World heritage forests burn as global tragedy unfolds in Tasmania

'Devastating' long-term prognosis for ancient Gondwana ecosystem as bushfires turn trees more than 1,000 years old to tinder A global tragedy is unfolding in Tasmania. World heritage forests are burning; 1,000-year-old trees and the hoary peat beneath are reduced to char. Fires have already taken stands of king billy and pencil pine - the last remaining fragments of an ecosystem that once spread across the supercontinent of Gondwana. Pockets of Australia's only winter deciduous tree, the beloved...