conservation – National Parks Association of NSW

Swimming holes: the crossroad between conservation and recreation

Posted by NPA NSWon May 29, 2025May 29, 2025in Winter 2025Leave a comment

Dr Jonathon Howard, NPA Executive

New South Wales offers an abundance of stunning natural swimming spots. There is Nellies Glen in Budderoo National Park, Karloo Pools in Royal NP, as well as Glenbrook Gorge and Jellybean Pool in the Blue Mountains NP. Within our parks are a myriad of waterfalls, lagoons, lakes, creeks, and rivers, to enjoy. While they may attract crowds of people keen on water-based recreation, some of the relatively deep pools may be the only habitat that retain water throughout the year for our wildlife, which makes them important refuges for freshwater biota. So how do we balance recreation and conservation of these site?

A watching eye

Posted by NPA NSWon February 26, 2025February 25, 2025in Autumn 2025Leave a comment

Gary Dunnett, CEO, NPA NSW

Over Christmas I took a walk to one of my favourite birding sites, Merries Reef near Cronulla. Small groups of Red Knot and Ruddy Turnstones were flitting along the water’s edge. Red Knot are all about probing into crevices and under rocks in search of crabs and other small invertebrates. Turnstones have a shorter, stout beak they use as a crowbar to lever chitons and other molluscs off the reef. Both species seem unperturbed by the waves hitting the reef, frequently disappearing from view in the froth and spray.

Protecting Nature’s Gifts

Posted by NPA NSWon August 31, 2022in Spring 2022Leave a comment

Dr Graeme L. Worboys AM is a former Honorary Associate Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University & Bruce Gall is a former Director of the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service.

This is the fifth article in an 8-part series discussing our nature’s gifts.

In our previous article on Ranger Guardians, we looked at how rangers manage and protect our nature’s gifts in parks and reserves. In this article, we take a wider view of conserving nature and consider international factors that drive this protection.

Australia ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1993. It is the most wide-ranging of Australia’s environmental treaties, covering all our biodiversity. Importantly, the CBD is legally binding; parties to the convention are obliged to implement its provisions.

Conventions can only be joined by a national government, which is usually also responsible for implementing them. Not so in Australia, where, in respect of the CBD, states and territories have prime responsibility for the protection and management of our nature’s gifts.

Read More “Protecting Nature’s Gifts”

Nature’s Gifts – Series Introduction

Posted by NPA NSWon August 31, 2021August 30, 2021in Spring 2021Leave a comment

Bruce Gall is a former Director of the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Our national anthem, Advance Australia Fair, has weathered much criticism over the years. That unfashionable phrase, girt by sea, has had many detractors, and in 2020, the word young was replaced with one to make the anthem more inclusive, especially for First Australians.

Re-Wilding in Review

Posted by NPA NSWon May 31, 2021in Winter 2021Leave a comment

Gary Dunnett, Executive Officer, NPA NSW

Re-wilding emerged on the Australian conservation scene atop John Wamsley’s feral-cat skinned hat. Despite all the attention on killing cats and foxes, the core concept of rewilding is gentle simplicity itself – remove the competitors to native species, stop them from coming back, then give nature the chance to take care of itself.

Why then, more than fifty years later, are we still grappling with whether re-wilding has a place in the NSW Protected Area Network? I suspect the answer lies in our continuing unease about whether the environmental impacts of introducing hard barriers into ‘natural’ landscapes outweigh the environmental benefits of controlling feral species and re-introducing locally extinct wildlife.

Mutawintji reservation delivers on multiple fronts

Posted by NPA NSWon September 5, 2019September 5, 2019in Media ReleasesLeave a comment

The National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) has warmly welcomed a 57,000 hectare addition to NSW’s reserve network. The new park, purchased by the Mutawintji Board of Management, joins Mutawintji Nature Reserve, National Park and Historic Site to create a complex of conservation lands of over 132,000 hectares.