A watercourse within the new The Lakes National Park. Photo: Department of Environment

QUEENSLAND producers have been calling on the State Government to ensure its list of new National Parks are adequately resourced, with concerns about mismanagement of current parks.

Environment minister Leanne Linard announced at the end of last week that two new National Parks had been formally established – being The Lakes National Park near Hughenden and Malbon Thompson Range National Park near Cairns.

“The Miles Labor Government is doing what matters by protecting areas of high environmental and cultural values in perpetuity for future generations of Queensland,” the minister said.

“The dedication of these two new national parks as well as the expansion of 18 other parks further demonstrates our commitment.”

In the past year, Beef Central has heard wide ranging concerns about mismanagement of National Parks leading to worse environmental outcomes than what were intended.

Beef Central called multiple producers in areas of National Parks today, who all raised concerns about a lack of resourcing in the current parks leading to weed outbreaks and high fuel loads from bushfires.

John Bell from Turkey Station, near Agnes Water in Central Queensland, was one of them.

Until recent months, Mr Bell had grazing leases on part of the Eurimbula National Park which have now gone back into the hands of the Qld Parks & Wildlife service – one of the 18 parks to be expanded.

He told Beef Central he was glad to be out of the arrangement.

“I have been dealing with National Parks for more than 50 years and they have become harder and harder to work with,” Mr Bell said.

“They have had a lot of good staff on the ground who are trying their best, but they are hopelessly under-resourced and there are too many decisions being made from airconditioned offices in the south-east corner.

“The end result is a disaster, weeds have run rampant and there are big fire hazards.”

Beef Central has written extensively about fuel loads in National Parks in recent years, with big fires in the Carnarvon Ranges last year and concerns about red tape stopping producers and park rangers from doing fire mitigation burns.

Mr Bell said he had experienced the same issues with National Parks.

“They only want to burn when it is too green and they can’t get a proper fire through it and when it gets a bit tricky they won’t light the fire because they are worried it will get away,” he said.

“The end result of that is a big fire burning out half the district every couple of years.”

Beef Central has asked the environment department about how it plans to resource the parks and will update with any more information we receive.

About the two National Parks

The Lakes, a former cattle property, was acquired by the government in 2022 through a partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), which brokered contributions from international philanthropic organisations, the Wyss Foundation and the Art into Acres initiative through Re:wild (private US charitable foundations). TNC committed up to $US1.829 million (around $AUD2.7 million) to the purchase.

The Lakes is home to four hypersaline watercourses, classified as Wetlands of High Ecological Significance. These watercourses provide critical habitat for many species of waterbirds while protecting the headwaters of the South Gregory River – which feeds into the Great Barrier Reef catchment.

The property is also home to unique species like the giant burrowing cockroach and two newly discovered species of clam-shrimp, which are only found in this national park’s lakes.

Part of the 43,000 hectare property estate covers a portion of Gudjala First Nations peoples’ traditional Country.

Malbon Thompson Range National Park is located about 35km south-east of Cairns and covers 620 hectares of undisturbed coastal lowlands, covered by rainforests interspersed with kauri pines and eucalypts.

Sitting adjacent to Malbon Thompson Forest Reserve, the dedication of the new national park enables permanent protection of a major environmental corridor spanning about 37 kilometres between Yarrabah and south to the mouth of the Russell River in the internationally-recognised Wet Tropics World Heritage area.

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service will progressively open both new parks to visitors over the coming years as preparations are finalised.

Eighteen other national parks have also been formally expanded, with the land expansions, including the two new national parks, totalling more than 59,000 hectares. Including:

• The Lakes National Park (Flinders Shire), new estate – about 43,260 hectares
• Malbon Thompson Range National Park (Cairns), new estate – about 620 hectares
• Eurimbula National Park (Gladstone), estate expansion – about 6091 hectares
• Girringun National Park (Cassowary Coast), estate expansion – about 36 hectares
• Gulngay National Park (Cassowary Coast), estate expansion – about 60 hectares
• Homevale National Park (Isaac), estate expansion – about 4,530 hectares
• Hull River National Park (Cassowary Coast), estate expansion – about 0.1 hectares
• Japoon National Park (Cassowary Coast), estate expansion – about 26 hectares
• Kuranda National Park (Mareeba Shire), estate expansion – about 3,711 hectares
• Lockyer National Park (Lockyer Valley), estate expansion – about 500 hectares
• Macalister Range National Park (Douglas Shire), estate expansion – about 18 hectares
• Magnetic Island National Park (Townsville City), estate expansion – about 2 hectares
• Mount Coolum National Park (Sunshine Coast), estate expansion – about 2 hectares
• Paluma Range National Park (Townsville City), estate expansion – about 67 hectares
• Pioneer Peaks National Park (Mackay), estate expansion – about 65 hectares
• Russell River National Park (Cairns), estate expansion – about 12 hectares
• Tully Gorge National Park (Cassowary Coast), estate expansion – about 246 hectares
• Venman Bushland National Park (Redland City), estate expansion – about 8 hectares
• Wooroonooran National Park (Cairns & Tablelands), estate expansion – about 247 hectares
• Mouth of Baffle Creek Conservation Park 2 (Gladstone), estate expansion – about 82 hectares

Environment department response:

In response, a spokesperson for the Qld Department of Environment said:

“The Department of Environment, Science and Innovation factors in the cost and resources required to manage national parks when considering the acquisition of new or expanded protected areas to ensure that these areas are well managed.

“Fire management is a shared responsibility of all landowners and occupiers in Queensland and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) treats its responsibility very seriously as the State’s largest landowner. 

“QPWS undertakes more planned burns than any other land holder in Queensland. In the past year alone, QPWS has undertaken 467 planned burns and other mitigation activities across Queensland, including 55 operations in Central Queensland, burning 531,202 hectares in total across the State.

“QPWS staff undertake fire management activities year-round as part of our fire program including planning with neighbours, partners and stakeholders, delivering planned burns, maintaining firelines, infrastructure and equipment, educating and informing the community about its fire program and training staff to ensure capacity and capability is maintained across the fire program.

“QPWS delivered fire-related training for 205 staff members over the past 12 months towards maintaining their professionalism and further enhancing their fire management skills.

“To ensure effective fire management continues across new and existing protected areas, the Queensland Government has committed $39.2 million in this year’s budget for the new Better Queensland Parks – Fire Management Uplift Program.

“This includes 39 new Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) positions and $18.1 million in capital to boost essential QPWS fire resources across the state.

“During the 2023-24 bushfire season, QPWS responded to 344 bushfires on department managed estate. Of these, 149 fires or 43% of all bushfires started on neighbouring lands.”