KEEP IT WILD
A new website called Keep-It-Wild.org will shine a spotlight on the numerous luxury accommodation developments being proposed within national parks across the country.
Words: Megan Holbeck
(This piece originally appeared in our Green Pages of Wild #186, Summer 2022)
Proposals for new luxury accommodation complexes in national parks are popping up across the country, from the NSW South Coast to Victoria’s Alpine National Park to the Cooloola Great Walk project in Queensland. There are many others, spread from the Northern Territory to Tasmania, the west coast to the east. The trouble is, each of these proposals tends to be seen as its own localised issue, rather than as part of a bigger problem: the shift in focus from protection to profit in our national parks.
“The bigger problem [is] the shift in focus from protection to profit in our national parks”
Regular readers of Wild Magazine will be aware of the many issues with the development of our wild lands for public gain. These include major environmental impacts on land set aside for conservation; loss of social equity; effects on the local, regional and wider economy; and their contravention of national park law. There is generally limited consultation for these proposals, with the whole process shrouded in secrecy.
To combat this, a new website has been launched: Keep-It-Wild.org. It will shine a spotlight on these proposals, showing the scale of the problem and the cultural shift behind them. It will also raise awareness about individual large-scale construction proposals in our parks, help community groups battling these projects, and be a valuable resource for sharing information and resources.
When the website launched in November 2022, keep-it-wild.org listed three proposed large-scale construction projects in our national parks: Victoria’s Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing, Queensland’s Cooloola Great Walk and NSW’s Light to Light Project. We’d love the site to be a comprehensive resource of all similar projects in the country. Please visit the site and sign up to our mailing list to stay informed. If you’re aware of any similar proposals, please get in touch at keep.it.wild.org@gmail.com
Please help us to Keep It Wild.
HERE’S WHAT’S BEING PROPOSED FOR VICTORIA’S FALLS TO HOTHAM CROSSING:
– 4 complexes euphemistically called ‘overnight hubs’, near or at popular—and currently free—camp spots
– Up to 80 new structures in total
– Up to 36 huts
– 31 rentable tent platforms
– 4 large communal shelters for group gathering and cooking, each capable of accommodating up to 50 people