New Government & Ningaloo World Heritage
Monday, December 3rd, 2007
Prior to winning the Nov 2007 federal elections and whilst still in opposition, Labor promised to fast track a World Heritage listing for the Ningaloo Reef and adjacent land areas.
There are at least three, greatly differing, opinions regarding where the eastern (or landward) boundary of the Ningaloo Reef World Heritage listing should lie.
1. At or near the high tide mark
The pastoralists have kept the coastal land undeveloped and in pristine condition compared with every other stretch of tropical coastline in Australia. Hence the pastoralists argue that the best protection for the coastline, is to leave it under their care and to draw the heritage area boundary at or near the high tide mark.
This would also be the opinion of the many ordinary folk that travel hundreds or thousands of kilometres from all over Australia to camp along this unspoilt coastline. A world heritage listing that extends inland from the Ningaloo Reef would no doubt lead to focussed development areas and a very different access regime for visitors.
2. WA State Government
The WA State Government wants to excise a 2km wide strip of coastal land from the pastoralists, denying both the pastoralists and campers from accessing to the coast. Furthermore, the State Government is explicitly catering for man-made developments that will despoil this beautiful coast forever.
3. Conservation Council of WA
Unbelievably, the Conservation Council of Western Australia is urging the new Environment Minister, Hon. Peter Garrett MP, to adopt much wider land boundaries still. They want the boundaries to take in the whole “catchment” area (a misnomer, for this is desert country with less than 300mm of annual rainfall), the eastern side of the Exmouth Gulf and the pastoral lease areas. See ABC news report.
Conclusion
“World Heritage sites belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located” as quoted from the UNESCO website
Our country is being taken away from us ordinary Australians. Why should we be handing over our pastoral land to UNESCO? There is absolutely no benefit to including the adjacent land in a world heritage listing of Ningaloo Reef, since this land has been kept in pristine condition for scores of years under the pastoralist leasehold system, at little or no cost to the taxpayer.
Now we are expected to go along with our tax dollars being spent on depriving us ordinary Australians of access to our last remaining stretch of unspoilt tropical coastline.
Its fine to list Ningaloo Reef itself, since we do need better protection of the fish stocks and since this will attract more tourism. But leave the land alone!
Seizing the land for World Heritage purposes is a wolf dressed up in sheep’s clothing.