World heritage forests burn as global tragedy unfolds in Tasmania

'Devastating' long-term prognosis for ancient Gondwana ecosystem as bushfires turn trees more than 1,000 years old to tinder

A global tragedy is unfolding in Tasmania. World heritage forests are burning; 1,000-year-old trees and the hoary peat beneath are reduced to char.

Fires have already taken stands of king billy and pencil pine - the last remaining fragments of an ecosystem that once spread across the supercontinent of Gondwana. Pockets of Australia's only winter deciduous tree, the beloved nothofagus - whose direct kin shade the sides of the South American Andes - are now just a wind change away from eternity.