The State Government has announced a plan to create five million hectares of new national and marine parks and reserves across Western Australia. This is part of the McGowan Government's whole-of-government target for A Livable Environment, under it's Our Priorities: Sharing Prosperity program of targets.
The Plan for Our Parks will see new and expanded parks from the Kimberley in the north, across WA’s Rangelands, through population centres in Perth and Bunbury, to our south-west forests and along our southern coastline. This will create more opportunities for nature-based and cultural tourism, provide enhanced biodiversity conservation and build on Aboriginal joint management throughout Western Australia.
Securing a camp site at the popular Karijini National Park is now easier with the introduction of an online booking system for Dales Campground.
Karijini National Park is Western Australia's second largest park and, with more than 350,000 visits in 2017-18, is one of the State's most popular destinations.
The park offers spectacular rugged scenery, ancient geological formations, rich cultural heritage values and a range of recreational experiences.
Dales Campground is accessible by regular two-wheel drive cars and features 140 individual sites suitable for large tents, caravans, campervans and camper trailers, with facilities including barbecues, picnic tables and toilets.
The McGowan Government is delivering a $22 million funding boost to DBCA's Enhanced Prescribed Burning Program over four years, via the 2019-20 State Budget.
This is in addition to the department's annual prescribed burning budget allocation of $11 million for the south-west of the State.
Research shows that prescribed burning is effective in reducing the frequency and size of bushfires in the forests of south-west Western Australia when at least 45 per cent of the landscape has a fuel age of less than six years since last burnt.
To realise this target in the three south-west forest regions it manages, DBCA's Parks and Wildlife Service aims to prescribe burn at least 200,000 hectares each financial year.
Twenty-one juvenile loggerhead turtles that washed ashore along the south-west coast will today be flown from Perth to Exmouth to be released into Ningaloo Marine Park.
The release is part of a joint effort by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA), the community and rehabilitation centres to help conserve the critically endangered species, with only an estimated 1500 to 2000 females known to nest annually in WA.
The juvenile turtles drifted ashore during storms over the past 18 months after travelling southwards in the Leeuwin current, and were reported to DBCA by community members.
DBCA Parks and Wildlife Service wildlife officer Cameron Craigie said the turtles had received intensive medical care at Perth Zoo before being rehabilitated at AQWA and the Bunbury Dolphin Discovery Centre.
“These young turtles normally wouldn’t come ashore for several decades until they are ready to breed, but thanks to the exceptional care provided to them, and the support of Qantas Freight, they will now be able to return to the sea and hopefully become mature breeding adults,” he said.
