Caring for our Country

National Reserve System

Paroo darling

Paroo darling

Video introduction

The Paroo Darling National Park is a blend of seven properties totalling 230,000 hectares fronting on to the last unregulated river in the Murray Darling Basin. The park was purchased between 2000 and 2003 by the New South Wales Government, with help from the National Reserve System Program.

The development of the National Park and the conservation work involved opened the floodgates for environmental benefits far downstream. A secure reserve with healthy wetlands and river reaches helps to retain soil moisture, keep the water table down and prevent salinity, which is a major problem across much of the Basin. Maintaining native plant cover also helps control erosion, avoiding the loss of precious topsoil into the river.

 

 

 

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Transcript

Virginia Angell, Landholder:
My name is Virginia Angell. I live on a property which joins the Paroo Darling National Park, on a grazing property.

Shirley Meyer, New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service:
We are surrounded by people who produce mainly wool and meat. They are very resilient, our farmers out here.
I think the Paroo is touted to be one of the very few unregulated rivers in Australia, on the continent. It's a big river.
So therefore it's pretty important in terms of wetlands. It's also important to the grazing communities because of the nutrients and the sediments that come down.

Bill Hoskins, Local Tourism Council:
It is a lovely place to go to, in good times and bad times. It's good to see it when it's good, with the lake full now, and it's good to see it when there's nothing there and it's as bare as the road. In the long run, it will be good for the town.

Shirley Meyer, New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service:
I think, in the establishment phase of the park, a lot of consultation was done particularly with pastoralists. So it basically de-mystified the process and it wasn't this strange set of green people coming in doing strange things.
We've been really fortunate with good neighbour relations and cooperation with boundary fencing, goat management, all that sort of stuff. And I think it's because we keep that information flow going that we sort of win.

Bill Hoskins, Local Tourism Council:
It's good that the Government has made the decision to secure those stations for their parks, because the areas that they selected did have unique features that should be preserved.

Virginia Angell, Landholder:
I have to be really honest and say that we've really never had any problem. It has made no difference to our management. They've been very co-operative and we've definitely never had a problem with them as being a neighbour.