The Western Lakes, Walls of Jerusalem, "the Highlands", "the Lakes", "the Plateau". Our wild places are known by many names. We go there to walk, fish and experience the wildness of Tasmania. The act of strapping on your boots and lifting your pack onto your back and walking into the silence is an essential part of our wild experience. This very experience is under threat. Wild Drake Pty Ltd and it's only four investors have been granted an exclusive ten-hectare lease covering Halls Island in Lake Malbena. The fact that the island was rezoned for them in secret for heli-tourism means that their lease will always be illegitimate and never respected by those of us who truly value this wild place.

Helicopters are offensive, unnecessary and destructive and have no place here.  

The investors in Wild Drake are Nicholas D'Antoine, Victoria D'Antoine, John Topfer, Dorothy Topfer and Daniel Hackett. They are funding this push to introduce the incessant buzz of helicopters and destroy the wilderness experience for the rest of us. If they succeed, the serene experience of being in this place will be gone. The investors need to be reminded of why these wild places matter to us and why their plans are so at odds with the very reason we go to the lakes. 

Nicholas D'Antoine, Victoria D'Antoine, John Topfer , Dorothy Topfer and Daniel Hackett, take a moment to reflect and ask do you really want to be known as the people who funded and fought to send the choppers into this wild place? Please stop funding this divisive, destructive and illegitimate proposal. 

Keeping our wild places wild matters. Malbena Matters.