Messages of Support

To the Premier, Ministers, and Members of the Parliament of Tasmania

Subject: Support for the Tasmanian Herbarium

Dear Premier, Ministers, and Members of Parliament,

On behalf of the _Committee on Biological Diversity, VIII. Section of Biological Sciences Hungarian Academy of Sciences_, I write to express our serious concern about the proposed restructuring of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and its impact on the Tasmanian Herbarium.

The proposed abolition of the Head of Herbarium position, reduction of botanical staff, and loss of specialist positions in lichenology and bryology would severely weaken the Herbarium’s scientific and curatorial capacity. Of particular concern is the loss of Tasmania’s only lichenologist—one of only two remaining in Australia—whose outstanding contributions were recently recognised through the Premier’s Tasmanian STEM Researcher of the Year award.

Tasmania has an internationally significant lichen biota, and research conducted at the Herbarium has contributed greatly to taxonomy, biodiversity knowledge, conservation, and the Museum’s scientific output. Eliminating its specialist expertise would affect not only Tasmania but also researchers and institutions worldwide that depend on its collections, identifications, loans, and scientific collaborations.

We are also concerned about the proposed abolition of the Curator of Bryology and Herbarium Administration Officer positions. These losses would leave Tasmania without employed specialists for non-vascular plants and would compromise essential collection management, regulatory compliance, specimen loans, safety, and security.

Natural history collections require qualified leadership and specialist knowledge. Once this expertise is lost, it is extremely difficult and costly to rebuild.

The Committee on Biological Diversity, VIII. Section of Biological Sciences Hungarian Academy of Sciences therefore respectfully urges the Tasmanian Government to reconsider these changes, retain the Herbarium’s specialist positions and leadership, and consult meaningfully with its scientists and the wider scientific community before proceeding.

We stand in solidarity with the staff of the Tasmanian Herbarium and ask the Government to protect this internationally important scientific institution.

Budapest, 5th October 2026

Yours sincerely,

Edit Farkas, DSc, President of the Committee on Biological Diversity, VIII. Section of Biological Sciences
Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Dear Premier, Ministers, and Members of Parliament,

As a retired federal land management botanist and lichenologist in the U.S., I am writing to express my concern over the proposed restructuring of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and its impact on the Tasmanian Herbarium.

The proposed elimination of the Head of Herbarium position, reduction of botanical staff, and loss of specialist positions in lichenology and bryology would severely weaken the Herbarium’s scientific and curatorial capacity. Of particular concern is the loss of Tasmania’s only lichenologist—one of only two remaining in Australia—whose outstanding contributions were recently recognised through the Premier’s Tasmanian STEM Researcher of the Year award. These losses would leave Tasmania without employed specialists for non-vascular plants and would compromise essential collection management, regulatory compliance, specimen loans, safety, and security.

Tasmania has an internationally significant lichen biota, and research conducted at the Herbarium has contributed greatly to taxonomy, conservation, biological diversity knowledge, and the Museum’s scientific output. Eliminating its specialist expertise would affect not only Tasmania but also researchers and institutions worldwide that depend on its collections, identifications, loans, and scientific collaborations.

Natural history collections require qualified leadership and specialist knowledge. Once this expertise is lost, it is extremely difficult and costly to rebuild.

I urge the Tasmanian Government to reconsider these changes, retain the Herbarium’s specialist positions and leadership, and consult meaningfully with its scientists and the wider scientific community before proceeding.

Sincerely,

Ann DeBolt
Boise, ID 83706  USA

Dear Parliamentarians,

I am writing to urge you to oppose the proposed staff cuts at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), and to call for full transparency about how many positions may be lost and which services will be affected.

TMAG is not only one of Tasmania’s most important cultural institutions; it is also a working museum, art gallery and herbarium responsible for caring for nearly one million items in the State Collection. The combination of TMAG’s collections and staff is an outstanding asset that provides cultural and economic value to Tasmanians (TMAG is one of Tasmania’s most visited attractions). Its value depends on both the exhibitions the public sees and the specialist work that happens behind the scenes.

Cuts to exhibition and education staff would mean fewer, poorer or more limited public programs, displays and visitor experiences. Cuts to back-of-house jobs would put at risk the careful conservation, cataloguing, research, loans, legal obligations and expert knowledge needed to protect Tasmania’s cultural, scientific and First Peoples heritage for future generations.

These roles are not optional extras. Once specialist staff and institutional knowledge are lost, they are difficult or impossible to replace. Reducing staff would damage TMAG’s ability to serve visitors now and to safeguard the collections entrusted to it for the future.

I ask you to publicly oppose these cuts, support TMAG staff, and ensure that any decisions about the museum’s future are made openly, with proper consideration of the consequences for Tasmania’s heritage, communities and visitors.

Yours sincerely,

Niko Darci-Maher

--

Niko Darci-Maher (he/him)
PhD Candidate, Koskella Lab
Departmental Union Steward, UAW 4811
UC Berkeley Department of Integrative Biology

Dear Premier, Ministers, and Members of Parliament,

it is with grave concern that I recently learned from my esteemed colleague Dr. Gintaras Kantvilas that the Tasmanian Government plans to "restructure" the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, thereby eliminating the Tasmanian Herbarium in its own capacity as the world's leading research entity on Tasmanian biodiversity.

The head of the Tasmanian Herbarium Dr. Kantvilas  is a globally renowned specialist on Tasmanian Lichenized Fungi. 

Dr. Kantvilas has won many awards for his outstanding research and his contribution to Tasmanian biodiversity research was just recently recognized by your own government, awarding him the Premier’s Tasmanian STEM Researcher Award.

The restructuring plans suggest eliminating several positions central to the operation of the Herbarium: the Head of the Herbarium, the Curator of Lichenology, the Curator of Bryology, and the Herbarium Administrator. This is short-sighted. In times of facing a global biodiversity crisis, Tasmania cannot afford to downsize essential research on organisms that comprise more than half of its biodiversity: lichens, bryophytes, algae, and fungi.

These organisms provide essential ecosystem services not only to Tasmania's diverse ecosystems, but they are globally important. Biodiversity is essential for ecosystem health of the planet and ultimately for our own survival as the human species.

I have heard that these ill-conceived restructuring plans will equally affect the Zoology Section of the Museum, by merging three positions - Palaeontology, Vertebrate and Invertebrate curator - into one single researcher. No single person can efficiently occupy these roles in one capacity: invertebrates are the most diverse organisms on the planet. Suggesting that such diversity can be addressed by a single person is ludicrous.

I urge you not to go ahead with these ill-conceived plans. They will cost the people of Tasmania dearly. Natural History Collections are not just assemblages of dead objects, museum artifacts to be preserved, These collections play a crucial role in understanding ecosystems, they are active objects of research and investigators can learn a great deal about the organisms preserved in specimen collections. They are crucial in understanding and addressing biodiversity loss, genetic diversity and resource management, species conservation and ecosystem functioning.

All across the globe, researchers who study this biodiversity rely on these collections. Only most recently the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recognized the crucial role of Natural History Collections for the conservation of biodiversity.

As Managing Director of the Consortium of Lichen Herbaria, an international initiative for sharing biodiversity information on Lichenized Fungi globally, I am much too aware how little attention these often neglected, but crucially important organisms receive by the international research community. Lichens have no eyes. They are not large, iconic species like the Tasmanian Tiger, yet they are equally important for your precious and very unique ecosystem. 

These organisms need attention and stewardship. And the researchers employed at your world-renown institution, the Tasmanian Herbarium are just that: stewards of biodiversity.

Eliminating these essential positions for the sake of saving a few dollars is a very grave mistake.

Regardless of political affiliation, I believe the Tasmanian people deserve much better and as the ones representing Tasmania, I ask you all to do what you can to make sure that these plans will not be allowed to proceed.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Dr. Frank Bungartz

______________________________

Frank Bungartz, Ph.D.
Collections Manager of Lichens and Digital Data
Natural History Collections, Arizona State University
Adjunct Scientist - Charles Darwin Foundation (AISBL)
Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galápagos, Ecuador
Adjunct Scientist - National Biodiversity Institute of Ecuador (INABIO), Quito, Ecuador

Meeting chair Jane Wilcox put the following motion, moved by Deb Wace and seconded by Patsy Jones*

That this meeting calls on the Tasmanian Government to immediately reverse the proposed job cuts at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, retain the skilled staff who care for and interpret Tasmania’s state collections, and provide TMAG with the secure, long-term funding needed to fulfil its public, cultural and scientific responsibilities.

The motion was carried.

*Patsy Jones’ comment after seconding the motion: ‘I did it for Dick’. Patsy’s late husband Dr Richard Jones (1936–1986), a biologist at the University of Tasmania, was one of the founders of the United Tasmania Group in 1972. It was the world’s first Green party, and later morphed into the Tasmanian Greens.

The following is one of a number of messages of support received from people who were unable to attend the public meeting arranged by the Friends of TMAG in Hobart on 8 October 2026. The message was read to the meeting by FOTMAG President, Jane Wilcox

Rodney is as he puts it, an old Palawa man. He has been involved in the struggle for Palawa rights and recognition for over 50 years. He has worked in senior roles in both State and Federal governments in Aboriginal Affairs. He was one of the leaders in the repatriation of the so-called Crowther collection, and the 1995 return of Aboriginal land including Wybalenna. He was also the inaugural chair of TMAG's Aboriginal consultation group. His major interest in retirement is to promote and advance Treaty and Truth-Telling in Tasmania.

Rodney Gibbins, inaugural chair of TMAG’s Aboriginal consultation group

"Good afternoon everyone. As we have heard today the TMAG is going to be impacted severely by proposed public sector cuts both financially and professionally. This is certainly not in the interest of the Tasmanian community.

Over the years, the Palawa community has had its issues not only with TMAG but Government in its entirety.

There was a reluctance on the part of TMAG to rethink and revamp negative and ill-informed attitudes towards the Palawa community.

These attitudes were long standing. For example, Truganini was buried in the grounds of the former Female Factory in South Hobart only to be dug up two years later by members of the Royal Society and her skeleton placed on display at the TMAG for over 40 years.

There was also the reluctance of the museum to hand over the Crowther Collection of Palawa human remains, consisting of 33 skulls and three skeletons, removed from Putalina to the Palawa community.

That was combined with the hesitation of the TMAG to change the old diorama which was a 3D representation of a family group at camp in front of a stolen Petroglyph from Preminghana. A display that was naïve and inappropriate and didn’t recognise continued Palawa Sovereignty over this land.

However, the winds of change were having an impact on TMAG, new staff and a new professional outlook was having a positive influence on TMAG with new concepts and thoughts. 

For example, Pat Sabine, a former director of the TMAG during the 1990s, brought with her a genuine concern about how Palawa were portrayed and represented in the museum. She consistently advocated for the development of a more contemporary and honest portrayal of the Palawa community in Tasmania.

Perhaps for the first time TMAG began to understand and support truth telling relating to Palawa experiences past and present. TMAG gained an insight that made for a more genuine partnership with the community.

These changes have evolved over the years.

New displays were developed, including the much visited and applauded Aboriginal gallery, ningina tunapri. It offered for the first time a comprehensive account of Palawa history and cultural expression. 

The Gallery reflects the thoughts and aspirations of that community. The guiding principle of the project was to provide a learning experience, successfully prompting non-Aborigines to rethink their attitudes, actions and the impacts on the Palawa community.

Another exhibition was developed to complement ningina tunapri. This was the Parrawa Parrawa exhibition about the conflict between Palawa and the Colonial invaders. I believe one of the first of these types of exhibitions to be developed anywhere in Australia. 

It was a difficult story to tell, one of violence and dispossession. It gave visitors an experience of conflict, particularly from the Palawa perspective, which has been rarely told.

Today the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery should be complimented for the steady progress it has made in its outlook and support for the Palawa Community.

Let’s not forget the day the TMAG and the Royal Society of Tasmania apologised to the Palawa community for past actions that have negatively impacted on it. This is a maturity that is now being reflected across all areas of TMAG.

The representation of Palawa in TMAG is now characterised by respect and engagement, developing a strong consultative relationship with the Palawa community that has led to an equal and respectful partnership, leading the way across government and its institutions.

TMAG with Palawa have achieved some significant outcomes over the years. Which included return of human remains and petroglyphs removed from Palawa cultural sites.

These outcomes mattered because strong leadership and professional integrity with actions matter. TMAG provided the tenets for these to occur. That's something that the whole of government could learn.

Of course, there is always room for further improvements. We must all closely guard the advances that TMAG staff with Palawa have fought so hard to achieve.
 We must also remember that these achievements have been echoed right across the broader community to the benefit of all Tasmanians.

These actions/ advances can only happen with new blood and fresh, innovative ideas brought about by a fully resourced and professionally staffed TMAG. 

We must stand together to challenge these cuts proposed by the government.

Thank you for listening."

The following is one of a number of messages of support received from people who were unable to attend the public meeting arranged by the Friends of TMAG in Hobart on 8 October 2026. The message was read to the meeting by FOTMAG President, Jane Wilcox

Meg Webb MLC, Independent Member for Nelson

Dear friends,

Unfortunately, a parliamentary committee site visit means I am unable to attend today’s important public meeting.

Otherwise, I would be there in person today, standing up to be counted and standing beside you all in solidarity with the staff, volunteers and supporters of our internationally acclaimed and iconic TMAG and Herbarium.

Although absent, I raise my voice with yours, calling on the Rockliff government to stop this short-sighted madness immediately!

The many individuals and local groups emailing me know this is madness.

As do the thirty-odd professional, research, and other stakeholder entities who have also been contacting Tasmanians MPs, including from museums and Universities of Trieste, Uppsala, Oslo, Gdansk, Madrid, Barcelona, Portugal, Prague, Ottawa, Arizona, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey — all expressing their disbelief, and calling for an urgent reconsideration.

And as do the thousands of Tasmanians who have signed the current petition calling on the cuts to be reversed. We all know it is irresponsible insanity to gut this publicly-owned custodian of our archival and living cultural and natural heritage.

TMAG is not a time capsule of static collections but is a time-machine connecting the past, present and also the key to the as-yet unlocked secrets of the future.

I am today pledging, at the earliest available opportunity, to put to a vote in the Upper House a motion calling for an immediate freeze on all budget and job cuts targeting TMAG and the Herbarium.

Let’s hope common-sense will kick in before then, and we see the government call off now these destructive and incomprehensive cuts. But if not, I guarantee the Parliament will have the opportunity to demand it!

Lastly, thank you to Friends of TMAG for your efforts to save this iconic custodian of so much of that which makes Tasmania unique — we are all indebted to you. 

The following is one of a number of messages of support received from people who were unable to attend the public meeting arranged by the Friends of TMAG in Hobart on 8 October 2026. The message was read to the meeting by FOTMAG President, Jane Wilcox

Honourable Alan Blow AO KC, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Tasmania

I was appointed as one of the trustees of TMAG in 1990 and was the chairman of trustees from 1991 until March 1997. TMAG was chronically underfunded during those years, but we were able to manage, just. The government had removed three education officers in 1990, but otherwise the institution was fully staffed and we were able to open seven days per week for seven hours per day. That has not been possible for several years as a result of past budget cuts.

We were getting about 100,000 visitors per year through the doors in the 1990s. Nearly triple that number are coming through these days despite the reduced opening hours. 

It was on my watch, over 30 years ago, that Dr Gintaras Kantvilas was appointed as head of the Herbarium. He is an impressively talented botanist and has been building his international reputation ever since.

Successive governments have reduced funding for the TMAG over decades but the past cuts have never threatened its ability to function as a State museum and a State art gallery. If the recently announced staff cuts go ahead, the proper functioning of the institution will become impossible for the first time. Special exhibitions will become impossible, as will the rejuvenation of permanent exhibitions. Without half of its staff, only half of the Herbarium’s work will get done.

No doubt our politicians are working from the premise that there are more votes in football and stadiums than there are in botany and art. However, they simply fail to understand the importance of public cultural institutions and their continuity. I sincerely hope that they can be persuaded to think again about what they are doing.

Thank you Jane … and thank you all for coming out today and defending the integrity and capacity of TMAG to do its job as custodian of the State Collection.

I would like to start by echoing the acknowledgement of the Palawa people, the traditional owners of the land we meet upon and the waters of timtumili minanya.

I acknowledge too my parliamentary colleagues and the work you are doing to highlight the plight of TMAG.

Thank you to the Friends of TMAG for the invitation to speak and the work you do to support TMAG. For 44 years, Friends of TMAG has backed in the institution with advocacy, fundraising and community engagement and as volunteers, you demonstrate an incredible commitment to the Museum, its mission and its place within Lutruwita/Tasmania.

I am truly sorry that that commitment is not mirrored by Government and today you have been forced into the position of defending the public funding needed to maintain TMAG as the world-class institution that it is.

Thank you too to Sally, Stephenie, Ian and Andrew. Your expertise, experience and passion is evident and we now have a complete perspective on the invaluable role TMAG and its staff play in preserving Tasmania’s past and contributing to Tasmania’s present.

And of course, we’re all here because of a deep, genuine commitment to TMAG’s future and well-placed fears that it is being challenged.

State Budget cuts are a threat to public services across the board.

It seems that week after week, another Government unit has rumoured, then proposed, then confirmed job cuts.

The Inclusive Practices Team in the Department of Education.

Parks and Wildlife.

Tas Fire and Emergency Services.

Disaster readiness and recovery.

Screen Tasmania.

And TMAG, amongst many, many others.

This year’s budget, handed down in May, holds over $1.4 billion of so-called ‘efficiencies’ over the coming four years. Cuts.

In the reworked Department of State Growth, where TMAG sits, $264 million of ‘efficiencies’ are budgeted to be found. $21 million this year, $75 million the next, $80 million in 28/29 and $88 million at the end of the forward estimates.

Just like with TMAG, these cuts impact already-stretched staff valiantly working to deliver the services that Tasmanians need and deserve.

For TMAG, both Government and community expectations haven’t changed.

As we heard from Ian, TMAG has a statutory requirement to keep, grow, care for, exhibit and share the State Collection. Under law, it is required to meet these obligations.

In the Tasmanian Government’s budget, it’s expected to do more with less.

Given the proposed staffing cuts, the 2026/27 budget contains what look like some heroic growth aspirations for visitation to TMAG.

Despite reduced staffing and investment, the Budget articulates a target of 10,000 extra visits to TMAG sites this financial year – growth from 290,000 to 300,000 visits. Beyond that, we don’t have figures, but as city and tourism growth is always desired, so too are the expected demands on TMAG.

Any Government budget, and the decisions that flow from it, are a reflection of that Government’s choices.

Its priorities.

What it cares for.

And what it doesn’t.

It’s fair to say there is widespread outrage at Government’s lack of care for TMAG.

Just last weekend I was proud to sponsor a parliamentary petition on behalf of Ian and the Friends of TMAG. As at this morning, it has ticked over 6000 signatures. Please sign it if you haven’t and share it with other Tasmanians.

I’ll table it in Parliament as a clear call on Government to maintain funding for TMAG so that all positions are retained, and to invest in TMAG's buildings to ensure they are fit-for-purpose.

Late last year I visited TMAG to attend an artists’ panel discussing their contributions to Hobart Current, a major exhibition spanning the entire summer period.

It was a wet week, and in the main foyer there were buckets on the floor catching drips from the ceiling thanks to a leaking roof. While a letter I got from the Minister last week claims the roof is repaired, the stains remain and we know there’s similar problems at Moonah and Rosny where parts of the State Collection are housed. While staff funding is inadequate … so too is infrastructure investment.

In a developed society with a demonstrable budget crisis and existing sports infrastructure, it is simply inconceivable that a Government would choose to splash billions on more on a stadium, against expert advice, while it cuts public servants and the state’s premier arts and cultural institution sags with inadequate investment and now reductions in staff.

A stadium approved against expert advice despite its impacts on the economy, its impacts on the heritage values of this very precinct we are meeting in, and the fact that, according to the estimate of the treasury expert on the assessment panel, will cost us $90 million per year just to service the debt.

Today at TMAG there’ll be the patter of small feet as a new generation of Tasmanians on school holidays explore the galleries and are inspired by the exhibitions, the stories, the interpretation and the wonder of art and objects of almost indescribable diversity.

From my own childhood, visits to TMAG are still etched in my mind … and heart, as I know they would be for thousands of Tasmanians.

TMAG is a central stitch in our cultural, historic, scientific and artistic fabric and an important part of our economic framework.

It simply cannot have its capacity reduced.

To do so will diminish us all.

This is the transcript of a speech given by Vica Bayley MP, Deputy Leader of the Tasmanian Greens, at the public meeting organised by the Friends of TMAG in Hobart on October 8, 2026

Good afternoon to all. I am privileged to speak after these amazing women. I stand gratefully on Palawa country. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

In Lutruwita Tasmania there are many thousands of people like me. I doubt that TMAG keeps the figures. Its curators, its staff and volunteers, they just give.

I am one of the very many whose research has relied on TMAG. To illustrate this I want to tell three short stories:

Some time ago in the Collections and Research facility, I held in my hand the skin of a bird collected by the TMAG director J.R. Cunningham at Orielton in 1960.

It was my only chance to touch in Tasmania the bird that I would follow through Australia, to China and Arctic Alaska.

The Grey Plover is an unremarkable looking bird, little known in Australia generally, with an extraordinary story of long distance migration.

It was the staff of TMAG who necropsied the bird to show it was female, who looked after that specimen for 65 years, and made it available just so someone like me could hold and contemplate it, and in our work tell its story.

What a treasure house of such stories that unremarkable building at Rosny is.

When I came to write The Ancients, about Tasmania’s trove of globally important long-lived paleoendemic trees, I was welcomed at the Herbarium.

People there enabled me to search histories of discovery, of King’s Lomatia, of King Billy, Pencil and Huon Pine in particular.

John Davies, Lyn Cave, Miguel De Salas and others all shepherded this naive beginner. I was amazed by the riches in specimens held by the Herbarium, by the unfolding stories of discovery documented there, by the very many volunteer and professional collectors who assembled this information in these fragile specimen folios that I could touch — even by things like revelatory marginalia on these pages. 

The Herbarium is a plant bank of timeless value. It sits there, unassuming next to Churchill Avenue but again it offers inspiration for research that should be more widely recognised by the public, and by political leaders.

My third story hasn’t made it into a book — yet.

Those of us who live along country roads in Tasmania I think become almost inured to the toll of roadkill. But on our local road we were stopped in our tracks when we came upon a dead Wedge-tailed Eagle, belly up, showing no sign of being hit by a vehicle.

We took it to a freezer at Raptor Refuge and from there it made its way to TMAG — another fatality for the very steadfast Judy Clarke to necropsy. She indeed determined in some detail this next milestone on the road towards extinction of this species.

It was a juvenile male that perhaps had tried to settle on the pole beside where it was found. Judy found burn marks and haemorrhaging that confirmed beyond doubt that it was electrocuted by the old, bare copper wires above. 

How lucky we are to have this kind of difficult, but true public service from such professionals.

The current projected budget cuts give the impression that political decision-makers think an institution like a Museum or Herbarium is static, and just needs a few folk to dust and mind the collections.

This is so wilfully wrong. Instead these are constantly evolving organisms, full of expertise.

Is there a cultural erasure going on in Tasmania’s public service? We are hearing from the government of ‘short term budgetary pain’. But there is no long term gain in these projected cuts. There is only a dismantling of expertise.

The challenge for the government instead is to reverse this course, and to find ways to guarantee the work of people who are doing their best to exalt Tasmania.

Thank you.

This is the transcript of a speech given by Andrew Darby, award-winning journalist and nature writer at the public meeting organised by the Friends of TMAG in Hobart on 8 October 2026