UNESCO World Heritage Site

With the government in a spot of bother, expect some rather extravagant public spending promises. The Great Barrier Reef is not one that has been spared. Binoy Kampmark reports.

Extinction Rebellion organised a snap action to call on governments to recognise that the reef is beyond being 'in danger'. Alex Bainbridge reports.

North-western Tasmania is home to one of the world's last remnants of primeval temperate rainforest, part of an ecosystem that once spread across the supercontinent of Gondwana. Thousand-year-old trees tower above ancient ferns, their roots growing in peat accumulated over millennia. This is why the region has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Eucalyptus forests in the rest of Australia need fire to regenerate. But these plants evolved before the cycle of conflagration and renewal began. If they burn they die.