Federal approval has been given to the Tarkine tourist road, involving widening and sealing existing roads from the Arthur River township to Tayatea Bridge and upgrading tourism infrastructure. The project will also introduce major road-kill mitigation measures. Construction is expected to start in May and finish by the end of 2014.

The state government has welcomed Federal environment minister Tony Bourke's approval for the Tarkine Forest Drive, describing the proposed road as 'sensitive and sustainable'.

The project is also seen as a bipartisan boost for tourism and employment for the North West, after lengthy consultation with groups including local councils, the Tarkine National Coalition, Parks and Wildlife, the Cradle Coast Authority and Tourism Tasmania.

As part of the approval, 24 conditions have been set by the Australian Government aimed at protecting the natural environment.

Mr Burke said with the conditions in place he is satisfied the development can go ahead without unacceptable impacts on matters of national environmental significance.

"This is a significantly different pathway to earlier proposals from the Tasmanian Government which involved land clearing in areas where there was currently no road," Mr Burke said.

Speed on sealed roads

Statewide Mornings presenter Leon Compton spoke with independent Wildlife Biologist Nick Mooney, who has worked extensively with Tasmanian Devils.

He says most of the engineering enhancements are to compensate for impatient drivers and it is not really known if the rumble strips and light roads will help.

"If people continue to drive fast, it completely eliminates its usefulness."

Mr Mooney believes that sealing roads in the region is having significant impacts on the Tasmanian Devil population.

Listen to Nick Mooney speaking with Leon Compton after the federal government gave approval for the Tarkine Forest Drive by clicking the above audio link.

"One of the problems with this road is, it will be very heavily used by people accessing the coast with four wheel drives and boats and things, who are very familiar with the road, and will just belt down it."

"Slowing down the locals is the problem and people have to respect the whole idea and want to not road kill things for this to work."

"It's hard to know the benefits because any increase in traffic from tourism, and any increased income locally, is just a projection: there is no accurate measure of that at all, and the projection for the Western Explorer Road failed dismally."

Approval conditions



A suite of infrastructure and traffic mitigation measures to minimise fauna deaths.



Pre-construction surveys to protect breeding fauna in areas to be disturbed.



A three stage adaptive management plan with specified trigger levels.



Appropriately posted speed limits.



At least 21 kilometres of road will have a light coloured surface so that drivers can clearly see animals in the distance, along with rumble strips to alert animals of approaching vehicles in defined high risk areas.



Verge infrastructure including table drains to minimise vegetation growth reducing the attractiveness of roadsides to fauna.



Limiting construction to daylight hours, and imposing a 60 kilometre per hour speed limit for any construction vehicles travelling outside these hours.



Ensuring that all works cease within 50 metres of an identified active Tasmanian devil den.



A monitoring program, which will use clearly defined trigger points to escalate the adaptive management plan with higher and higher level protective mechanisms put in place should environmental impacts increase.

The key measures to mitigate against environmental impacts include:

The state government will also develop a Tarkine region rehabilitation plan to restore legacy environmental issues in the region such as quarries and gravel pits that were previously used in road construction.

Full details of the notification of approval and conditions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act are on the Australian Government website

Do you think the sealing roads in the Tarkine region is endangering wildlife, or that the mitigation efforts will prevent the roadkill of Tasmanian Devils?

What have you seen on the roads?