Australia’s Kimberley National Park is going to house the largest national park reserve in the nation. The reserve will include the Mitchell River, Lawley River, and Prince Regent Parks, as well as Mitchell Falls and Mitchell Plateau to form a stunning 5-million hectare parcel of land that will become this amazing park.
The newest addition to this project, Mitchell Plateau and Mitchell Falls, became available after negotiations with the mining companies who had legal rights to drill and mine for bauxite and aluminum in the area. The original agreement was for 45 years, so the government had to request that the companies secede their rights and allow the government to have full control in order to proceed with the plans for the park.
The companies, Rio Tinto and Alcoa, amazingly agreed to allow the government to have full legal ownership of the land, and have given up their rights to mine the area. Due to a visit of the CEO’s of these companies, it was clear to them that this land could simply not be mined.
Sam Walsh, the CEO of Rio Tinto, was able to see the land firsthand and agreed that there was no way that his company could mine the land without damaging it and changing its ecosystem irrevocably. Due to the way that bauxite is mined, it covers a very large area of land and Walsh knew that to continue to mine this material would mean certain doom for all of the flora and fauna that lived there.
The Rio Tinto company has further agreed to support the conservation efforts by giving $750,000 to the government to help cover any damages that their mining and drilling caused in the years that they were working on the land. It is an extraordinary event to see something like this happen, where a CEO puts the nation’s interests above his own company’s profits.
The new Kimberley National Park will include a vast network of land and marine parks and offer visitors the exquisite opportunity to experience the best Australian flora and fauna in the nation. The park can also easily be considered the biggest conservation effort ever made on the west side of Australia.
Legislation to legally achieve the agreement between the government and the mining companies will be taking place very soon, and there is much hope that these companies will continue to fully support Kimberley National park’s endeavors. The work that will be needed to establish the park and its new boundaries will begin after the legislation is passed, and visitors will be allowed once the work is complete.
Kimberley National Park will feature great adventure opportunities, as well as other attractions for tourists to enjoy. These include bush camping, scenic flights, and guided tours. Visitors will also have the privilege of seeing some of the most diverse wildlife anywhere in Australia, including kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes, and echidnas. Overall, the new park will be a stunning showcase for all that Australia’s Outback is known.
