The St Marys Protected Landscape

The St Marys Protected Landscape is a corridor of land that links the Mount Nicholas Range and the South and North Sisters with St Patricks Head and Mount Elephant ranges. Much of this area is already reserved as state or forest reserves, while some of it is private land. There is, however, no current linking management plan for the area and so no integrated conservation principles being applied.

Download the pdf map file

The St Marys Protected Landscape is a hot spot of biodiversity and needs an integrated management plan. This plan will identify resources and recommend how this unique area, home to so many endangered species, can be protected for future generations. The plan will look at the various land tenures and recreational activities and consider how these can be best managed in relation to the principles of linking landscapes. The underpinning authority of the management plan comes from existing legislation, intergovernmental agreements and codes of behaviour. The management plan will be funded from donations. In addition, there are several possibilities for NETLT to purchase land within the St Marys Protected Landscape for conservation purposes.

Endangered and rare species in the St Marys Protected Landscape

The St Marys Protected Landscape is home to the following Threatened fauna species:

In addition, there are 15 threatened species of flora which have been identified in the area and which are also under threat from logging.
The Head of the Tasmanian Herbarium, Dr Gintaras Kantvilas has said that the area of the South Sister “has a remarkable lichen flora which includes several unusual species both in Tasmania and a wider context”. (Letter 31 January 2005)
In a report on a visit to the area (September 2004) Dr Peter McQuillan from the Centre of Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania noted that this area is a “known biodiversity hotspot, but there is poor documentation of the distribution of local species and limited understanding of their association into functional ecological communities.” Dr McQuillan went on to say, “...(a) better knowledge of the regional diversity of Tasmania is essential as a guide to sustainable management of resources, since maintenance of biodiversity is a key indicator of sustainability.”

Break O’Day National Park

The Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement between the Commonwealth of Australia and the State of Tasmania, signed on 7 August 2011, agreed to immediately place 430,000 hectares of native forests into Informal Reserves and that, subject to verification, State legislation would formally protect these areas with appropriate land tenure.

Some of the 430,000 hectares of Informal Reserves are located around the town of St Marys. In addition to these Informal Reserves the St Marys area also contains the State Reserves of St Marys Pass State Reserve, St Patricks Head State Reserve and Little Beach State Reserve. These state reserves together with the Informal Reserves and several forestry reserves constitute a natural interconnected single area containing high conservation values. This area was identified by the North East Tasmania Land Trust as the St Marys Protected Landscape. It has now been proposed that the St Marys Protected Landscape becomes the Break O' Day National Park.

In early September 2011 a submission for a Break O' Day National Park was drawn up by the Greater Esk Tourism Inc. and sent to the Hon. David OByrne, State Minister for Economic Development; the Hon David Crean, Federal Minister for Regional Development; and the Independent Verification Group led by Professor Jonathan West.

This submission contains three general proposals:

1. Firstly, that the Informal Reserves surrounding the town of St Marys, together with existing state and forestry reserves, be permanently protected with the status of a National Park, and that this park be called the Break O’Day National Park; and

2. Secondly, that the Break O’Day National Park be administered by a Conservation Management Trust (CMT). This would be an incorporated not-for-profit body made up of community representatives drawn from conservation groups in the area as well as from local business people and, in addition, would have a Parks and Wildlife Services representative on it. The CMT would oversee the management plan and propose regulations relating to the overall management of the park. The CMT would have a bank account, budget, hire staff and manage visitors and volunteers, and through this mechanism the local community would be directly involved in the management of the park and the promotion of the area.

3. Thirdly, that the initial establishing costs for the Break O’Day National Park be assessed and identified through a process of working in conjunction with the Commonwealth Government’s Regional Development Australia. This is a place-based project and comes under Regional Development Australia’s plans for economic diversification.

A copy of this submission is contained in the following pdf file:

Download the submission pdf file

Part of this submission for the Break O' Day National Park was a Natural Values Report prepared by Nick Fitzgerald, BSc (Hons). This report is contained in the following pdf file:

Download the report pdf file