Huon Valley bush retreat in Tasmania, Australia
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
At Huon Bush Retreats, we take environmental protection seriously.
A private community habitat reserve protects the entire forest community surrounding Mt Misery. Vegetation ranges from open grasslands, sub alpine heathlands, open woodlands, eucalypt regrowth, towering oldgrowth with 60 meter tall, 350 year old giants and rainforest.
As part of Mt Misery Habitat Reserve, we value all aspects of the natural environment, including landscapes, rocks, soil and water.
Huon Bush Retreats Wins Major Environmental Award
Huon Valley eco-tourism operators, Michael Higgins and Paul Dimmick are the proud recipients of the Nyrstar Environment and Sustainability Award which acknowledges proven passion and dedication to improving the Tasmanian environment.
The award recognises that Huon Bush Retreats works in an ongoing way to overcome the challenges facing our natural world and to overcome the barriers to change that are often encountered in business. Environmental improvements can come in many forms, for example, changing behaviours and patterns of consumption, restoring impacted areas, establishing sustainable business practices, and the protection of threatened species and habitat. Huon Bush Retreats has been recognised as succeeding in all of these areas.
Day visitors and overnight guests can be assured that their holiday is helping do good for the environment. During the awards ceremony, each of the four finalists was asked about their particular environmental endeavours. The MC, Peter Murphy, from Southern Cross Television asked Paul, "How do you manage to balance environmental protection with tourism impacts?"
Paul answered, “Trying to balance it would constantly present ethical dilemmas. Instead we just make sure that everything we do has a large environmental bias. One example is our carbon balance which comes out 3900 tonnes positive per year. That is we take in more carbon than our operations and our guest travel releases.”
Paul went on to thank the great team of staff members at Huon Bush Retreats, including the construction team, our maintenance people, cleaners, bookkeeper and partner Michael. "Without everyone doing their bit, Huon Bush Retreats would not be the success that it is.” says Paul.
He also thanked everyone in the Mount Misery community who have made the private habitat reserve a reality. Located in the Mount Misery Private Habitat Reserve near Ranelagh, Huon Bush Retreats offers guests a choice of self contained cabins, deluxe tipees and private campsites against an inspiring backdrop of protected native forest.
Paul says, “The walks are open to day visitors and we encourage Huon Valley residents to come and enjoy the beauty of the reserve. Please remember this is a habitat reserve, so please leave your dogs at home.”
The Green Tourism Certification annual assessment of Huon Bush Retreats was undertaken against EarthCheck Assessed Health Check and EarthCheck benchmarking indicators listed below. They have been carefully selected to track performance in key areas of environmental and social performance impact. Their outcomes which are presented in this report are used by EarthCheck to evaluate whether the operation has reached the standards necessary to pass the initial benchmarking requirements.
Huon Bush Retreats are measuring our performance against the EarthCheck program with some great results displayed below. HBR Exceeds Best Practice
In each of the four categories, Huon Bush Retreats exceeds World Best Practice for environmentally sustainable tourism operation.
Community
Acknowledgement of Aboriginal culture
Aboriginal custodianship of this land for at least 40,000 years before European arrival was acknowledged in a ceremony involving local aboriginal community representatives. Aboriginal people in Tasmania today continue the connection with their land and their culture.
Interpretation Panels
Huon Bush Retreats celebrates and promotes the people and natural forces that create and protect the natural values of Mt Misery Habitat Reserve.
In 2009 we launched our series of 32 interpretation panels which we hope through stories, pictures and information, visitors will deepen their connection to Tasmania and join us in understanding our place in the world. The project was made possible through the support of the Australian Federal Government through an AusIndustry grant and through Greencore’s assistance with track work.
Our story began 40,000 years ago with custodianship of Country by the Tasmanian Aboriginals. Europeans settled in the area 100 years ago, logging, farming and establishing communities. In 1988 Michael Higgins purchased 7ha of property in Lucaston on the northern slopes of Mount Misery. Then, Michael and Paul Dimmick purchased an adjoining property. That same year, Paul was required, as part of a major assignment for a Diploma of Land Management course, to write a property management plan and suitably wrote one titled “Mount Misery Habitat Reserve Management Plan” covering both properties. That established the name “Mount Misery Habitat Reserve” and at this point the reserve totalled 18ha.
In 1993 the Tasmanian Government began investigating a conservation covenanting system and the two properties at Lucaston became the development cases. Covenants were attached to the land titles of these properties to protect the natural values in perpetuity.
Between 1993 and 1999 we acquired other properties and the summit of Mount Misery which took our land area to 500ha and covenants were applied to all properties in 2000.
Paul tells the story of the next land purchase and the moment of Huon Bush Retreat’s inception:
“We had already purchased the top of Mount Misery and applied conservation covenants to protect the natural values forever, now we wanted to find the best way to reach the summit. That morning, we had climbed the mountain from the north and lunched at the top enjoying the views. As we descended the southern slopes, the trees suddenly parted and we found ourselves standing on the edge of a small grassy cliff top.
“The land dropped to a stream 40 metres below us, rising again on the other side of the gully. Here was a rainforest of sassafras, dogwood and myrtle. Was that a hidden waterfall we could hear somewhere amongst the trees? Towering 60 metres above was a trio of Eucalyptus regnans trees. As we stood in awe of the scene before us, an eagle soared in and landed.
“Wouldn’t it be great if we could buy this and share it with the community?”
I thought.
“Thirty minutes later we arrived at the public road. We climbed over the gate and I turned for one last look at the rainforest gully, still just visible in the distance behind us. There on the gate was a “For Sale” sign!
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