Sense of place, use and values of the Fern Tree Park and Bower, Tasmania

The Fern Tree Park and Bower, Tasmania was chosen as a suitable setting to study the relationship between the population of Hobart and visitors with Mount Wellington through a recreational and heritage focus. Natural resource management presents a growing body of research that supports the uptake of sense of place, particularly place attachment, to further understand of place use and values beyond quantitative demographic and visitation statistics that have predominately been used in the past to guide management decisions. Cultural heritage management similarly supports the increased emphasis on the importance of people-place relationships in guiding management. Sense of place assessment has never been integrated to use and values surveys for Tasmania’s iconic Wellington Park however. This research aimed to integrate sense of place to a study of use, heritage and values of the Fern Tree Park and Bower and make contributions to the growing body of research regarding place attachment and visitor motivations at natural-setting recreational areas where many ambiguities remain. The study also aimed to provide information on visitation and management issues to support the development of a master plan for the site.