Tasmania's bushfires: a human-made calamity on par with the razing of Palmyra's temples
by Karl Mathiesen from on (#155A5)
As 1,000-year-old trees turn to ash and dried-out peat bogs burn, the devastation of these precious plains is a harbinger of a warmer, far less wonderful world
It is a three-hour, thigh-torturing climb to reach Tasmania's high central plateau. Ancient myrtle rainforests flank the slopes. In years gone by, springs and streams gushed from the soaked highlands above, feeding the ferns and tall, old trees. The track passes Norm's spring, from which local legend holds it is good luck to drink. But in these parts the luck has run dry.
Related: Tasmania bushfires leave world heritage area devastated - in pictures
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