Visitors must open their wallets so Tassie remains ‘wild and free’

Mainlanders on ‘value holidays’ need to spend money to ensure the survival of the places they love so much.

Melbourne uni student and aspiring writer Finn Mollison, 22, who has been cycling around the state, in the Central Highlands. Mollison, who befriended Charles Wooley during a stopover at Bronte Park, has penned his thoughts on how fellow travellers can better support the state they claim to love so much. Picture: Supplied.

From the veranda at Shane’s Bronte Park Store you can see the whole world pass by. Sometimes people actually stop and spend money. But if they are in one of those ubiquitous and huge camper trailers clogging our roads this season, usually they only pause to decant the contents of their dunnies into the nearby council waste station.

The Central Highlands Council also provides some public loos, an electric barbie and a kids’ playground and they retain Shane to keep them clean and tidy.

“Does the trailer brigade spend much money here?” I asked him.

“Not really. They just dump their s--t and move on. I reckon mostly they bought what they needed before they got on the ferry.”

Now that is understandable because despite the fact that they have invested in a few hundred dollars’ worth of rig (or perhaps because of that) they do seem fairly tight with a quid.

“Well Shane, judging by the large volume of sewage going into the ground, I reckon at least they will be coming in to buy dunny paper.”

“No Charlie, every day I stock the cubicles with fresh toilet rolls and every day they get pinched.”

Melbourne uni student and aspiring writer Finn Mollison, 22, who has been cycling around the state, during a stop in the Central Highlands. Mollison, who befriended Charles Wooley during a stopover at Bronte Park, has penned his thoughts on how fellow travellers can better support the state they claim to love so much. Picture: Supplied.

And then as if on cue, a young cyclist rode into the village, hungry and thirsty, and prepared to spend money at Shane’s shop.

His name was Finn Mollison, a 22-year-old who is studying environmental and social sciences at the University of Melbourne.

“When I’m on holiday I am travelling Australia by bike and doing my best to document what I see,” he said. He told me he wanted to be a writer and would love to be in print.

What he has sent me is not directed at Tasmanians but at the 1.26 million visitors who almost doubled our population in 2023.

Finn wants them to spend their money as well as time in Tasmania.

He’s on our side, although I know a few cranky old keyboard narks among you will hate him because he’s young and fit.

Finn Mollison, who is a student studying environmental and social sciences at the University of Melbourne, was rapt with the natural beauty of the Central Highlands. Picture: Supplied.

But when he becomes a successful writer, I am sure he will spend up big at Henry Jones and Saffire.

Meanwhile, here’s Finn Mollison’s view from the bicycle.

“Many of us have never questioned that if nothing else, the great outdoors is free. Humankind’s playground. Available to all comers, rich or poor. However, having just travelled the length of Tasmania by bicycle, one thing has been made glaringly apparent to me; Tasmania’s nature may be free in name, but it is currently the subject of a bidding war.

Unfortunately, one of the buyers hasn’t realised this.

Tourists want to preserve the natural wonders of Tasmania; to ‘Keep Tassie Wild’. I see the bumper sticker all around my native Melbourne. But from what I’ve observed over the past week, the incentive interstate tourism is supposed to provide has well and truly failed to support Tasmanians.

Droves of visitors from the mainland cross Bass Strait in vans, cars and caravans every tourist season. The guidelines to this style of holiday are simple: sleep in the car, cook on the stove and, in general, keep the wallet firmly glued to the back pocket. And it is in these so-called “value holidays” that Tasmanians are being ripped off.

Year-round, mainland Australia pats Tasmania on the back for taking custody of its wild expanses.

‘Keep looking after it for us,’ we say. ‘We’ll be back in the summer to enjoy it!’

But for how much longer can Tasmanians resist lucrative development, forestry and industry contracts, when interstate tourists refuse to pay their way during their journey down south?

Bronte Park General Store owner Shane Hedger, agrees with young traveller Finn Mollinson that mainland tourists rarely spend up big in his neck of the woods. Picture: Supplied

Allow me to be clear: I cherish Tasmania’s natural beauty. I too want to preserve it for generations to come, because the treasures contained here are beyond valuation. But under the current system all is taken while nothing is given in return. There is urgent need for a change to this pattern, and this was hammered home to me on one day in particular:

I was passing through the Styx Valley. A man named Charlie, who I met outside a general store the day before, had given me a set of instructions. ‘You want to see something truly incredible?’ he asked me.

‘Go to the Styx. Walk under the tallest trees you have ever seen. Then go a hundred metres down the road.’

It felt something like a mandate.

Charles Wooley admires one of the giants in the Tall Tree Reserve in the Styx Valley. Picture: Supplied

And, just as Charlie had warned, several hundred metres down the road swathes of forest had been clear-cut.

Side-by-side, I saw two powerhouses of the Tasmanian economy; one was looking by far the stronger.

In nearby Maydena, I asked cafe owner Jeanette how mainlanders spend their money in this part of Tassie, and she was straight to the point.

‘How do they spend their money?’ she asked, raising her eyebrows. ‘More like how they don’t.’

All throughout Tasmania, the story is the same. Natural tourism is fending off logging, fishing and other ventures. If mainlanders are going to continue to plea to ‘Keep Tassie Wild’, they need to face a hard truth:

People are doing it tough. Money isn’t coming in, least of all from you.

Come down to Tasmania. Put your money where your mouth is. Support Tasmanians and give them a reason to protect these lands you love so much.”

Charles Wooley is a Tasmania-based journalist.