Sunday 18 March 2012

New massive national park for the Northern Territory

A huge tract of land and water in the Northern Territory has been converted into one of Australia's largest national parks.

The Northern Territory government has declared more than 10,000 square kilometres as the Limmen National Park, including an 880 square kilometre precinct known as Limmen Bight Marine Park.

Limmen National Park is located approximately 475 kilometres southeast of Katherine and 182 kilometres northwest of Borroloola. The new park includes a long stretch of coastline and Maria Island. It stretches from the Roper River south past the Cox River and east to the Gulf of Carpentaria

The new park is about seven times the size of the Territory’s Litchfield National Park and half the size of Kakadu. It includes beaches, forests, rock art and unusual geological formations.

It seems the Marra people, traditional owners of land, have had their calls to protect the environmentally and culturally sensitive Maria Island answered with the Limmen National Park annoucement.

Last year a delegation of Marra elders gave the Northern Territory parliament a petition calling for Western Desert Resources not to pipe slurry to the island for processing. The island will be included in the new national park and surrounded by the marine park.

Mining is allowed in Territory national parks, but the NT government has said that no mining holes will be dug in Limmen without having to get the highest approval – and there would be a very high environmental bar.

Limmen National Park will protect turtle, dugong and dolphin habitats and large sea grass beds. The coast will be opened up for permit-free recreational fishing.

The region is no longer the Northern Territory's best-kept secret.

Prepared by Bob Woodward & Associates: offering you business consultancy, accounting, payroll administration and ancillary services in Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory.
http://www.woodwards.co/

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