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Well-managed national parks and private land reserves are our best chance to protect endangered wildlife, conserve nature for future generations and protect cultural values. Queensland currently has only approximately 8.2% of land in protected areas, lower than any other state or territory in Australia.

We urgently need more land managed effectively for endangered wildlife, which are under pressure from a tsunami of threats: loss of habitat from land clearing, attack from pet dogs and cats when wildlife homes are lost, and climate change induced heatwaves shifting the very basic needs like water availability and food sources, causing animals to leave their homes and often in the process, lose their lives.

National Parks provide a legal safeguard for wildlife and connect us with rich, life-giving landscapes essential for our well being. Worth over $3.7 billion to Queensland’s economy, national parks and other protected areas are also a proven safe-haven for wildlife. More well-managed national parks and an increase in management investment is good for jobs, the economy and nature.

Tree clearing in Cape York, Queensland with the use of a ball and chain to clear large swathes of forest. Image by The Wilderness Society.

While national parks need to remain focused on nature conservation, there is now global acknowledgement that this focus should never be at the exclusion of living Indigenous cultures.

Queensland’s Landmark Cape York Tenure Resolution Program delivers a leading consent-based model of negotiating new Aboriginal owned national parks. This unique process has been supported by successive Queensland governments of all persuasions for nearly twenty years and has resulted in over 2 million hectares of Aboriginal owned national parks jointly managed with the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service. This world-leading model is currently being extended to the World Heritage-listed Daintree National Park.

The benefits of joint management include diversified employment opportunities and an increase in revenue streams for national parks. There are also significant socio-economic benefits, with an increasing number of Indigenous rangers across the sector. Career opportunities, niche tourism and cultural maintenance all arise from this joint management approach and the growth in land management enterprises. 

QCC supports the leadership of Queensland's First Nations peoples in the ongoing management of protected areas and their free, prior and informed consent in its expansion.

Frances Royee and Brendan Ross from the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation. Image courtesy of the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation, Kerry Trapnell.

National parks are home to endangered wildlife. With so much of Queensland’s wildlife now under threat, we urgently need more well-managed national parks. 

In a number of instances, protected areas such as national parks have provided the last refuges for threatened species.

For example, the northern hairy-nosed wombat is found only in Epping Forest National Park, north-west of Rockhampton. The last wombat census at Epping Forest National Park estimated a population of about one hundred and sixty-three (163) northern hairy-nosed wombats. This was the remaining population following the demise of the species in its original range. It is unclear why the wombats were able to survive at Epping Forest National Park, but it is likely that the positive and deliberate management by the Dennis family (who managed the land before it was gazetted as a national park) was a contributing factor. Without national park protection, the northern hairy-nosed wombat could already be extinct today.

The critically endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat, is found only in the Epping Forest National Park, north-west of Rockhampton.