Central Land Council

Northern Territory National Parks

Joint Management of Northern Territory Parks and Reserves

Joint Management is the way of the future for 19 parks in the CLC region following successful negotiations between the Northern Territory Government and the Central Land Council.
Fifteen of the parks will receive a transfer of tenure with an immediate leaseback to the NT Government for 99 years. The remaining four parks will be managed jointly with no change to tenure.
Joint management has opened the door for some of the Territory’s most significant parks to be managed ‘both ways’, combining traditional knowledge and land management skills with contemporary land management practices. Joint management has also expanded the parks estate by including additional areas that have previously been Aboriginal land.
CLC Director, David Ross, sums up the benefits of joint management, “This is a fair and equitable solution whereby Aboriginal people get a path forward through joint management, employment, cultural protection and in a few cases Aboriginal freehold title over land they have had under claim for years.”
Mr Ross added that, ”expanding and enhancing the parks estate in Central Australia –one of the last pristine areas of the world – is one of the most exciting and significant boosts to the Northern Territory for years.
The wider community will continue to enjoy parks with no fees or permits for entry and be able to be proud of a world class parks estate which will remain in the public domain for future generations”.

Local Jobs for Local People
A key focus of the joint management arrangements is employment and training for Aboriginal people in parks. There have been recent appointments both at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station and Tennant Creek of a number of Aboriginal trainee rangers. There is commitment to continue this initiative and it is already showing strong results. There is also the Flexible Employment Program (FEP) that is an initiative that provides short term work opportunities on park management programs. The FEP has recently given the Tjuwanpa (link to) Ranger program a kick start through short term work contracts.

Joint Management – Action on the ground
The official launch of joint management will happen with the transfer of title from the NT Government to the Aboriginal owners and/or the establishment of joint management plans. Where title is being transferred there will be an immediate leaseback to the Northern Territory Government. It is expected that title transfer will take place in 2007.

In the meantime, a number of joint management projects have been completed or are in process where the objective is to bring traditional owners back onto parks country, meet Parks and Wildlife staff, explain the concept and potential benefits of joint management and start the process of sharing stories and information for the more formal planning processes to come.

In brief some of these projects include:
1. Joint Management camps in the East MacDonnell Ranges as well as Finke Gorge, Watarrka and the West MacDonnell Ranges;
2. Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve – Traditional ecological knowledge and history trip.
3. Davenport Ranges National Park (Proposed) Feral Animal Project – talking about donkeys and horses.
4. Eastern MacDonnell Ranges Traditional Plant Knowledge and History Report part 1 ,
Report Part 2
5. Rainbow Valley Conservation Reserve Site Management Information Day – Archaeologist June Ross discussed site management issues with traditional owners.
6. Flexible Employment Program – Numerous short term work programs going on in all the parks.

Joint Management Planning
Rainbow Valley Conservation Reserve (Wurre) and Devil’s Marbles Conservation Reserve (Karlu Karlu) are smaller reserves and were obvious choices to start the joint management planning process.

So far five planning meetings have been held at Rainbow Valley with a draft plan expected by early 2007. A draft for public comment will follow soon after.

Joint planning has almost been completed for the Devils Marbles Conservation Reserve.

There have been three formal participatory planning sessions held that were facilitated by the CLC. There has also been a women’s trip and a men’s trip that have addressed park management issues and contributed to the joint management plan. Early in the planning process a small group of traditional owners travelled to Nitmiluk and Kakadu National Park to see how joint management works up there.

The group aims to have a draft joint management plan ready by early 2007.

Joint Management planning meetings began for both the West MacDonnell National Park and Gregory National Park and will continue throughout 2007.