areas. The EIS was released in 1985 and concluded that no significant environmental damage was caused by the industry. The EIS acknowledged that the management of karst was a significant issue in Tasmania's forests. The stimulus to this came from a study being undertaken within the Commission, jointly sponsored with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, into logging at Mole Creek. This study was attempting to resolve conflict over land allocation in that area, but in addition it proposed a set of guidelines for forestry operations in karst terrain generally (Kiernan, 1984b).

In April 1986 right wing Labour Party numbers man and party power broker Senator Graham Richardson, was helicoptered by the Wilderness Society to Mt Bobs, overlooking karstic Lake Sydney. This was a major turning point. Richardson was deeply moved by the beauty of the place. With his subsequent ascension to the Environment portfolio Richardson worked energetically for the protection of the Tasmanian wilderness, and with his pivotal role in the internal politics of his party he was able to pursue this quest very effectively.

When operations re-commenced in Tasmania's National Estate forests in March 1986 there was immediate protest, resulting in 99 arrests. Considerable publicity was generated throughout Australia after the passive protesters at Farmhouse Creek received violent treatment at the hands of forest industry employees sent by bus to the area by their employer. In June 1986 the Federal and Tasmanian Governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which required formal consultation prior to operations in National Estate Areas. This MOU contained a number of provisions important for karst areas. These included a limit to logging lines that precluded logging of some karsts in the Southern Forests, and a requirement that operations at Mole Creek take account of the recommendations of the now completed study. The MOU also provided for Tasmania to proceed with its first forest practices legislation. Later, a Forest Practices Code was released that included special provisions for forestry operations in karst areas (Middleton, 1988b; and Kiernan, in press b).

Prime Minister Hawke asserted that no logging would be permitted until consultation was satisfactorily completed and the Commonwealth was satisfied National Estate values would be safeguarded. He announced that in the event of any disagreement the Commonwealth would use all its powers to protect the disputed areas. In November 1986 the Tasmanian Government ignored Commonwealth objections to logging at Jackeys Marsh in northern Tasmania. The Commonwealth stopped the logging, which effectively scuttled the MOU. In a successful bid to defuse the forestry issue as a Federal election drew near, the Commonwealth announced it would establish an inquiry into possible alternatives to logging the National Estate areas. The following month forestry operations also occurred in the Lemonthyme forest, and there were more protests in January 1987. The Prime Minister reaffirmed his government's determination to protect areas that may be of World Heritage value, and to resolve once and for all whether there were feasible alternative areas that could be cut. In March there was further protest in the forests.

On 26 February 1987 the Commonwealth Government introduced the Lemonthyme and Southern Forests (Commission of Inquiry) Bill to Federal Parliament. Logging was to be halted for just over a year pending the Inquiry, which was given the powers of a Royal Commission. The basis for this action lay in a legal opinion that suggested the Commonwealth was obliged to protect areas of World Heritage significance even it they had not yet been formally nominated or inscribed on the World Heritage List. The forest industry and Tasmanian Government announced their intention to boycott the Inquiry and to mount a High Court challenge. The Bill was passed in both Houses of Federal Parliament on 3 April and was proclaimed on 8 May. The three Commissioners were appointed later in May: Justice Michael Helsham; Mr Robert Wallace, an economist; and Mr Peter Hitchcock, a forester turned national park planner.

On 27 May it was announced that a Federal election would take place on 11 July. The forests continued to feature prominently in headline politics.

On 29 May the Federal Government applied to the High Court of Australia for an interim injunction to halt logging pending the Helsham inquiry. Conservationists campaigned for the Labour Government which was returned with an increased majority. Pollsters suggest that the conservationists' campaign added 2.2% to the ALP vote, gaining them 4 seats and enabling them to hold 3 others.

After a hearing on 13 and 14 August, on 3 September the High Court granted the Federal Government an interim injunction against logging in the inquiry area. The State Government and forest industry abandoned their boycott. On 13-14 October the full bench of the High Court heard the case into the validity of the Helsham Inquiry. The judgement was reserved. By November the conservation movement was expressing concern that evidence of World Heritage values was being lightly dismissed by Commissioners Helsham and Wallace. On 20 November, an interim report from the inquiry removed four small areas from protection, including part of the Jubilee Ridge karst, on the grounds of their having no World Heritage values. This decision was subjected to an unsuccessful legal challenge by the Combined Environment Groups. On 10 March 1988 the Tasmanian government lost its challenge in the High Court which, by a 5-2 decision, upheld the validity of the Lemonthyme and Southern Forests Act in its entirety.

The advent of the Helsham Inquiry stimulated new research into the karsts. For instance, Australian Newsprint Mills Ltd engaged the consulting firm Natural Systems Research to prepare material for its case against World Heritage listing. The consultants sub-contracted Anutech Pty Ltd, to prepare a report on the archaeological and geomorphological significance of the area, and among those engaged by Anutech were myself and Dr Rhys Jones, who had played a prominent role in research on the Franklin caves. By the conclusion of a two week field trip we had confirmed the presence of a Pleistocene cave occupation site in the Weld Valley, in the middle of the Southern Forests (Kiernan, 1984, and 1987; and Allen et al, 1988). In addition, we had recorded the oldest human remains yet found in Tasmania from a cave in the Florentine Valley. These remains are probably of Pleistocene age and are morphologically very different to previously known Tasmanian Aboriginal remains and to the people who lived in Tasmania at the time of initial European settlement (Jones et al, 1988). Finally, towards the southern end of the Southern Forests we were fortunate enough to find the southernmost Pleistocene rock art in the world at Judds Cavern (Wargata Nina) in the Cracroft Valley. Mammal (possibly human) blood has since been biochemically identified in the ochre, the first record of blood in ochre used to produce rock art any where in the world (Jones et al, 1988). All this did not augur well for the anti-World Heritage cause.

Karst figured prominently in the Helsham Inquiry with many pages of reports and transcripts and many hours of verbal testimony devoted to this question - for instance, much of the 7 hours the present writer spent in the witness box was devoted to it. Three basic propositions underscored the claims for the karst having World Heritage value. The first was that some karst areas qualified as World Heritage in their own right: the Exit Cave area at Ida Bay; the Cracroft Valley - Vanishing Falls area; and the Mt Anne - Weld valley area (Kiernan, 1987b,c; Goede, 1987; Houshold and Davey, 1987; and Clarke, 1987). The second proposition rested on the notion of integrity as defined in paragraph 25(1) of the Operational Guidelines issued by the World Heritage Committee. It was argued the protection boundaries should be modified to include the totality of some karst systems that were only partly included in the existing WHA, such as the underground drainage from Lake Timk. That these Systems were of World Heritage significance was held to be implicit in the acceptance by the World Heritage Committee of the original nomination. A further dimension to this argument was added by past glaciation of some of these karsts since the integrity requirements seemed to demand the protection of the glacier system responsible, the Guidelines specifically suggesting by way of example that an "ice-age" area would he expected to include the snow-field, the glacier itself and samples of cutting patterns, deposition and colonisation (striations, moraines, pioneer stages of plant succession etc). The implications of this extended more widely than the karst since glaciers that arose in the existing WHA extended over much of the inquiry area where they left their most important stratigraphic legacy (Kiernan, 1987). Finally, it was noted that other karst areas might qualify as part of an array of sites that were of international significance (Kiernan, 1987).

On 16 May the final report of the Helsham inquiry, in a 2-1 majority decision, found that only five small areas warranted World Heritage listing - a mere 29,000ha compared to the 284,000ha inquiry area (Helsham et al, 1987). Exit Cave was found to be a qualifying area. Also recommended for protection, but for botanical rather than karst values, were parts of the Mt Anne and Mt Bobs karsts. However, in a minority report, Commissioner Hitchcock, the only member with any experience in land management or knowledge of natural sciences, argued that most of the inquiry area warranted World Heritage listing, together with some additional areas altogether totalling 307,000ha. The additional areas included the western part of the Central Plateau. Despite these differences between the Commissioners, they all agreed that there were serious problems in the forest industry including resource wastage, and many of the alternatives promoted by the conservation movement were described as "prudent and feasible".

The report described claims of world significance for the archaeological sites to be premature, and specifically drew the boundary for a neighbouring qualifying area so as to exclude Judds Cavern. Nevertheless, the majority recognised that many other parts of the inquiry area were important even if not of World Heritage significance, and it proposed they should be protected by alternative mechanisms. This could only mean by State legislation, which offered cold comfort to anyone familiar with the attitude of the Gray government and the history of Tasmanian national parks, none of which have ever survived unscathed for even 50 years - less than an average human lifetime, let alone "future generations". The conservation lobby, which had increasingly distanced itself from the Inquiry after initially supporting its establishment, called for the majority findings to be ignored by the Federal Government. Conservationists argued that the majority report had adopted an excessively legalistic approach to determining what was World Heritage, and had disregarded requirements for site integrity clearly spelled out in the Operational Guidelines by the World Heritage Committee. The majority report was publicly repudiated by 9 of the 11 specialist consultants engaged by the Helsham Commission. The report particularly incensed the archaeological fraternity through its failure to protect Judds Cavern, the editor of one international scientific journal threatening to publish excerpts to expose the "ignorance" of the Commissioners.

On 4 June the Tasmanian Government claimed that a deal had been reached with the Commonwealth to nominate only those areas recommended by Helsham, with a series of small parks to be established under state legislation to protect some other sites. This was widely seen simply as a bid to embarrass the Commonwealth. Federal Cabinet split in its attempt to resolve its position on 16 June and the decision was deferred pending further negotiations with the Tasmanian Government. Federal Resources Minister Senator Peter Cook, the Environment Minister's chief opponent in Cabinet, played the most prominent role in these negotiations, producing a draft agreement known as the Cook-Groom package, in collaboration with Tasmanian Mines and Forestry Minister Ray Groom. Deadlocked again after a further four hour debate on 12 July, Federal Cabinet deferred its decision for a week, and then for another week. At a critical time in these deliberations 13 Melbourne businessmen placed a series of newspaper advertisements seeking to halt the logging, which helped indicate to watching politicians the breadth of support for the forests.

On 18 July the State Labour Party finally revealed that it had a policy on the Lemonthyme and Southern Forests - albeit exactly the same as that of the Gray government. On 22 July the Tasmanian Government announced its abandonment of any further appeals to the High Court, despite an invitation from the Queensland Government to join it in mounting another challenge. The same day Federal Cabinet delayed its decision until 26 July and then until 2 August when finally it resolved its intention to protect a large part of the Inquiry area, by recourse to unilateral World Heritage Listing if need be.

On 29 November 1988 Prime Minister Bob Hawke announced that the Commonwealth and Tasmanian Governments had agreed to jointly nominate about 80% of the Inquiry area for World Heritage Listing. The existing Central Plateau Conservation Area and the Walls of Jerusalem National Park would also be nominated - though not the 'Hole in the Doughnut' which would be declared a l00,000ha national park under state legislation with the possibility of mineral exploration, mining and hydro-electric development. The nomination would increase the size of the Tasmanian world Heritage Area by 270,000ha to over 1 million ha. The two governments would also adopt a forest industry package providing for a formal forests agreement. This was intended to guarantee forest resource for industry and adequate environment protection by setting in place a consultation process to deal with logging in other National Estate areas. The agreement would include financial assistance of $50 million over 5 years to promote greater value-added processing of timber and accelerated development of hardwood plantation forestry. In the end, some 20 karsts were included in the extension to the WHA and another 10 or so given the more dubious protection of the Hole in the Doughnut park.

NOMINATED WORLD HERITAGE VALUES OF THE KARSTS

On 20 December 1988 the Commonwealth Government forwarded to the World Heritage Secretariat a submission that incorporated both a re-nomination of the existing WHA and the nomination of those parts of the Lemonthyme and Southern Forests that were to be protected. Karst figures prominently in the nomination case.

In terms of cultural heritage the nomination argues that the cave archaeological sites represent an Ice Age society which has disappeared (criterion iii) and that the archaeological sites of the region form "an outstanding example of a traditional settlement which would be vulnerable under the impact of development" (criterion iv). It was further argued that the rock art in Wargata Nina (Judds Cavern) was of major significance to the understanding of that Ice Age society and thus was "directly or tangibly associated with events, ideas or beliefs of outstanding universal significance" (criterion vi). Hence, the karsts of the area formed a major part of the cultural case for World Heritage status.

The nomination also argued that the area fulfilled all four criteria for listing as a natural property, and once again the karsts formed an integral part of this case. Firstly, no other glacio-karsts of pre-Last Glacial age are known from southern temperate latitudes and those in western Tasmania are therefore significant in interpreting landscape evolution during "a major stage in the earth's evolutionary history" (criterion i) The fauna of the area also includes cave species of Gondwanan affinity (criterion i). Processes of karst geomorphological and hydrological evolution continue uninterrupted in a variety of lithological, topographic, biokarstic, and climatic (including palaeo-climatic) contexts (criterion ii). The individual karst areas are also held to form part of a set of sites that document variations of natural processes across the region, both now and in the past. There is also genetic and phenotypic variation in various species, including cave-dwelling species (criterion ii). The karst was again discussed at length in the discussion of superlative natural phenomena (criterion iii), which cited the presence of a range of "karst landform species and landform communities", cave minerals and sediment accumulations. Finally, rare and endemic botanical species known only from alkaline pans in the southwestern karsts, the dolomite ridges of the Mt Anne karst and the limestone cliffs of the Lower Gordon karst were prominent in developing the case that the area contained important natural habitats that enabled survival of threatened species (criterion iv).

DISCUSSION

Karst management has become inter-twined with some of the biggest issues in Tasmanian politics, issues that were each a Pandora's box, and which have been bitterly fought because established power elites and long cherished assumptions were exposed and challenged. A former Prime Minister has concluded that in one of the most important episodes in Australian constitutional history, it was a 270m long limestone cave that tipped the balance. Some of these issues have stimulated major advances in our knowledge of Tasmania's karst and have given rise to initiatives in karst management outside the wilderness areas. These things have happened largely because some of the individuals concerned about re-routing the direction of Tasmania's development have been karst enthusiasts working to ensure that the values of the karsts in the Tasmanian wilderness were recognised, argued and taken into account amid the turmoil. Protection of the karst areas of western Tasmania could never have been achieved but for the fact that there was public clamour to protect the wilderness in which they occurred. But many other factors also helped shape the outcome. For instance, the forest resource in the karsts of the Southern Forests had to be significantly discounted to allow for compliance with the special provisions for karst management contained in the new Forest Practices Code. This effectively reduced the size of the perceived wood resource that had to be relinquished if the area was given World Heritage status. In a sense, the special prescriptions for karst contained in the Code contributed significantly to the likelihood of World Heritage listing. The karst provisions of the Code were based primarily on results of the Mole Creek karst forestry study. However, the advent of the Code itself was partly the product of political pressures arising from events in the wilderness area.

About 20 karst areas were included in the original World Heritage nomination, and a similar number have been included in the Southern Forests extension. In contrast, little of the tall forest that formed the focus of the Southern Forests debate has been protected - only about 30% of the new WHA extension is forested. During the Helsham Inquiry attempts were made to play down the significance to the karst in the original WHA on the basis that the nomination described it as being of only "national" (rather than "universal") significance. That the "universal" significance of certain karst areas has been specifically outlined in the latest nomination may be important in future since, if the nomination is accepted, it may make threats to those karsts more difficult to promote. However, while a large area has been nominated, which satisfies a significant part of the wilderness conservation agenda, the failure to include the Denison-Spires area (the "Hole in the Doughnut") leaves the World Heritage area with a gaping hole in its heart - a hole that includes Ballawinnie Cave and the enigmatic karst towers of the Maxwell valley, together with a number of other karsts.

More worrying still, the Cook-Groom Forest Industry Package, which is appended to the heads of agreement signed by the Commonwealth and State Governments on 28 November 1988, indicates that the Commonwealth agrees with the issuance of exploration and mining titles in the WHA. Because the existing WHA is being re-nominated together with the intended additions, the possible result of this provision is to allow mining anywhere in the total World Heritage Area. The proviso is that there be no threat posed to World Heritage values. Yet the Commonwealth has already agreed to gold mining, on an existing lease in the Jane River karst at the heart of the Franklin - Lower Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. Elsewhere, the WHA boundaries around Exit Cave make much more sense than those of the original cave reserve which was declared in two sections with a mining lease between. But the second largest limestone quarry in the State is to be allowed to continue operations within the new WHA. Apart from any long term threat to Exit Cave, operations at this quarry have already resulted in sedimentation in an adjacent cave that contains several skeletons of the thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger. Pollution entering a nearby sinkhole has reached another cave which, perhaps for this reason, is devoid of obligate cavernicoles despite their presence in other nearby stream caves (Kiernan, 1973a; and Clarke, 1987). In addition, some years ago the quarry company installed a pipe that diverts water to the quarry from the main stream that enters Exit Cave, despite an earlier undertaking that it would not do so (Kiernan, 1972).

No area can ever be considered "saved" simply because the chainsaws or the bulldozers have been deflected. If an area remains intact it remains potentially available for exploitation at some future time without constant effort no place is likely to survive if it can be converted into hard cash or votes. The immaturity of the conservation movement in failing to maintain a watching brief on the existing WHA while it branched into the forests campaign stands starkly revealed by the extent of the Lower Gordon erosion. The short duration of an activist generation compounds this sort of problem. If conservation is the goal, then achieving national park or World Heritage status is simply a means to an end, not an end in itself. In October 1988 Federal Liberal environment spokesman, Chris Pupick, observed that no legal mechanism existed to rescind WHAs. Since then, other conservative politicians have foreshadowed an intention to "review" restrictions imposed on activities in these areas. Clearly, that process has already started without the need for a change of government. World Heritage status has been seriously downgraded by leaving the options open for mining. The continued safety of Tasmania's World Heritage karst will probably depend more upon public expectations of what is acceptable in a World Heritage Area than upon its legal status or its land tenure. The price of conservation, like that of liberty, would seem to be eternal vigilance.

We appear to be seeing land management homogenised. As the area of parkland has grown politicians have sought ways to get around the restrictions on land-use that have traditionally applied in national parks. Coupled with this have been attempts to fend off Commonwealth intervention by improving the management of land under the control of more exploitative agencies. Superimposed upon this have been improvements in management by non-conservation agencies that reflect a genuinely more enlightened attitude towards the environment. For instance, the Forestry Commission is now compiling karst inventory information on its computerised geographical information system; it is actively supporting a search for more karst, and undertaking karst research; it has developed a formal policy whereby karst areas may be zoned out of production until such time as more is known about them; mandatory training courses for Forest Practice Officers include lectures and field trips on karst; removing or damaging speleothems from caves on State Forest has been made an offence punishable by a fine of up to $500; areas that contain important karst features are being completely excluded from wood resource calculations for planning purposes; the first major management plan for a karst forest is in preparation. There is no doubt that the events in the Tasmanian wilderness have contributed very significantly to the evolution of community attitudes that has enabled these sorts of things to come about, hopefully improving karst management all over the state.

In its editorial of 30 November 1988 Hobart's Mercury newspaper, previously a staunch advocate of the dams, acknowledged that conservationists "can present persuasive arguments and that had it not been for their tenacity, Tasmania would have been further in debt, the result of expensive and possibly unnecessary hydro-electric schemes ... as well, they can point to better forestry management practices, many of which stemmed from their criticisms". Indeed, the HEC has admitted that conservationists' predictions of power demand proved more accurate than its own, and that the Franklin dam was not needed. The HEC had predicted 2000 jobs would be lost if the Lower Gordon dam did not proceed, but no jobs were lost. The State Government claimed that 920 jobs would be lost if the Helsham Inquiry went ahead, but again no jobs were lost (Chubb, 1988). Perhaps with the wisdom of hindsight and when passions have subsided newspaper editorials in years to come will utter similar sentiments about the Southern Forests - even if those newspapers are owned by the companies that cut the forests.

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