Franklin River rafting holiday in Tasmania

Planet

While Australia enjoys a high standard of living, there are a myriad of threats to the environment. We have actively campaigned to protect the environment when outside forces threaten natural values of the land. We’ve campaigned on the ground, in media, within boardrooms and Government offices and we will continue to fight for the environment.

Examples include:
Campaign to stop the proposed Pulp Mill in Tasmania’s Tamar Valley, in association with the Greens Party (2007). Campaign to end logging and wood chipping of Tasmania’s high conservation value forests, an ongoing campaign. Campaign to keep helicopter tourism out of the Tasmanian South-West Wilderness World Heritage Area, in association with Tasmanian Greens and Friends of the Quiet Land (1999/2000). Campaign to ensure that the Mt McCall 4WD track (SW Tasmania) is closed and rehabilitated as intended under the World Heritage Management Plan, in association with The Wilderness Society (1998). Campaign to prevent the construction of the Jabiluka Uranium Mine in Kakadu Northern Territory (1997-98)

Our responsible travel principles:
Our company aims to maximise the positive benefits of tourism for host communities. This includes training and employment of local staff, using local suppliers and assisting in the development of sustainable local businesses.

We actively minimise the negative effects that tourism can have by ensuring that tourism does not divert resources away from local communities or drive up prices on local resources.

We provide opportunities for real cultural exchange, where locals and visitors alike can share and learn from each other in an environment of mutual respect. We contribute to the welfare of the host community. This is epitomised in our Community Project Travel program where we organise for our travelers to spend time in disadvantaged villages upgrading basic facilities such as health, education and water access. We strive to educate our travelers about the destination and its local cultures as well as providing guidelines on appropriate behaviour to minimise impact.

No local payments policy:
Local cash payments are becoming increasingly popular with many operators in the adventure travel industry. This policy seems to benefit the tour operators more than the local economies or the travelers, as it avoids local taxes and transfers the costs and risks of cash handling onto the travelers. In accordance with our Responsible Travel practices, we have chosen a policy of not asking for such payments.

People

The Franklin River is renowned for its pristine wilderness as well as its world class white-water rafting. Whilst the river environment is close to pristine, in recent years our local guides have spotted isolated outbreaks of noxious weeds such as blackberry on the riverbanks. Our project is working with the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife to remove these weeds and ensure that the Franklin River remains pristine. This trip is both a classic wilderness rafting expedition and a positive way to contribute to the care and custodianship for one of the world’s greatest wilderness rivers.

Our Franklin River Care Project has helped to bring the Franklin back to the best shape it has been in 30 years. The careful removal of exotic weed infestations over several years and tight management of campsite impacts has ensured the Franklin is still pristine after 30 years of commercial rafting activity.

We pioneered commercial rafting on the Franklin River with the first commercial raft descent in 1978. Ever since have contributed to every campaign to protect this magnificent and important river which is home to Aboriginal caves that contain the remains of campfires, stone tools and animal bones which dated back to 24,000 - 8,000 years BP (before present).

True sustainability is a guiding aspect in all aspects of our business planning and operations. Specifically our tour operations should be managed in a way where the natural and cultural values of the host region are undiminished in the long-term.

Where possible, we engage in partnerships with local environmental groups and/or land managers to actively campaign for conservation or promote environmental protection and/or rehabilitation.

Our philosophy since 1975 has been to leave only footprints and take only photographs. To reiterate this, every customer who travels with us receives a copy of our award-winning Responsible Travel guidebook. This detailed book outlines our environmentally sustainable principles, and outlines how each customer can minimize their impact while traveling.

The root cause of Global Warming is society's dependence on emission creating fossil fuel. Planting trees is not going to reverse this trend or cancel our carbon emissions very quickly or effectively. We believe the way to reduce these dependencies is to create clean energy production. Therefore, we support renewable energy projects like wind and solar power, and we are aligned with Climate Friendly, the gold standard setter in effective, meaningful action addressing climate change. So, while we believe that tree planting can play a small role in greenhouse gas abatement, we have gone the extra mile in promoting a longer term solution. Is this cheap? No. Is it responsible? Absolutely!