Dread Wastes

I'm wanting to confirm something I read on the forums:

Is it true that to access Dread Wastes, you have to do all of Townlong Steppes first? I've been leveling my priest through dungeons, but the word on the street is that if I don't do some quests to get a higher item level, I'll have to drop gold on gear to do heroics (I've still got a 384 and 397 pulling me down). I was just going to hop into Dread Wastes if possible, because questing is horribly, horribly painful.