Established:
1991
Area:
381 ha
Location:
55km SW of Launceston
Traditional Owners:
Tasmanian Aboriginal people
Our presence in the Liffey Valley comprises 5 reserves: Liffey River, Coalmine Creek, Drys Bluff, Glovers Flat and Oura Oura, which are part of the the Great Western Tiers (Kooparoona Niara). In 2013 Liffey River and Coalmine Creek were included in a 170,000 hectare expansion of the 1.4 million hectare Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
If you were a Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle riding the air currents high above Liffey Valley Reserves, you’d have a spectacular view of towering mountain plateaus, tumbling rivers and sweeping valley plains.
From the giddy heights of Drys Bluff (taytitikithika), 1200 metres above sea level, you could swoop down over the top of an almost vertical cliff face, plunging 800 metres straight down to the fertile valley floor and Liffey River (tilapangka).
Flying over Pages Creek, you might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a Spotted-tail Quoll, or Platypus searching for food.
And crossing the valley floor you would see a rich mosaic of ecosystems, including lush temperate rainforest, with its attendant Gondwanan tree species of Myrtle Beech and Sassafras.
Oh, and if you were a Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle, you’d be very special. There are estimated to be fewer than 250 breeding pairs left in the world, making places like the Liffey Valley extremely important if these eagles are to survive into the future.
All this has been protected thanks to the generosity of our supporters.
Liffey Valley Reserves provide important foraging habitat for two threatened birds of prey, the Tasmanian Wedge-tailed Eagle (nationally endangered) and the White Goshawk (endangered in Tasmania). These significant species and communities are also found:
Animals: Tasmanian Devil (nationally endangered), Spotted-tail Quoll (nationally vulnerable), Southern Brown Bandicoot, Eastern Barred Bandicoot (vulnerable) and the Eastern Bettong - also known as the Southern Bettong and Tasmanian Bettong - (near threatened).
Plants: Maidenhair Spleenwort (vulnerable), Prickly Beauty, Silver Banksia, Ground Clematis.
Vegetation communities: White (Manna) Gum wet forest (critically endangered nationally), Black gum forest (critically endangered nationally), Myrtle Beech–Sassafras rainforest, Stringybark dry forest, Stringybark forest with broad-leaf shrubs, Lowland grassy sedgeland.
Weed control occurs regularly. Among the normal suite of invasive weeds found in Tasmania, we’re particularly interested in controlling the spread of Foxglove.
This pretty weed – the same as the flower found in cottage gardens across the world – spreads quickly in the open sedgeland along Pages Creek and along tracks. The tall flowering stems produce copious amounts of fine seed that allow it to multiply quickly.
Luckily, Foxglove is easy to hand-weed and even cutting the flowering stem can reduce seed-set if done at the right time.
In many ways, the creation of Liffey Valley Reserves in 1991 marked a watershed in the history of the Australian conservation movement.
Bob Brown, then a member of the Tasmanian Parliament, had recently won the Goldman Prize (an international environment award worth around $50,000) when a couple of bush blocks near his Liffey Valley cottage came up for sale.
Bob was keen to save the bush blocks from imminent logging. He eventually decided to put in a bid, and asked a friend to attend the auction.
“I was sitting in the Tasmanian Parliament and he rang at night to say you’ve secured the blocks at the reserve price of a quarter of a million dollars,” says Bob.
A sympathetic bank manager and some very generous donors came to the rescue, and Liffey became the first Reserve for a new conservation organisation, the Australian Bush Heritage Fund, now Bush Heritage Australia.
Oura Oura Reserve, which was gifted by Bob Brown in 2011, played an important role in the history of the Australian conservation movement – over the years the cottage hosted formative meetings of Bush Heritage Australia, The Wilderness Society, the Tasmanian and Australian Greens, and the Franklin River Campaign.
The Liffey Falls region was a meeting place for three Tasmanian Aboriginal groups: the Big River, North and North Midlands people. The area’s sandstone overhangs provided shelter, and stone artefacts still mark old Aboriginal campsites.
Both Oura Oura and Liffey River reserves are open for self-guided visitors to explore. See our page on visiting the Liffey Valley for maps and more details of what you’ll need.
BLOG 26/04/2022
The area on the map of Tasmania's Liffey Vally that's referred to as Glovers Flat is a stunning plateau that nestles beneath the towering cliff that is Drys Bluff (Taytititkitha). The plateau includes our existing Drys Bluff Reserve and a 94-hectare property that borders our Oura Oura Reserve.
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BUSHTRACKS 07/10/2021
Our organisation's Founder - Dr Bob Brown - reflects on the 30th birthday of Bush Heritage Australia.
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06/07/2021
A 50-minute webinar recording with Tassie Reserves Manager, Michael Bretz, and one of our founding directors, and now Life Member and Bush Legacy Circle advocate, Judy Henderson AO.
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BUSHTRACKS 15/04/2021
I’m always happy when there’s work to be done on the Liffey River Reserve walking track. The track passes through an amazing stretch of remnant Myrtle (Nothafagus cunninghami) forest before looping back to the Liffey River (tellerpanger).
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BLOG 10/09/2019
The sound of Currawongs is echoing across the Liffey Valley. When snow falls on the Western Tiers, they soar down from the mountains, their loud raucous call evocative of misty moorlands that lie beyond the crags of Drys Bluff.
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BUSHTRACKS 06/06/2019
When award-winning author Nikki Gemmell visited Bush Heritage’s Liffey Valley reserves in Tasmania, she discovered a landscape where quietness reigns, far removed from her hometown of Sydney.
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BLOG 14/03/2019
Our monthly working bees in Tasmania are going from strength to strength, with new volunteers signing up every month. Last Saturday a team of nine (including three new volunteers) joined us to tackle blackberries and foxgloves in our Liffey River reserves.
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BLOG 22/02/2019
In early January I traveled from the Kimberly in north-west Western Australia to the Tasmania to learn about Healthy Country planning and the Open Standards for Conservation Planning.
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BLOG 30/11/2017
The gentle sound of clap sticks tapping filled the Liffey valley last Thursday, as 43 children from Bracknell School joined us at Oura Oura reserve. Hank Horton and his team taught the kids clapstick making (and playing), wadi and spear throwing and stencil painting with ochre. He also engaged with kids to talk about Aboriginal history and connection to the Liffey Valley.
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BUSHTRACKS 04/10/2017
Annette Dean’s childhood consisted largely of long days spent out bush with her brothers, swimming in wild rivers and climbing mountains. She would return home to her family’s shack in the Liffey Valley of northern Tasmania only when hunger demanded it.
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BLOG 07/07/2017
When people think of winter they often think of dull skies, dull weather and equally dull moods. I personally love winter. It heralds a burst of natural colour from fungi that I look forward to all year long.
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BLOG 03/07/2017
We're proud to celebrate this year's NAIDOC week with the theme 'Our Languages Matter' that highlights how important it is to keep languages alive and the vital role they have in culture, identity, spirituality and the passing on of cultural knowledge among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
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BLOG 28/05/2016
Just how little we know about fungi. Only half of known fungi have scientific names, we're discovering new species all the time and still have lots to learn about the distribution of common species. The Public also has an important role to play, as we learnt at a recent Fungi day at Liffey River.
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