Forest Specular

Franklin River, Tasmania, Australia

Public art

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Current

Checked by Project Big Things · Sep 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

A large mirrored public-art installation at the Franklin Nature Trail on the Lyell Highway.

Before you stop

Check current Tasmania Parks alerts and Lyell Highway conditions before travel.

Parking on site
P
Parking
onsite

Private to your Passport.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Recommended arrival available

Onsite parking

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Forest Specular

This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.

Approximate location · 42.216° S, 146.020° E

FIELD GUIDE

The story

Forest Specular is made of 1,300 convex mirrors, and it is installed in one of the most contested landscapes in Australia.

The work is by Nadège Philippe-Janon and stands at the Franklin River picnic ground on the Lyell Highway, commissioned through Tasmania's public art program for the Western Wilds Drive Journey. Tourism Tasmania identifies it as one of three Western Wilds installations.

Convex mirrors do something specific: each one compresses a wide field into a small bright image, so a surface covered in hundreds of them fragments the forest into hundreds of separate miniature versions of itself, all slightly different, all shifting as you move. The rainforest here is dense, dark and enclosing, and a mirrored object inside it does not reflect a view so much as multiply the place you are already standing in.

The siting carries weight beyond the artwork. The Franklin was the subject of the campaign to stop it being dammed in the early 1980s – the most significant environmental conflict in Australian history, which ran to the High Court and reshaped national politics. A permanent installation at the Franklin Nature Trail is placed in country that people went to prison to keep undammed.

One bookkeeping note. Tasmanian government arts material records the work as Forest Spectacular, dated 2020, while this catalogue and tourism material record it as Forest Specular. The two titles refer to the same installation; the discrepancy is unresolved and is reported here rather than silently corrected.

It is free, on a short nature trail, and rewards a slow walk rather than a stop.

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PRACTICAL

Plan your stop

WHAT TO EXPECT

Tourism Tasmania identifies Forest Specular as one of three Western Wilds public-art installations. Nadège Philippe-Janon’s work uses 1,300 convex mirrors and was commissioned through Tasmania’s public-art program.

ACCESS

Forest Specular is on the Franklin Nature Trail beside the Lyell Highway in Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. The stored object point remains an approximate trail-area anchor rather than a claimed exact sculpture position. Tasmania Parks lists parking at the Franklin Nature Trail, and the Franklin River Picnic Area parking area is independently mapped at approximately -42.21555, 146.02039, immediately beside the trail start. Drive to the picnic-area car park, then continue on foot and follow current park alerts and signage.

COMMUNITY

Visitor Log

WHAT'S NEXT

Find another Big Thing nearby

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Current

Bitumen Bones

Sentinel Range, Tasmania

A large roadside public-art installation at the foot of the Sentinel Range on Gordon River Road.

Public art

73 km away

TRANSPARENCY

Sources & research

Arts Tasmania – Corporate Art Scheme

Arts Tasmania · recorded 2026-08-22

State arts body identifies Forest Specular commission at Franklin River picnic ground.

Government

Mapcarta – Franklin River Picnic Area parking

Mapcarta / OpenStreetMap · recorded 2026-09-11

Maps the Franklin River Picnic Area amenity=parking node at -42.21555, 146.02039 (OSM node 313130067).

Other

Parks & Wildlife Service Tasmania – Franklin Nature Trail

Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · recorded 2026-08-23

Official park page lists parking and picnic facilities for the Franklin Nature Trail, the site context for Forest Specular.

Government

Western Wilds Arts

Tourism Tasmania · recorded 2026-08-22

Official tourism description and location.

Tourism

What we're still checking

Open-licence image search completed 24 August 2026. No defensible reusable image with file-level commercial-use provenance was verified in the completed Commons, government/open-licence and archival/open-collection sweep.

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