Will the Basin Plan save the Darling River?

Bev Smiles, President, Inland Rivers Network

The Murray Darling Basin Plan, gazetted in November 2012, has a budget of $13 billion to fund a new direction for water management and water sharing in one of the world’s largest river basins. It is the most expensive natural resource management project in the nation.

500 landholders ask – ‘Who’s living on my land?’

Margot Law, Citizen Science Officer National Parks Association of NSW

NPA’s “Who’s living on my land?” is an innovative citizen science project that helps regional private landholders discover what species are on their property. We have trained more than 500 landholders, at 32 regional workshops over the last three and a half years, to survey their land for wildlife with infrared cameras, which we loan out to participants.

Protecting NSW’s ‘Biodiversity Highway’

Catherine Merchant, member of National Parks Association of NSW

The controlled movement of stock across Australia via a “veritable maze”[1] of public stock routes is a uniquely Australian phenomenon. This “maze” is particularly evident in NSW where some droving continues. What remains of the Travelling Stock Routes and Reserves network (TSR network) in NSW[2] is a valuable public asset that must be preserved. Its enduring protection has been an important aspect of NPA’s 60 years of conservation advocacy work.

Featured Dive: Shiprock

John Turnbull, Member, National Parks Association of NSW

1966. A small, nondescript bend in the river at Port Hacking is coming to prominence as a remarkably diverse area with particularly high conservation values. In the words of Clarrie Lawler, Secretary of Underwater Research Group of NSW at the time, the “combination of a deep submarine cliff, strong currents and unpolluted water have resulted in an extremely rich growth of marine invertebrates with a resulting large population of fishes… During the early months of 1965 (we) began diving this area and were astonished at the profusion of marine fauna given the seemingly ordinary estuarine situation”.

NPA NSW Welcomes New CEO

We are delighted to welcome Ms Alix Goodwin as new CEO of the National Parks Association of NSW.

Alix follows in the footsteps of Kevin Evans, who has held the post since 2009. Kevin finished up on Friday, 4th August, and is moving on to take up exciting new ventures in the beautiful Bellinger Valley area of northern NSW. We greatly appreciate his work and commitment over the past seven and a half years, and wish him all the best for the future.