Our Latest News

West Point Road improvements

29/06/2009

Access to a popular coastal recreational destination, the West Point State Reserve on Tasmania's West Coast, has been improved with the completion of roadworks by the Parks and Wildlife Service.
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Strong commercial interest in proposed Three Capes Track

25/06/2009

There has been an encouraging response to the recent Identification of Commercial Interest for the proposed Three Capes Track.
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Maria Island access

18/06/2009

The Parks and Wildlife Service wishes to advise that the Maria Island Ferry and Eco Cruises will not be operating its ferry service to Maria Island during the period 23rd June to 14 July, 2009.
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Savage River National Park

Introduction

Savage River National Park is a wilderness region in the north west of Tasmania. The park protects the largest contiguous area of cool temperate rainforest surviving in Australia and acts as a refuge for a rich primitive flora, undisturbed river catchments, high quality wilderness, old growth forests, geodiversity and natural landscape values.

The western portion of the park includes the most extensive basalt plateaux in Tasmania that still retains a wholly intact forest ecosystem. The upper Savage River, which lends the park its name, runs through a pristine, rainforested river gorge system. The park contains habitat for a diverse rainforest fauna and is a stronghold for a number of vertebrate species which have suffered population declines elsewhere in Tasmania and mainland Australia.

The parks remoteness from human settlement and mechanised access, its undisturbed hinterland rivers and extensive
rainforest, pristine blanket bog peat soils and isolated, elevated buttongrass moorlands ensure the wilderness character of the park. Like the vast World Heritage listed Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area to its south, the area is one of the few remaining temperate wilderness areas left on Earth.

Unlike other national parks, Savage River National Park remains inaccessible. In keeping with its wilderness character, there are no facilities and no roads or mechanised access to the park. However, the park is surrounded by the Savage River Regional Reserve, in which a number of rough 4WD tracks provide limited access. To the north of the reserve, a number of State Forest Reserves can be accessed by standard vehicles. They offer an insight into the magnificent rainforest ecosystem that lies to the southeast within the Savage River National Park.