Kakadu is 'Kakadon't': report
February 24, 2005 - 2:51PM
A scathing report has found iconic
Kakadu National Park seriously lacking in its role as a tourist drawcard.
The long-awaited Morse report into the future of the world
heritage-listed site found perceived limiting of access to sections of the park, patchy information and signage and a negative local public image was holding back the stunning reserve.
Other weaknesses included limited Aboriginal involvement, an "inadequate sense of arrival", poor quality of some tour operators and long-held tension between the federal and NT governments.
Key stakeholders yesterday pre-empted the damning report by releasing their historic new 10-year "vision" for the park, signalling a new era of cooperation between traditional owners, the NT and federal governments and tour operators.
The vision aims to lift tourist numbers by up to 50 per cent, focusing on Aboriginal tourism experiences and storytelling.
Proposals include creating an annual or biennial cultural festival, night wildlife tours and night sky talks on Aboriginal interpretation of the stars, and bush tucker tours.
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The Morse report contained 71 recommendations, finding a history of miscommunication between stakeholders, and an overall lack of involvement in tourism by Aboriginal people.
Annual visitor numbers have dwindled from 240,000 to 170,000 over the past decade, amid global uncertainty and a lack of sustained tourism development.
Just five per cent of visitors to the park are from the NT.
Northern Territory Chief Minister
Clare Martin said the park had been hurt by local negative sentiment, illustrated by the long-held phrase among Territorians: "Kakadon't".
"It has been very damaging for
Kakadu, and that's one of the delightful things about where we are now, that we do have all partners involved in building the tourism capacity of
Kakadu," Ms Martin said.
"Territorians have to feel more involved, greater ownership, wanting to go more often to
Kakadu and I think we can do that."
Tourism Top End committee member Graeme Lewis said the diminishing access to areas of the park was a problem.
"The fact is that
Kakadu has been more and more progressively locked up over the years," Mr Lewis said.
"When I first came to the territory 30 years ago I could go anywhere in
Kakadu and I saw some wonderful
places that I'm now just not allowed to go to.
"If that's an issue that can be addressed out of this report that will be wonderful because some of those
places are more magnificent than anything we are allowed to go to now."
Traditional owners' board representative Russell Cubillo said any decision on whether or when new sites would be opened up would be a matter for traditional Aboriginal landowners.
However, he said more focus should be placed on expanding the tourism opportunities in the
places that were already available.