Masked owls, wild devils and giant crayfish: inside the ancient forests of Tasmania's Takayna

Teeming with wildlife under lush canopies, this area in Australia's island state is one of the world's most remarkable - and one most in need of protectionGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWitnessing Takayna/Tarkine is a rare privilege. After I press through metres of the dense, dry shrubs that skirt the forest floor, the rainforest quickly opens into a dewy landscape of verdant greens bathed in golden light. The ground is a ballroom floor, moist to the touch, carpeted in soft mosses and punctuated by broad myrtle trunks. Tiny ferns unfurl towards the canopy, where shafts of sunlight streak through the treetops. It is an overwhelmingly beautiful place.In a world experiencing an increasingly rapid montage of alarming climate events caused by a warming planet, Tasmania's Takayna presents an alternate world, one that is primal and untouched by the ravages of industrialisation.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...