This superbly appointed lodge is made from beautiful Tasmanian timber and situated on 200 acres of privately owned land within the Tarkine rainforest. Guests are offered complete seclusion from the outside world and can choose from a range of experiences.
Guests have exclusive use of the lodge and facilities including three luxurious suites with ensuite and beautiful vistas of the surrounding wilderness. The lodge has Advanced Ecotourism Certification through Ecotourism Australia and relies on solar power as its main source of electricity and rainwater collected from the roof to supply all internal taps and showers.
Maree Jenkins is the owner of Tarkine Wilderness Lodge. The sanctuary is also used for wildlife rehabilitation and Maree plans to build pre-release enclosures in the future. The property is also a member of Land for Wildlife and Gardens for Wildlife.
Tarkine Wilderness Lodge is described as ‘an island in the rainforest’ due to its location on the edge of the Tarkine – one of the world’s most significant remaining tracts of temperate rainforest. Vegetation types include buttongrass plains and temperate rainforest containing leatherwoods (Eucryphia lucida) and tarkine myrtles (Nothofagus cunninghamii).
Wildlife known to inhabit the area include Bennett’s wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus), ringtail (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) and brushtail (Trichosurus vulpecula) possums, spotted-tailed quolls (Dasyurus maculatus), Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii), bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus tasmaniensis), giant freshwater lobsters (Astacopsis gouldi), platypuses (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) and a wide variety of microbats, birds and reptiles.
This sanctuary is featured in Wildlife Lands 18!
Tarkine Wilderness Lodge is situated on the northwest coast of Tasmania, on the northern edge of the largest tract of temperate rainforest in Australia, the Tarkine. Our sanctuary is known to support at least 64 threatened species of flora and fauna.
My partner and I built the Lodge as tourism accommodation, offering guided rainforest walks to give people from around the globe the opportunity to visit the forest and to recognise how special it is and how it should be protected for the next generation. The Lodge is eco-accredited and built with sustainability in mind, and we invested in renewable energy to offset carbon emissions from the get-go. Rain water is collected from the roof and supplies all internal taps, showers and vanities while dam water is used for the surrounding garden and all toilets. Our sanctuary utilises solar power as its main source of electricity, significantly reducing our greenhouse emissions.
The Lodge is also a secondary release site for orphaned and injured wildlife, which I enjoy meeting and helping to adapt to their natural environment. Some of the wildlife released here in the past includes tawny frogmouths, pademelons, Bennett’s wallabies, possums and wombats who still visit occasionally. I feel privileged to live in such a wonderful environment with so many amazing native animals including wedge-tailed eagles, giant freshwater lobsters, Tasmanian devils and spotted-tail quolls, to name just a few.
I am very excited to have become a member of Wildlife Land Trust because I think it is important to have as much protection for our native plants and animals as possible. I have lived on this 81 hectare property for 28 years now and have seen many changes to its surrounds over the years, watching farm land converted to plantation timber and clear felling of magnificent old growth forests. Such changes place a huge amount of pressure on our native wildlife, mainly through loss of habitat. It is such a wonderful concept to be able to have sanctuaries all around Australia that protect our wildlife and conserve the places they live. For more on Tarkine Wilderness Lodge, visit www.tarkinelodge.com
Contact the owner
This sanctuary has been listed by Maree Jenkins who can be contacted by phone on (03) 6445 9184 or tarkinelodge@bigpond.com.au
