Cape York land agreement results in Qld's first Aboriginal national park

The Wilderness Society (Queensland) Inc
Media Release
10th July 2008

The Wilderness Society (TWS) has welcomed an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) between the Queensland Government and Lama Lama Traditional Owners on Cape York Peninsula. The ILUA resolves the tenure and future management of two large east coast properties by returning over 110,000 hectares of homelands to the Traditional Owners and creates Queensland’s first Aboriginal National Park.

The ILUA was signed today at a special ceremony in the Cape York township of Coen and includes the creation of the new National Park - the first park in Queensland to be officially under the joint management of its Traditional Owners and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

Kerryn O’Conor from TWS said, “This is a great outcome for the region’s Traditional Owners and for conservation. The creation of Lama Lama National Park is a momentous achievement. This outcome has been a long time coming and we congratulate the Lama Lama people and the Government for their persistence in reaching this historic agreement”.
 
Running Creek and Lilyvale, the two properties covered by the ILUA, are located on Princess Charlotte Bay, just to the north of Lakefield National Park. The former pastoral property and timber reserve contain important habitat for critically endangered species such as the red goshawk, nationally significant dune systems, extensive wetlands, and intact woodlands.

For more than twelve years TWS has supported the Queensland Government’s approach to acquiring properties of high natural and cultural value on Cape York Peninsula for the dual purposes of conservation and the return of homelands to Traditional Owners.

This approach culminated last year in the Cape York Peninsula Heritage Act 2007.

Endorsed by conservation, industry and regional Indigenous groups, the Heritage Act created a new form of protected area called National Parks (Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land).

“The Lama Lama National Park is the first of these new parks to be declared and will be jointly managed under an Indigenous Management Agreement. Today’s agreement is a breakthrough in securing environmental protection and Indigenous land justice on Cape York”, Ms O’Conor concluded.