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The Central Land Council, after consultation with traditional owners of the Haasts Bluff Aboriginal Land Trust, has knocked back a number of permit requests for access to the Trust.
The requests were made by keen bird watchers after the Princess Parrot was reportedly seen on the Trust.
Traditional owners approved the first request they received with conditions but have since refused up to about 20 additional applications that quickly followed.
The CLC has consulted traditional owners for the area on the Haasts Bluff Trust, where the parrot is said to have been seen, over the applications. However, the applications were refused when it was discovered that some bird watchers had broken the law by taking an estimated one day’s drive into the Trust without their permission, not once, but at least twice.
Traditional owners were also concerned about the large number of applications that were coming in to access a fragile, arid environment.
Land owners are already dealing with a significant introduced weed management issue in the area and are concerned about further environmental damage arising from a high volume of unregulated vehicle access.
There are also many sacred sites in the area of considerable sensitivity.
Visitors blindly walking around sacred sites and possibly accidentally damaging them can cause great offense and hurt to traditional owners and leaves the perpetrators open to being charged under the Land Rights Act.
The trust is Aboriginal freehold land, and like any freehold land, the owners have the right to refuse entry to people if they wish.
Traditional owners for the area in question have been quite adamant that the lack of respect shown by some of the bird watchers in choosing to break the law and travel around the trust without permission and the weight of numbers of people and vehicles that would be accessing this environmentally and culturally sensitive area has seen them take this decision.
While the level of interest has been overwhelming for traditional owners on this occasion, the CLC has received constructive approaches from people inside the bird watching fraternity interested in establishing a more manageable process, something the CLC is open to discussing.
Watarrka and West MacDonnell national parks and Tnorala (Gosse) Bluff Conservation Reserve are also reported to be possible sites to see the parrot and places where permits are not required to access.
