Park to protect riches

A decade after then-premier Colin Barnett announced a plan to protect the Kimberley coast, Australia’s second biggest marine park is closer to becoming a world-class ecotourism destination. Stretching across more than 3.1 million hectares and including 590,000ha of no-take marine sanctuary zones, the Great Kimberley Marine Park is slated to become an area of environmental value, culture and tourism. In recent months, the Kimberley has played a major role in reviving the WA economy with many West Australians flocking to the region and exploring everything the vast region has to offer from Cable Beach to Horizontal Falls to Cygnet Bay. Declared in late 2016 and due for completion in 2021, the Great Kimberley Marine Park spans across the Kimberley coast from the Northern Territory border down to the Camden Sound. In 2017, the incoming McGowan Government committed to include the thousand islands of the Buccaneer Archipelago within the Great Kimberley Marine Park. A Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions said its Parks and Wildlife service managed seven marine parks in the region — Eighty Mile Beach Marine Park, Yawuru Nagulagun/Roebuck Bay Marine Park, Lalang-garram Marine Parks (Camden Sound, Horizontal Falls and North), North Kimberley Marine Park and Rowley Shoals Marine Park, with some jointly managed with traditional owners. “Parks and Wildlife Service is currently working to establish the proposed Buccaneer Archipelago marine park,” the department said. “(The department) is negotiating with the three traditional owner groups — Dambimangari, Mayala and Bardi Jawi to co-design the marine park. “If negotiations around the creation of the proposed Buccaneer Archipelago marine park are successful, WA will have a continuous series of marine parks from the Dampier Peninsula along the North Kimberley coast all the way to the WA/NT border.” Kimberley-Like-Nowhere-Else Alliance campaign co-ordinator Monique Barker said the alliance had been lobbying for the region’s spectacular coastline to be protected within a marine park since 2009 and it was great to see how far the park had come in the past decade. “The Great Kimberley Marine Park is one of the biggest conservation projects ever undertaken in Western Australia and has delivered unprecedented protection for the Kimberley’s unique natural assets,” she said. “It is a significant milestone for conservation, providing durable environmental protection for the Kimberley coast and it will boost the already booming eco-tourism industry and support opportunities for science, culture and conservation enterprises.” Ms Barker said the level of bipartisan support for the project from the State’s leading political parties was outstanding and the Great Kimberley Marine Park is an outstanding achievement for conservation in WA. Former premier Colin Barnett said the main driver for the Great Kimberley Marine Park was conservation and protection of biodiversity, along with opening those areas for people to visit and learn more about the area.