Outback Australia
It is in Australia's desert areas that surprisingly, mammal extinctions have been greatest. Australia's Outback is often taken for granted - for many people, it's out of sight, out of mind. However, much of Australia’s remaining wilderness – lands least impacted by modern, technological society – is to be found in the Outback. The Wilderness Society is campaigning to protect wild areas in Outback Australia from environmentally -unsustainable practices associated with broad scale land clearing, mining, pastoralism and intensive irrigated agriculture.
- Introducing the Great Western Woodlands
- Coongie Lakes
- The Nullarbor Plain - world’s largest limestone karst landscape
East of the Rabbit Proof Fence and south of Kalgoorlie, in the heart of southern Western Australia, is one of the largest temperate woodland left on Earth.
Equivalent to Africa’s Serengeti or South America’s Amazon, the Great Western Woodlands is an internationally significant area of great biological richness.
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Coongie Lakes is one of South Australia's most important natural areas. As a major wetland system in an arid area, the lakes are recognised as being internationally important and are home to tens of thousands of water birds. Despite this, the Coongie Lakes system faces a number of threats and are inadequately protected.
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The vast Nullarbor Plain straddles the border of Western Australia and South Australia and is the world’s largest limestone karst landscape. The conservation of this area is vital to the WildCountry vision across the two states.
more »Outback Australia Updates
- NT Election - put an end to destructive land clearing - July 30, 2008
- Mining suspended in victory for Arkaroola - February 17, 2008
- Coongie Wetlands - Not Cattle Wastelands - April 23, 2006 The environmental integrity of Coongie Lakes is internationally recognised, yet the wetlands remain under serious threat from cattle grazing.
During the course of the Northern Territory election campaign, The Wilderness Society is running an advertising campaign, calling on all the political parties to pledge to protect the Territory’s forests, woodlands and rivers from destructive land clearing.
In a major victory for the campaign to protect the internationally significant Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in South Australia from mining, SA Premier Mike Rann announced on Tuesday 12 February that the Government is suspending drilling operations at Mount Gee indefinitely.
Outback Australia Media Releases
- Call for action on NSW and Queensland Stock Routes - April 11, 2008
- Adios to 'cowboy' miner: SA Government congratulated on stopping mining in Arkaroola - March 17, 2008 The Wilderness Society is today celebrating a significant victory in its campaign to protect the internationally significant Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in South Australia from mining.
- Stop the weir: save the River Murray, lakes and the Coorong - February 15, 2007 Environment organisations from across the Murray Darling Basin join forces to stop the building of a weir at Wellington on the Lower Murray.
Protection and care of the historic stock route network that criss-crosses Queensland and New South Wales have become a priority for both rural and conservation groups. National, Queensland and NSW groups yesterday agreed to work together on the issue.
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