The National Parks and Wildlife Service was set up on 1 November 1971 after controversy surrounding the proposal to flood Lake Pedder and the unsuccessful attempts to prevent the project going ahead.

[1] A Select Committee formed from the interested parties recommended the establishment of a professional park service to properly manage the natural environment in Tasmania, and to replace the former Scenery Preservation[2] and Animals & Birds Protection Boards,[3] previously responsible for scenic reserves (including national parks) and wildlife sanctuaries respectively.

Existing national parks at the time included Ben Lomond, Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair, Freycinet, Mt Field, Rocky Cape and Southwest.

The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens and the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority also became part of this new Department.

In the same year the Douglas-Apsley National Park, important for its dry sclerophyll forests, was established in the east of the state.

In April 1999 an existing reserve on Flinders Island, known since 1967 as Strzelecki National Park, was formally named as such.

In December 2001 three Bass Strait islands, Deal, Erith and Dover, were declared part of the Kent Group National Park and, in 2005, marine protected areas were created there and at Port Davey-Bathurst Harbour.