Five million hectares of new national parks, marine parks and other conservation reserves has been the five year plan for the West Australian government.
You’ll find them from the Kimberley in the north, right down to the southern coastline.
Here’s some of the names to look out for:
- Helena Aurora Range National Park
- Houtman Abrolhos Islands National Park, off Geraldton
- Fortescue Marsh, the largest ephemeral wetland in the Pilbara
Marine parks
- Buccaneer Archipelago in the Kimberley
- Sites in the Perth metropolitan area
- Recherche Archipelago near Esperance
- Stokes Inlet National Park
Opportunities exist for new national parks to be created in areas such as Shark Bay, Kennedy Range, Mount Augustus and along the Fitzroy River.
The aim is to enable Aboriginal people to establish and operate tourism ventures and other enterprises. Additionally, to increase on country jobs for Aboriginal rangers,and complement the $20 million Aboriginal Ranger Program.
Many of the former pastoral properties were purchased for conservation over the past two decades but have remained unreserved.
Giralia Station
Old Giralia Station is now closed – and it has been announced it will become a national park.
Located 125km south of Exmouth, this station had camping and on-site accommodation at the homestead, as well as camping at the beach and the river.
Hopefully we’ll still be able to camp there, one day? And maybe they’ll still operate the shearing shed cinema for education about life on the station!
Matuwa Kurrara Kurrara National Park and Lake Carnegie nature reserve
The Matuwa Kurrara Kurrara National Park was formerly two pastoral leases. The remote Goldfields properties, totaling 800,000 hectares, were purchased by the State Government more than 20 years ago.
It’s also a dedicated Indigenous Protected Area with more than 480 plant species as well as the centre of one of Australia’s biggest threatened animal translocation projects.
Lake Carnegie is listed on the Commonwealth Directory of Important Wetlands and is also culturally significant to Martu Aboriginal people. It’s believed to be home to the elusive and critically endangered Night parrot.
Dryandra Woodland National Park
Located near Narrogin, 180 kilometres south-east of Perth, is the first national park in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region.
Dryandra is a key stronghold for some of Australia’s rarest and most vulnerable wildlife, including numbats, woylies, brushtail wallabies, chuditch, quenda and the mound-building malleefowl.
The conversion of the former State forest to national park, including the creation of two class A nature reserves, will help ensure the future protection of native animals living in one of the last remnants of original woodland in the western Wheatbelt.
It is great to read that numbers of numbats, Western Australia’s animal emblem, have increased at Dryandra in recent years.
Also, the park is home to a predator-proof animal sanctuary where the public can see rare and protected wildlife, including numbats, in their nocturnal environment.
Warlibirri National Park
Warlibirri National Park, named after the Gooniyandi word for river, spans 16,000 hectares and takes in areas of the Margaret River east of Fitzroy Crossing.
The river is home to important areas for the language group and is considered a living ancestral being among Gooniyandi people.
Find sites near these Parks in the CAMPS guide books, CAMPS Pendium boxed set and CAMPS AUSTRALIA WIDE App.
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