Southern Tasmanian tourist attraction closed as fire closes in

THE owner of Tahune airwalk in the Huon Valley is hoping for the best as a bushfire burns nearby his much-loved Southern Tasmanian tourist attraction

The Tahune Forest Airwalk, in the south of Tasmania has been evacuated as firefighting efforts ramp up. Picture: Princess Cruises

THE owner of Tahune airwalk has a nervous wait on his hands after his well-known nature tourism attraction was evacuated due to bushfire.

Around 300 visitors and staff were evacuated from the remote site around 2pm today due to the proximity of the Tahune bushfire.

An emergency warning was issued for the Tahune fire at 3pm today.

“It would appear there is a new fire that’s flared up about 2-3km from us,” Tahune Adventures Tasmania owner Ken Stronach said.

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“Tasmania Fire Service took the safety measure to ask us to close. There’s a lot of smoke in the area and we evacuated about 300 of our visitors that were down there today and all our staff.

“I’m particularly grateful to my staff who made sure we got people off the site without panic.”

“Things moved very quickly.”

Mr Stronach said he would keep the public updated on the status of the attraction.

“I’m forever the optimist and I’m hoping we will be back down there tomorrow,” he said.

Mr Stronach said smoke from the fire was having a significant impact on the nearest town of Geeveston.

“There is more smoke at Geeveston than there is at Tahune,” he said.

The TFS says the Tahune fire will put the areas around the immediate vicinity of the Tahune airwalk, Riveaux Road, Arve Road (West of Southwood Road intersection) and Southwood Road at very high risk this afternoon.