PREMIER Paul Lennon's office said
last year that Recherche Bay had been saved from the axe. But the question of
who saved the bay remains.
Mr Lennon helped smooth the way
for private landowners to abandon a plan to allow Gunns Ltd to log the bay's
historic northeast peninsula.
Some suggest Mr Lennon was
crucial in saving the area.
The 142ha block in Tassie's
remote far south was sold to the Tasmanian Land Conservancy, which has promised
to protect its cultural values.
The conservancy also could claim
to be the saviour of the bay.
But others might think
multi-millionaire Dick Smith was the person who really saved the property by
donating most of the $2.2 million purchase price.
Still others would suggest
Australian Greens leader Bob Brown.
Dr Brown attracted a national
spotlight on the bay, fought to protect it and brought high-profile Australian
film star David Wenham to Tasmania
in support.
Others consider the Recherche Bay
Protection Group the main force behind saving it. The group conducted an
intense, prolonged lobby of state, federal and non-government authorities.
But if anyone should be singled
out as the saviour of Recherche Bay, it is retired school headmaster and
historian Bruce Poulson.
Mr Poulson's passion for history
-- first at university, then as a history teacher and later as a local
historian living in the far south -- sparked interest in a long forgotten
French expedition which had arrived in Tasmania more than 200 years ago.
The French visit had been lost in
the musty library bookshelves and was largely unknown in contemporary Tasmania.
In 1792 and 1793 -- more than 10
years before the British claimed the island -- an expedition led by Bruny
d'Entrecasteaux spent weeks at Recherche Bay.
World-leading French naturalists
met local Aborigines in friendly and momentous gatherings. They ate crayfish
and abalone around campfires on the bay's white sandy beaches.
The Aborigines wept when the
French sailed away.
F
Mr Poulson first learnt about the
French visit at the University of Tasmania when he met historian, the late
Brian Plomley, who provided the first English translations of extracts from the
French journals.
Mr Poulson said the focus in
academic history was the French revolution. The Tasmanian visit was regarded as
insignificant.
As a teacher, Mr Poulson lobbied
for the French and Aboriginal history to be taught in Tasmanian schools.
When he retired 12 years ago he
became more serious about compiling a history of the far south.
Living at Hastings, Mr Poulson
found there were others delving into the forgotten history.
He corresponded with Greg Hogg in
NSW, a lawyer with a passion for boats who was mesmerised by the far south's
lost history.
Mr Hogg was so enamoured with the
far south he later sold his up-market Sydney apartment for a modest timber
dwelling at Hastings, down the road from Mr Poulson.
Mr Poulson, Mr Hogg and writer
Paddy Prosser wrote a play about the French visit, The Strange Journey of
Louise Girardin. She was a woman who masqueraded as a man on the
expedition.
The history buffs began to hunt
for remnants of the French visit that might have survived two centuries.
Bushwalking and exploring, they
found evidence of gardens, which may have been dug by the French, and other
historic sites.
"It amazed me that people
like us could go out and rediscover such significant history, it still amazes
me that we did," Mr Poulson said.
He wrote a series of articles
about the French visit for the Huon News.
Then news hit. The landowners of
the northeast peninsula, where a French garden was believed to be, were going
to log.
"We were quite
disturbed," he said.
Mr Poulson wrote a letter to the Sunday
Tasmanian which ran a front page story about history falling under the axe
in 2002.
"At first there was
overwhelming support," Mr Poulson said.
Conservationists and Green
politicians supported calls to protect the property.
But he said the industry lobby
group, Timber Communities Australia, split the community.
"They distorted things and
threw doubt on what we were saying," he said.
Arguments erupted, tempers
flared.
Mr Poulson's home library was
burnt to the ground, but the arsonist was never caught. It was never
established whether the fire was related to the battle for the bay.
The attack destroyed
irreplaceable historical documents.
Mr Poulson said the push to
protect the bay was maliciously portrayed as a Green conspiracy to challenge
landowner rights.
"It was nothing of the sort.
I was always careful not to align with a political group," he said.
"The timber industry
association threw doubt on everything, they said it wasn't a French garden,
they said the French never went near the property."
ACADEMICS from Australia and
overseas joined the imbroglio.
Historians and archeologists
rated Recherche Bay equal to Botany Bay in terms of significance in Australian
history.
In the lead-up to last year's
state election it was announced the conservancy would buy the property.
Mr Poulson, now in the late
stages of a long battle with cancer, was overwhelmed.
"It's a good news story, the
landowners were paid a good price and the land is protected," he said.
When it was suggested Mr Poulson
was the bay's saviour, he dismissed it.
"We all saved it and we all
should be proud."