One million outback station hectares turned into national parks

Since 2015, National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS) has purchased eight large stations, which equates to 946,861ha.

This includes the latest, the station of Thurloo Downs - the largest ever single parcel of land (437,394ha) acquired for this purpose, bought last year for the national park estate in NSW.

While the government says the purchases have not been driven by carbon offsets, some stakeholders say otherwise.

The Land asked whether the stations had been purchased for carbon offsets in which a NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) spokesperson simply said "no".

The Pastoralists' Association of West Darling (PAWD) says vendors were fully entitled to "sell to whoever they please" in order to maximise returns from the sale of their property.

But PAWD is concerned removing agricultural land from production in the name of conservation threw up a number of problems that needed to be managed and minimised, including impact to the local economy.

"There is an obligation on the government to adequately resource the NPWS locally so that losses in agricultural production are replaced by economic activity generated by the new parks," PAWD councillor Lachlan Gall said.

"This includes creating new jobs, building infrastructure, controlling pests and attracting tourists.

"Every time a property is purchased by the government they talk up the boost to local tourism the new park will create, but there's little evidence of that occurring."

He said tourists actively avoided travelling on unsealed roads, so sealing the Mutawintji Road and The Cut Line between Wanaaring and Tibooburra would go a long way towards increasing park visitation.

"Equally, NPWS has to build tourist infrastructure on new parks. Nobody wants to visit a park where there's nothing to see, nothing to do and nowhere to stay," he said.

PAWD also has broader concerns with feral animal and weed infestations in parks, with kangaroos moving out of parks to drink and graze.

They say upkeep of boundary fences and biosecurity issues associated with the movement of tourists through the landscape were also problems raised by affected pastoralists.

Mr Gall said there was also irritation NPWS did not pay Border Fence Management Board and Local Land Services rates, which reduced the financial capacity of these organisations to deliver their respective duties that were critically important to agriculture in the west of the state.

A NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) spokesperson said: "The land purchased by NPWS was purchased because it contained important conservation values - for example, habitats not protected in other national parks, threatened species and cultural heritage."

"There are a small number of properties owned by NPWS where we have inherited a carbon project from previous owners or established a carbon project after purchase. However, carbon has never been the driver for an acquisition," the spokesperson said.

In response to pastoralist's concerns, the spokesperson said NPWS undertook feral animal control, weed control and other land management activities using its own funding.

"For example, NPWS is undertaking the largest feral animal control program in its history including almost tripling the historic level of aerial shooting and a massive increase in aerial baiting," the spokesperson said.

"For this reason, national parks do not receive support from Local Land Services and are therefore exempt from LLS rates, which are used instead to provide a range of services to private landholders."

From July 1, 2023, to April 30, 2024, NPWS has undertaken 1077 hours of aerial shooting and 18,320 kilometres of aerial baiting across NSW.

The spokesperson added national parks were a major driver for tourism, which it pointed to figures from 2022 that showed more than 468,000 visitor nights were spent camping in western NSW national parks.

When asked whether there were more acquisitions the government was eyeing off, the spokesperson said NPWS does not comment on commercial negotiations.

NPWS land acquisitions focus on addressing conservation gaps and needs in the national parks system. Current drivers for private land acquisition include: