Watarrka Nationwide Park, the enduring and dramatic panorama between Uluru-Kata Tjuta Nationwide Park and Mpwarnte/Alice Springs within the Northern Territory, has been added to Australia’s Nationwide Heritage Checklist.
The inclusion, formally inscribed in June 2024, acknowledges Watarkka’s excellent significance to Australia’s tradition and setting and its place as a dwelling cultural panorama for the standard homeowners, Anangu ngurraritja.
Areas included on the Nationwide Heritage Checklist are protected below the Surroundings Safety and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), the Australian Authorities’s nationwide setting regulation.
Why is Watarkka Nationwide Park important?
Eponymous for Watarkka/Kings Canyon, the nationwide park options dry, pink landscapes and large sandstone cliffs, with contemporary waterholes, considerable vegetation and 360 million-year-old rocks.
‘Out-of-this-world’, and ‘breathtaking’ are phrases our writers have used to explain their time there. The richly biodiverse panorama throughout the George Hill Vary is house to 690 species of native vegetation, together with a group of uncommon and endangered species, comparable to Amperea spicata (George Hill Vary cliff-bush), discovered solely within the space.
For Anangu ngurraritja, Watarrka is the bodily illustration of Tjukurrpa/the Dreaming, when ancestral beings introduced the world into existence. They proceed to watch and follow conventional regulation, ceremonies, and enterprise on these sacred grounds, as has been accomplished for hundreds of years.
Visiting Watarkka Nationwide Park
Even when you’ve by no means visited, chances are you’ll be aware of Watarkka’s iconic scenes from the 1994 Australian basic, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the place the central characters accomplished the Rim Stroll wearing drag.
Since then, the realm has risen in reputation and visitation; seeing greater than 250,000 guests annually, based on the Division of Local weather Change, Vitality, the Surroundings and Water. These days, Aboriginal-led cultural excursions, dawn hikes, artwork installations, and helicopter rides are just a few methods to expertise the magic of Watarrka.
Wartarkka is 320km southwest of Mpwarnte/Alice Springs, the closest township and home airport.
Characteristic picture by Tourism NT/Mitchell Cox
