Lunchtime at Malbena, eyes ever alert for a cruising fish. ROB BLAKERS THE MORE I TRAVELLED, STUART–SMITH RICK THE MORE I REALISED THAT BIG TRACTS OF EASILY ACCESSIBLE WILDERNESS WERE EXTRAORDINARILY RARE AND GETTING RARER...

find trout, but what the heck. My map there were no fish in lakes Loane or reading skills were close to zero, and Adelaide, though a passing fisherman stepping out of my car I was annoyed advised me to move on to Meston to discover that the road-end lay in tall where, he said, there were rainbows. forest at the foot of the Western Tiers. (Frustrations on this trip provided the Hours later I was more annoyed to inspiration for my first guidebook, discover that the hut was merely a pile published in 1984). of moss-covered rubble. The weather After Meston, so it seemed, get- was bad too, but at least I caught a fish ting to new waters would necessarily or two (the first on a deadline baited involve a lot of off-track exploration. Heart of the with a wattle grub). An expedition from Augusta to Mack- The only other walking track enzie seemed logical, especially since marked on any contemporary map I’d heard rumours of a 4WD route Halls Island and Lake Malbena led uphill from Lake Rowallan to to the Julian Lakes. It never occurred in the heart of the Western Lakes. Western Lakes the upper Mersey lakes. En route, to me that the route might cross the I was disappointed to discover that middle of the Augusta lakebed, so I STEVEN OOI STEVEN the place was lawless. Since then he’d Greg French explains his relationship hardened the main Hydro-built tracks and been busy policing illegal off-road with ’s unique trout-hunting wilderness. use. Environmental conditions had improved dramatically. he Western Lakes — long revered vast moors and snowgrass floodplains. EARLY DAYS The urge to explore overwhelmed by trout fishing connoisseurs — Best of all, they are bejewelled with a I first visited the Western Lakes in me. I extracted my Tasmaps, and can be broadly defined as the area thousand crystal-clear lakes and tarns. 1979, aged 17. Driving my dilapidated Val pointed out the only other 2WD extending west from Great Lake to Access to the waters beyond road- Mazda 800 from Great Lake past the access, which led up from the Mersey the tiers overlooking ends requires an enticing amount of ranger station at , past the valley to the northern fringes of the and the Mersey valley, incorporat- self-reliance, yet every lake is easily Augusta Dam, I ended up at road’s Western Lakes at Lake Mackenzie, T ing the Nineteen Lagoons, Chudleigh accessible to people of modest fitness. end: Lake Ada. The wild moors and another Hydro development. What Lakes and the Walls of Jerusalem All you need is a free spirit. bizarre vegetation — cushion plants, really caught my imagination, though, National Park. Strange as it may seem, In addition to its wilderness values, pineapple grass, pencil pines — had were the vast tracts of wilderness the name has not yet been officially the region is uniquely well-suited to me utterly entranced. between here and there, and south- recognised, though it is widely used in locating and stalking individual trout. In those days I was a novice spin west to the . angling literature and official manage- Beginners can be reasonably sure of fisher, and I remember being frus- The only other walking track marked ment plans, even on public signage. early success, especially if they are trated by all the trout I could see but on my map led from the northern The Western Lakes is wild, pristine accompanied by an experienced men- not catch. At the end of a long, fruit- town of Western Creek, south to Lake and unlike any other high-country tor, but the fishing is extraordinarily less day I met the ranger himself, Val Nameless (east of Mackenzie), where wilderness anywhere in the world. diverse and provides enough chal- Dell, who advised me to take up fly a black square indicated a hut. There The landscapes — stark but inspiring lenges to outlast a lifetime. Indeed, fishing (easier said than done). He also were no guidebooks in those days and — incorporate stunted eucalypt forests, challenge is the essential attraction. told me how, just a year or so earlier, I had no way of knowing if I would

Western Lakes brown trout are wild and beautiful. 38 F LY L IFE F LY L IFE 39 A lifetime of exploration beckons. Trout hunting is the essence of Western Lakes fishing.

STEVEN OOI STEVEN It didn’t take long to realise that the OOI STEVEN Western Lakes, though often super- ficially similar to one another, were unique amongst themselves. Some were very deep, others were wadeable all over. Some featured bare-silt flats, others were rocky bottomed. Some had pin-rush marshes, others had expansive beds of isoetes or filamen- tous weed. Some were connected by permanent streams, others remained isolated in all but the biggest floods. And the trout? Some waters sup- ported good stocks of small fish, oth- ers supported much smaller stocks of huge fish. Feeding behaviours were diverse too. Depending upon where we ended up, and at what time of ...WORLD HERITAGE LISTING, I REALISED, WOULD ONLY OFFER PROTECTION year, we might find the trout smashing schools of baitfish, leaping high out of the water for mayfly spinners, wav- FOR AS LONG AS THERE WAS ENOUGH SUPPORT IN THE COMMUNITY... ing their tails in the air while nosing out scud. Sometimes we could engage in flats-style wade-polaroiding, other times we had to spot from high banks. It took multiple visits over multiple David Scholes, like me, fretted about accessible self-reliant camping in the Heart of the Western Lakes . . . continued seasons to get a real feel for how each the prospect of the Western Lakes los- world, and also the best trout hunting. lake worked, but the more effort we ing its wildness: ‘the angler may [still] Nowhere else can so many different walked along an uncharted track from we glimpsed a tiny old hut on Halls put in, the greater our rewards. What thrill at the fishing [but] something waters be so easily accessed on foot the western end of the impound- Island. Imagine the sense of adventure could be better? will be lost forever.’ by myriad routes. Nowhere else is the ment. It petered out at Tin Hut Lake when, acting on a hunch, we pulled Back then I thought mechanical terrain so flat and easy to traverse. (unnamed on my map). Given that I apart a large cairn and unearthed a SELF-RELIANCE access would likely be precipitated by Nowhere are the trout so completely couldn’t read contours and had never chest containing an inflatable raft. The first night Ric and I stayed at Hydro industrialisation (Meston had wild and wily. There aren’t even any navigated by compass I should prob- the Malbena hut I discovered a copy already been surveyed) and logging bears or other predatory animals — ably have turned back, but I somehow UNIQUE FISHING of Fly-fisher in Tasmania on a small, (foresters were measuring the growth only wallabies, platypuses, echidnas managed to find my way by following I always saw plenty of fish, and overladen bookshelf. As if by divine rates of eucalypts at Olive Lagoon). and wombats. (Did I mention the river courses. I was lucky that the blue assumed the benefit of polarised glass- providence, it fell open in the middle Aware that advocacy equals protection, snakes?) lines on my old maps were accurate. es to be overstated, until a gun angler of a chapter on the Western Lakes: I wondered how I could get everyone After thoroughly exploring the high I met at Blue Peaks took me under ‘There is something other than to share my passion for the area. MANAGEMENT PLANS moors, I eventually headed south-west his wing and showed me the error of the fishing which draws you back; To give my writing more gravitas I In 1989 the Department of Parks of Ada beyond the Great Pine Tier, my ways. Equally revolutionary, this perhaps the remoteness and feeling began travelling abroad, and the more Wildlife and Heritage realised that the where the trees were thicker and the man suggested I stop using lures and of treading unknown paths like that I travelled, the more I realised that big recent World Heritage listing of the lakes deeper. In the mid-1980s, my start stalking individual fish with cock- of the explorer, or maybe the weird tracts of easily accessible wilderness Western Lakes presented new chal- mate Ric and I aimed for Lake Malbe- roaches and wattle grubs. landscape which, notwithstanding its were extraordinarily rare, and getting lenges for management and planning. na, as far as it was possible to be from Now that I was trout hunting I desolation, seems to whisper a soft rarer. The Western Lakes wilderness, Accordingly it engaged Dr Robert any road or walking track. On arrival, quickly aspired to fly fishing, and Frances and Tom at Lake Baillie, 1993. message of beauty.’ I now know, offers the most easily Sloane (then Commissioner of Inland Fisheries, later founder and editor of began packing a fly rod along with FlyLife) to prepare a comprehensive my spinning rod. But I had no one to plan for the future management of teach me how to cast and lacked the trout fishing in the region, taking full confidence to make a clean transition. account of the overriding necessity to Crunch time came during a massive protect and conserve World Heritage spinner hatch on Lake Naomi. After values. the hundredth trout ignored my cock- Rob invited me to help him draw roach, I resolved to leave my spinning up the plan. It was a memorable year, rod at camp and, come what may, and a labour of love for both of us. spend the rest of the day practis- Part of our field work involved map- ing real fishing. Hours later, despite ping the distribution of trout (our fly some pretty woeful casting, my arti- rods proved to be the most effec- ficial Black Spinner somehow landed tive sampling tools) and native fish, directly in front of a big cruiser. Even enabling us to fill-in the last few gaps now, I savour every heart-stopping in our collective knowledge. moment of that slow-motion rise and Another part of our work was to wide-mouthed take. I was addicted. record the history of the region, so I

First visit to the hut on Halls Island (Lake Malbena), 1984. Reg Hall’s hut offered a rare sanctuary in the most remote corner of the Western Lakes, 1989. 40 F LY L IFE F LY L IFE 41 All you need is an adventurous spirit. Guiding was another way to intro- duce potential advocates to the area. But by making things too easy I would no longer be encouraging people to be adventurous, only to be pam- pered. The Western Lakes, I’ve always stressed, need to be visited on foot, and you need to camp in a tent or historic hut. Over the years I introduced many friends to my most cherished waters, and to each other. I only regret one such introduction, which morphed from a simple lease transfer to assist in preserving and maintaining Reg Hall’s hut at Lake Malbena to a pro-

STEVEN OOI STEVEN posal for helicopter fly-outs and lux- ury accommodation, culminating in the government’s privatisation of the entire 10 hectare Halls Island. It is important to understand that the Western Lakes is not a thousand Heart of the Western Lakes . . . continued separate fisheries, but one discrete fishery. An attack on any portion is an had the privilege of interviewing track By the time I began working with attack on the whole, and an attack on builders and hut owners, including Rob, I’d come to understand that the heart is likely to be mortal. When Liz McQuilken, daughter of Reg Hall, nothing is sacrosanct and that all con- we walk from a trailhead we all want builder of the Malbena hut. (For much servation battles are perpetual. World to feel that we are headed deeper into of our most remote work, we actually Heritage listing, I realised, would only wilderness, not towards helipads and based ourselves in Reg’s hut.) offer protection for as long as there development. Ultimately Rob and I came to for- was enough support in the community Fly fishers understand this more malise many placenames commonly to maintain that protection. than anyone, which is why opposition used by anglers. We even invented a Continuing to write was one way to privatising and taming the Western few ourselves, notably for lakes in the to keep promoting the area. But how Lakes has always transcended politi- Malbena area: Cuppa Lake, Chigah much more information could be dis- cal allegiances. Lake and Burrow Lagoon. closed before undermining the very Currently I rank the Western Lakes After that, I worked as a summer thing people valued most: the thrill amongst the five best fisheries in the ranger in the Western Lakes before of independent discovery? In the end world, and as the best wilderness representing Tourism Tasmania on a I chose not to pinpoint special waters fishery. Make access and fishing easy, committee reviewing options for sus- — trophy lakes, for example — but to and the Western Lakes becomes just tainable bushwalking. Intense work offer recipes so that anglers could dis- another ordinary place like dozens of and play in the remote Western Lakes cover them for themselves. other ordinary places worldwide. F L resulted in many passionate and sur- real stories, the best of which ended up forming the backbone of my first work of literary nonfiction, Frog Call (2002).

PROTECTION When I first began writing about the Western Lakes I was like a young lover, so full of enthusiasm I just had to tell everyone about it. This roman- tic attitude persisted while lobbying for the area to be properly reserved ‘for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.’ But after the area was listed as World Heritage, threats continued and I was forced to become com- bative. I had to oppose people who wanted to dismantle the historic huts, oppose people who wanted to restrict public access, oppose people who wanted to demonise trout fishing.

Reclaim Malbena rally at trawtha makuminya (Gowan Brae), December 2019. 42 F LY L IFE