Access to Public Reserves

[ben.h]

Hi all,
There is a big parcel of bush land running along Northwest Bay River between Longley and Margate that is marked as "Public Reserve" according to http://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/

I have had an undeniable urge to explore this area for a couple of years now but I've never found an "access point" as the entire boundary seems to be sealed with private properties and Northwest Bay River itself.

Anyway, my questions are:
What is the definition of a "Public Reserve" in Tasmania?
Are the public allowed access to such reserves, and if so, how is access gained (when there is no obvious access point)?

Cheers

[tastrax]

A few bits and pieces for you..

"public reserve" means Crown land that has been reserved to the Crown as a public reserve under section 8; (Crown Lands Act 1976) - http://www.thelaw.tas.gov.au

There appear to be a few places where you can connect to the reserve but it seems it is not continuous from Margate to Longley. There are odd bits that are still private to the river edge. Scan along the river and look for thin strips from roads - these are often footways (generally council managed) and others can be road easements (more of a problem as they may not actually be defined on the ground)

Cheers - Phil

[tastrekker]

Another couple of tips...

Adding a couple of layers to the maps on TheLIST can give more info about land and who is responsible for it. A couple of my favourite layers are:

Cadastral Parcels
and
Tasmanian Reserve Estate

When you switch these layers on using the Manage Layers button, they appear as headings in the right hand margin. Click on the Cadastral Parcels heading then use the information (i) tool in the left hand margin to display the responsible authority in the Information panel below the map. If the parcel is privately owned, the property address will appear. If it is public land, the relevant authority should appear. E.g:
DTAE - Dept of Tourism Arts & Environment (the department which is about to vanish)
DPIW - Dept of Primary Industries and Water (the department which will gobble the land management bits of DTAE)
Local Government Authority - The relevant council

Road reservations will usually have no information listed at all. I normally consider these to be fair game for walking. However, if it looks like an adjoining land-owner has staked their claim on a road reserve, I will always pay them due respect and approach them if possible as they may have some legitimate lease or arrangement over the land.

The Tasmanian Reserves Estate layer is a lot of fun. Once again, select this heading in the right hand margin then use the information (i) tool to click on the coloured blocks of public land. This will return quite a bit of information. These reserves have essentially been setup to protect biodiversity values. However, most of the new classifications (e.g. Regional Reserves, Informal Reserves, TCFA Reserves, etc) only protect against logging. Many other forms of intrusive development (e.g. mining) are still possible in these reserves. I use this layer to dream about the future possibility of a Tarkine National Park which incorporates the many different crown reserves which cover hundreds of thousands of hectares in that amazing region.

Tassie has a heap of public land and reserves both remote and nearby which offer a wealth of opportunity to explore. One thing we lack in many rural places though is contiguous public land which can be used to walk from town to town. I've heard about walking in the UK and Europe where you can walk from pub to pub on public rights of way without setting foot on a road. Tassie has squandered many opportunities for this when defunct railway reserves have been handed back to adjoining land-owners. The Mole Creek, Roland, Barrington, Nietta, Preolenna and Smithton lines are just a few I can think of here on the coast.

I've just remembered a history book which I read a while back. It talked about a railway that ran from Margate up to coal mines at Sandfly. I'm fairly sure the narrow winding parcels of land for that line would have suffered the same fate as our NW coast branch lines.

[Ent]

Contents deleted by poster

[ben.h]

Thanks everyone. I often use all sorts of layers when investigating an area but it had never occurred to me to then use the info tool on the extra layers (brain fade)! Thanks heaps Tastrekker

In regards to the Sandfly Coal Mine Tramway which runs between Kaoota and Margate: The trail still there (no sign of the tramway) and is regularly used by walkers, horse riders and mountain bikers and I regularly ride this track myself.

Here's a map. The actual path of the tramway is not accurate, however the entry and exit points are accurately labelled with markers: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8& ... 8&t=h&z=13

[Steve]

I lived down Margate for over 10 years and never knew anything about an old tramway. I was even more astounded after following your link and seeing that it ran right through our old property. I asked my mum and she knew of it. Runs right in front of my favourite old climbing tree. Wish I still lived there.