If you’ve ever been lucky enough to have made the trip to Tasmania’s far north-west tip, you would’ve found yourself in a beautiful, blustery land preserved in history. Preminghana is home to some of the world’s most important ancient artefacts, hut sites and rock art. It holds a great cultural significance to the Aboriginal community and dates back thousands of years.
Visiting the Preminghana Indigenous Protected Area is as incredible as it sounds and has been described as stunning mountain that rises dramatically from the coastline.
Indigenous rangers are geared-up with drone mapping technology
The Indigenous rangers who manage Preminghana use fancy drone technology to map out the heritage sites. But what it has revealed is not so great for the 4×4 community…
According to Indigenous rangers, the protected land is slowly, but steadily getting ruined by 4-wheel drivers and bikers who are straying off the tracks into nearby cultural sites. Due to mapping the area annually since 2018, they’ve known this for quite some time, but just haven’t had the technology to prove it… until now.
The 4×4 community is now under fire
Dozens of new, illegal 4-wheeled drive and bike tracks have been discovered running over the the sacred Aboriginal land. The tracks are causing damage to the area. Which is recognised by all levels of government as heritage that needs to be protected.
The history of Preminghana and calls to return it back to traditional owners
The Tasmanian government returned Preminghana to Aboriginal people in 1999. But it remains one of few land hand-backs in Tasmanian’s history.
While the rangers own and manage Preminghana, land management responsibility for the rest of the Arthur Pieman Conservation Area sits with Parks and Wildlife (PWS). The rangers say their evidence shows clear damage throughout the area, and that First Nations people should be given back control to take care of it.
A reminder to the 4-wheel drive community
This kind of behaviour gives 4-wheeled drivers a bad name. So while we hope the Tasmanian government can do something to address the issue, it’s important to respect the land we live on and the country we are lucky enough to explore.
Most of all, leave the protected areas alone. There’s plenty of other great tracks out there to have fun on. You can check some out here.
