Plan for Our Parks Initiative

Plan for our Parks was announced by the WA government in February 2019.

• Helena and Aurora Range, Bungalbin was included in the Plan for Our Parks as - "an opportunity for a Helena Aurora National Park".
• The announcement for Plan for Our Parks was made a year and three months following the December 2017 decision not to mine Helena and Aurora Range (Bungalbin). The alternative decision was made to  "...investigate protecting it within a Class A reserve", that was then honoured within the Plan for Our Parks initiative.

In 2019, Plan for Our Parks included at least seven new national parks, a new marine park, nature reserves, a conservation reserve, plus coastal reserves. There were also additions to three natiuonal parks, a terrestrial reserve and a regional park. In all, the initial focus of this plan was to add 18 different conservation areas to achieve the goal of adding 5 million hectares to the conservation estate of Western Australia (for more details see below "Areas targeted to be to be added to the conservation estate by the Plan for Our Parks initiative".

Class A conservation estate provides the highest level of protection in Western Australia. There are other levels of conservation estate in Western Australia that allow other landuses such as mining. Helena and Aurora Range (Bungalbin) was vested within a Conservation Park in 2005, that allows mining as a landuse. The proposed Helena Aurora Range National Park within the Plan for Our Parks initiative would protect Helena and Aurora Range (Bungalbin) from landuses other than conservation, such as mining.

Plan for Our Parks was announced as completed in January 2025. Achievemnets were:

• • • • 6.5 million ha added to WA's conservation estate (including areas of land and water)
      • completed within five years - 2019-2024
      • representing a 28% increase in Western Austra;ia's conservation estate ("...equivalent in size of Tasmania ...")

More information on the completion of the Plan for Our Parks initiative can be found at the link below.

Plan for Our Parks (DBCA website)

What stage was the proposed Helena Aurora National Park with the completion of Plan for Our Parks in January 2025?

In January 2025, the proposed Helena Aurora National Park was at the final part of stage 2 in creating this national park (see: Where are we now?). This involved the signing and registering of an Indigenous Landuse Agreement (ILUA) with the Traditional Owners. This process would continue beyond the completion of the Plan for Our Parks initiative (beyond January 2025).

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Areas targeted to be added to the conservation estate by the Plan for Our Parks initiative

An Update from the Director General in June 2020 provided more detailed information

(source: DBCA website, June 2020)

 In June 2020, the Governor General (DBCA) provided an update on progress. By June 2020, one national park had been added to the conservation estate, Houtman Abrolhons Islands National Park, 'site L' had been added to Murujuga National Park, a Class A reserve had been created over Beeliar Wetlands (Perth), and four Indigenous Landuse Agrrements (ILUAs) were underway for Buccaneer Archipelago Marine Park, Fitzroy River National Park, Matuwa Kurrarra Kurrarra National Park, Lake Mason National Park, Kaluwiri National Park.

Note: When a new national park is created in Western Australia it is a requirement to have an agreement (ILUA) between the Traditional Owners and the State government. Such an agreement involves joint management of the new national park between Traditional Owners and DBCA.

It was also reported in June 2020 that; expansions of one national park (Wellington National Park) and one regional park (Preston River to Ocean and Leschenault Regional Park - to be renamed Greater Bunbury Regional Park) were progressing, and that Nyinggulu (Ningaloo) coastal reserves draft joint management plan was being prepared.

The remaining proposed additions to the conservation estate included: 

Three new proposed national parks     

• • • • • Fortescue Marsh National Park
        • Giralia National Park (nr Kennedy Range NP)
        • Helena Aurora National Park

One new proposed nature reserve

• • • • • Wanjarri Nature Reserve

One new conservation reserve                 

• • • • • Badimia conservation reserve

Three additions to national parks         

• • • • • Mount Augustus National Park
        • Kennedy Range National Park
        • Shark Bay Terrestrial Reserve

Proposed 'potential' additions to Plan for Our Parks in June 2020

(source: DBCA website, June 2020)

Following the consultation process (with stake-holders and members of the public) during 2019, a further eleven proposals were added to the Plan for Our Parks initiative - primarily to help insure that the WA government would meet its target of adding 5 million hectares to the conservation estate of Western Australia by 2024. One of the new (potential) national parks added was Die Hardy Range National Park. Die Hardy Range is a Banded Ironstone Foramtion (BIF) Range in the Yilgarn ~57km north-west of Helena and Aurora Range, Bungalbin.

The eleven new proposals that were added to Plan for Our Parks in 2020 were:

potential new national parks         

• • • • • Meentheena National Park
        • Thundelarra National Park
        • Die Hardy Range National Park
        • Waldburp National Park
        • Cockburn Range National Park

potential new conservation reserve

• • • • • Wanna Conservation Reserve

potential additions to                                   

• • • • • Karijini National Park
        • Peak Charles National Park
        • Frank Hann National Park

potential to add                                              

• • • • • Quannup to D'Entrecasteaux National Park

potential to reinstate                                     

• • • • • Lake Jasper to D'Entrecasteaux National Park

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Plan for Our Parks was visionary and long overdue

Class A conservation reserves provide the highest level of protection to our Natural Heritage. They occur primarily in the form of Class A national parks, natures reserves and marine parks, though sometimes as other types of reserves or parks. A brief historical summary of the vesting of Class A conservation estate in WA (1980-2018), prior to the Plan for our Parks, is provided below.

Background history of the creation of Class A conservation estate in WA, 1980-2018

- Please note that the information below is as accurate as was currently available (2018), though may not be entirely accurate in regard to the year vested (in some instances may be within a year or two of year indicated).

National Parks^₁ created and vested in Western Australia (WA) during the last 39 years, 1980-2018 have included:

• a total of 46 new national parks,
• 30 of these new national parks were vested in 2004 (or close to), with
• only one national park created since 2005 (Dirk Hartog Island National Park in 2009).

Class A Nature Reserves created and vested in WA during the last 39 years, 1980-2018, have included:

• a total of 249 new Class A nature reserves,
• a number of these were originally vested as Class C reserves than later reclassified as Class A reserves, particulalry in the 1980s.
• only four Class A nature reserves were vested from 2010-2018 (only one since 2015).
• 63 were vested from 2000-2009
• 76 were vested from 1990-1999
• 106 were vested from 1980-1989.

(^₁ marine national parks have not been included in these figures.)

These figures indicate that very little Class A conservation estate had been vested from 2008 to 2018. The Plan for Our Parks WA government initiative can be seen as long overdue and timely.