Maria Island walking holiday, Tasmania
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
On Maria Island your environmental footprint is negligible. The two wilderness camps are both elegant and environmentally sensitive. All structures in the camps are semi-permanent, while a network of boardwalks maintains the sites’ pristine nature. Solar power is used for the composting toilets in the camps as well as collect and store rainwater.
To minimize our carbon footprint in treating camp kitchen waste water, our local partners have designed an on-site grey water treatment system that raises the bar on levels of wastewater treatment in Tasmanian reserves.
Our entire team, as well as our selected partners, share a deep commitment to maintaining the integrity of the Tasmanian wilderness. Accordingly we have established an operation that follows a Leave No Trace philosophy and are proud of the fact that we have effectively left no human trace behind over two decades of operating in Tasmania’s most delicate environs. The places we take our travellers remain in the same excellent and pristine condition as when we first found them. Some areas, like along the river banks of the Franklin River, are in even better condition.
Our leaders encourage and promote an understanding to our travellers of local conservation, including:
Stay on track: If no track, fan out and do not follow in each other's footsteps. On beaches, walk below the high-tide mark.
Use of fuel stoves: Take care to place your stove and any hot pots on hard surfaces. Some vegetation does not easily recover from the heat of stoves.
Pack it in - pack it out: Take all of your rubbish out with you! Collect any other bushwalkers' garbage off the track!
Campsite etiquette: Pitch your tent on an established site rather than creating a new one. Once camp is established minimise movements, i.e collect your water once for the evening.
Flora/Fauna: Don’t disturb or feed nesting birds or browsing animals. Avoid introducing weeds or seeds into new areas by thoroughly cleaning boots tents and other equipment before and after each trip. The root rot fungus Phytophthora cinnamomi is present in Tasmania help stop the spread we ensure our travellers clean their gear including boots, tent pegs, gaiters and tent floor, before, during and after a trek.
Remove Human Waste. Some environments are so sensitive that even small amounts of human waste present a major environmental threat. In these locations such as the Franklin River and Western Arthurs our environmental practices require that we remove all solid human waste. We have developed compact portable toilet and waste carrying solutions such as ‘the groover’ and ‘the poo-tube’ so as to ensure these fragile environments we effectively “Leave No Trace”
Water: One of the rare pleasures one can have in Tasmania is to dip ones cup into the stream and drink directly from it. We advise travellers on how to keep the water sources unpolluted by taking washing water 100m away from a water source to only use bio-degradable soap.
Human Food drops: - Some areas we visit are so remote that food drops are required to assist our travellers. To minimize impact our food drops have changed location and are rotated from sites to enable rainforest to regenerate. Careful planning and judgement reduces the amount of times food drops have to be delivered. Today, 95% of our trips employ locals to make food drops rather than utilize helicopters – thus also reducing carbon emissions.
We were delighted that our efforts were nominated by our travellers and subsequently long listed for the Responsible Travel Awards 2011.
Community
Each year our partners donate more than AU $
20000 worth of walks as prizes for charity fundraisers with causes such as the Cancer Council and Birds Australia.
They support and speak up publicly on behalf of fellow tourism operators, have lobbied to keep the Drysdale Polytechnic’s guide training courses from looming threats from educational reforms as well as the Tasmanian Government to provide more reasonable lease terms for tourism operators.
As part of our operations manual we make it very clear that resources, where and when possible, should be purchased from local sources. We have a food policy, whereby it states that the produce on trips should be both Tasmanian owned and produced. If both are not possible it should then be either produced or owned locally before even considering any mainland or overseas alternatives.
All guides and support staff are locally employed.
We employ people to do our food drops – rather than helicopters.
All vehicles are maintained frequently locally in Launceston.
As a pioneer and leader in the Tasmanian adventure industry, we help to bring together smaller operators and include some of their experiences in our multi-activity packages so they benefit from our marketing activities as well.
There is a check of local gear and equipment before every tour at a local gear shop. If a client is deemed lacking essential equipment we have obtained favourable rates for them to purchase the gear from the locally owned outdoor shop.
Each year we run at least one charity fundraising trek which benefits a Tasmanian charity financially as well as through raising their profile through the marketing activities we undertake to promote the trek.
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