Best known for their 1982 hit ‘Solid Rock’, Australian band Goanna has returned with its first single in 25 years, and it’s all about the Tarkine rainforest in North West Tasmania.
The band’s latest single, called “takayna,” is named after the palawa word for the forest and will be released digitally on July 1st by the independent Goanna Arts label through MGM.
Described as ‘Australia’s Amazon’, Tasmania’s ancient Tarkine rainforest spreads across half a million hectares of creeks, mountains and rivers that run to the Southern Ocean.
Goanna’s lead singer, Shane Howard, accompanied protesters into the rainforest near Tullah this year as part of a campaign to stop mining company MMG from building a new tailings dam there.
The battle continues with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek yet to make a ruling on the proposal.
The band will perform live in Tasmania this week with acoustic gigs in Launceston on June 29, Hobart on June 30 and at the Paragon Theatre in Queenstown on July 1 to mark the 40th anniversary of the High Court decision to save the Franklin River.
Howard has described the new song as “a hymn to the natural world, to takayna/Tarkine and the palawa peoples’ long custodianship of that country.”
He says he was inspired by his time in the Tarkine, where he was deeply moved by the magic of the forest and the dedication of those “voices crying in the wilderness,” young and old, who were defending the land.
Tickets and more info here: Shane Howard – Dates
