Environmentalists are rejoicing with a huge tract of land and water in the Northern Territory converted into one of Australia's largest national parks.
Ending weeks of speculation, the NT government on Friday declared over 10,000 square kilometres as the Limmen National Park, including an 880 square kilometre precinct known as Limmen Bight Marine Park.
The new park is about seven times the size of the NT's
Litchfield National Park and half the size of
Kakadu.
It includes beaches, forests,
rock art and unusual geological formations.
As a nod to miners hoping to exploit the area's vast mineral wealth, about 20 per cent of the land originally proposed for the park was excised from the plans, although this may be added back later if it is not considered worth mining.
Stuart Blanch from Environment Centre NT welcomed the declaration of the new park, saying the the government had taken a 'very big step'.
Campaigner with the Australian Marine Conservation Society in
Darwin, Jess Abrahams, said the new marine park was 'an important next step and only the second marine park in NT waters,'.
According to US-based Pew Environment Group, the declaration ends 10 years of inaction in protecting outback Australia.
'Today's announcement represents a breakthrough for not just the Northern Territory but Northern Australia as
well,' said Patrick O'Leary from the group.
Mr O'Leary was critical of a chunk of the proposed park being set aside for mining interests.
'We may be in the middle of a mining boom but there are also many natural
places that are simply too important to dig up,' he said.
The Marra people, traditional owners of land, have had their calls to protect the environmentally and culturally sensitive Maria Island answered.
Last year a delegation of Marra elders gave the NT parliament a petition calling for Western Desert Resources not to pipe slurry to the island for processing.
The island will be rolled into the new national park and surrounded by the marine park.
NT Parks and Wildlife Minister Karl
Hampton says the new park will make it very hard for Western Desert to build the pipeline.
'It is a park for the 21st century and provides certainty for everyone,' he told reporters.
'We know that we need to drive economic development ... but we need to protect the environment and those cultural assets as
well.'
Executive director of the NT division of the Minerals Council of Australia, Peter Stewart, has been critical of what he claims was a lack of consultation with his organisation during the lead-up to Friday's announcement.