Teen conservationist Spencer Hitchen leads film on Tasmania species
LOVE LETTER TO THE UNSEEN will premiere at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival on 18th July 2026, spotlighting the Maugean skate and 15-year-old conservationist Spencer Hitchen. The film follows Hitchen’s campaign to protect an ancient ray found only in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour.
Scientists believe only about 1,000 Maugean skates remain. If the species disappears, it could become the first shark or ray extinction linked to industrial aquaculture.
Found nowhere else on Earth, the skate carries global significance as well as local importance. Researchers say it evolved more than 60 million years ago, making it a living relic of Gondwana.
About one-third of the species’ remaining habitat lies inside the UNESCO-listed Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The Maugean skate is also recognised as a World Heritage value.
Spencer Hitchen and Macquarie Harbour
Hitchen has become one of Australia’s most visible young environmental advocates while still in his teens. Before this film, he built a public profile through work on biodiversity and glossy black cockatoos, with appearances on ABC, Channel 7 and other national outlets.
Rather than entering public life through party politics or a large campaign group, Hitchen started by caring for wildlife in his local community. Since then, he has stepped into a national debate often dominated by scientists, industry leaders and elected representatives.
He summed up that message in simple terms: “If I can do something, anyone can.”
For the film, that sense of practical action is central to the story. It frames the Maugean skate as both an overlooked species and a test of young leadership during a period of climate and biodiversity anxiety.
The documentary also points to wider policy questions for Australia. Because the skate exists nowhere else on Earth, its decline has sharpened scrutiny of the country’s stated “No New Extinctions” goal.
Director Josh “Bones” Murphy is among the key names attached to the project. Contributors include Lyndon O’Neil, First Dog on the Moon, Wendy Edwards, Andrew Wilkie, Peter Whish-Wilson, Eloise Carr and researchers from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies.
Following the Melbourne premiere on 18th July 2026, organisers plan wider Australian and international touring. By focusing on Macquarie Harbour and a species many Australians have never heard of, the film aims to push the Maugean skate into the national conversation.
