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Visitor's Guide to Tasmania's Reserves
Tamar River Conservation Area
Tamar Island Wetlands Interpretation
Centre (Photography by Geoff Lea)
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The Tamar Island Wetlands is an unique urban wetlands reserve just ten minutes drive from the heart
of Launceston in Tasmania's north. An outstanding
Interpretation Centre offers visitors the opportunity
to learn about the great value of the wetlands.
Tamar Island has
been Crown Land since settlement and up to the 1980s was leased to private
and public operators. In the 1980s the Tasmanian Government purchased
the wetlands area around Tamar Island, which was incorporated
into the greater Tamar River Conservation Area. The Tamar Island Wetlands
are managed by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service, with important assistance
from Wildcare volunteers.
Access
The Tamar River Conservation Area stretches
through the upper part of the Tamar Estuary from
St Leonards to the Batman Bridge. The Interpretation
Centre and the boardwalk leading to Tamar Island
are just a ten minute drive north from the centre
of Launceston on the West Tamar Highway,
just north of Riverside.
Disabled Access
The Interpretation Centre and the board-walk to the island have easy wheelchair
access and both the Centre and the island have disabled toilet facilities.
Facilities
Walking Tracks
The boardwalk from the Visitor Centre leads to
Tamar Island (Photography
by Julie Nermut)
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There are approximately 3.2 km of tracks
at the wetlands. The
distance from the entrance gate to the island is 1.5 km and there is approximately
1.2 km of tracks on the island itself. The Interpretation Centre is
200 metres from the main gate. The easy access board-walk allows for
a comfortable one hour return trip to the island for the average walker.
Opening times for the board-walk are dawn to dusk every day of the year
except Christmas Day.
Bird Hide
A short (0.5 km) walk from the Interpretation Centre takes the visitor
to a bird hide with seating. Visitors can observe a number of different
birds on the lagoon from this hide and enjoy a restful break.
Interpretation Centre
Opening times for the Interpretation Centre are:
| 1 April – 30 September |
10.00 am to 4.00 pm |
| 1 October – 31March |
9.00 am to 5.00 pm |
Other facilities at the Tamar Island Wetlands site include: a car
park; picnic and gas barbeque facilities on the island; toilet facilities
at the Interpretation Centre and on the island; drinking water; disabled
access; floating pontoon for boat access to the island.
The Tamar Island Visitor
Centre is a great educational
resource (Photography by
St.John Pound)
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Group Excursions
The Tamar Island Wetlands reserve outdoor
education experience offers a range of activities for both adults and
children.
Volunteers can provide a range of talks and activities covering topics
such as wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, wetlands ecology and macro-invertebrates
and the pest fish species Gambusia.
If a talk is required seven days notice must be provided. All groups – school
and private – must
be booked-in with the Interpretation Centre prior to their visit.
For bookings and costs, please contact the Centre.
Full details of the Tamar Wetlands reserve outdoor experience are
available for download as a PDF (24 Kb).
Highlights
The Tamar Island Wetlands reserve is approximately 60 hectares
of mud flats, lagoons and islands. The seven hectare Tamar Island
rises to approximately 20 metres above sea level, affording an excellent
view of the surrounding landscape.
History
Early in the 1800s the West Tamar region was developed
and cleared for farmland. Convict
labour was used to drain the wetlands along the foreshore and levee banks were
built to keep tidal waters back from reclaimed pasture and cropping land. Inter-connecting
drainage channels were dug so that any excess water collecting in the low-lying
paddocks could be drained into the main estuary channel.
In the 1950s farming along the western section of the upper Tamar Estuary
virtually ceased and the levee banks began to fall into disrepair. Gradually
the Estuary is reclaiming its original wetlands and native flora and fauna
species are moving back and recolonising the former farmland.
The wreck of the dredge, Platypus
(Photgraphy by Julie Nermut)
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Silting of the main channel in the Tamar Estuary has been a problem
for shipping for nearly two centuries. In an effort to increase the
flow of water in the main channel approximately 14 vessels, mainly
barges, were sunk between Tamar Island and the foreshore from 1926
to 1971. The
idea was to increase the water flow through the main section of the
estuary, which would help to scour the channel. Some of the remaining
wrecks can still be seen today, including the bucket dredge, Playtpus.
Further details of the history of the region are available for download as
a PDF (22 Kb).
Ecology of the Tamar River Conservation Area
The Tamar River Conservation Area is part of an estuarine wetland. Such
wetlands are important habitats for a wide diversity of plant and animal
life. The Tamar estuary is fed by the largest catchment in Tasmania
and, at 70km, is the longest estuary in Australia. It is
an important residential and recreational resource for many Tasmanians.
It also remains the stronghold for one of Tasmania's poorly reserved
vegetation comunities - coastal paperbark forest.
Further details of the ecology of the Tamar River Conservation Area
are available for download as
a PDF (17 Kb).
Fauna and Flora
Tamar Island Wetlands have a wide range
of plants, birds, reptiles, frogs, fish and invertebrates including
a number of threatened species. Of course, all plants and animals within
the reserve are protected, and no plant or animal samples should be
taken from the Conservation Area.
Visitors are also alerted to the wetlands having been invaded by some
plant and animal species, which have become invasive and are threatening
the native species. It
is therefore particularly important that no water be transferred between
lagoons, channels or estuary waters. This
is a particularly high risk method of transferring seed, eggs and live
animals from one place to another, thereby enabling any pest species
to spread further through the wetlands.
Further details of the fauna and flora of the region are available
for download as
a PDF (35 Kb). |
