The Matuwa Kurrara Kurrara National Park and Lake Carnegie Nature Reserve will cover more than 800,000 hectares of Martu Country in the Goldfields region and will protect unique biodiversity and significant cultural heritage sites.
The new national park and reserve will safeguard Martu Aboriginal culture, native animals and plants found nowhere else, including 480 plant species and the elusive and critically endangered night parrot.
The Matuwa Kurrara Kurrara National Park is also the centre of one of Australia's biggest threatened animal translocation projects and has been vital in helping rehabilitate our unique and native threatened species like the bilby, brushtail possum, mala, golden bandicoot, Shark Bay mouse and wedge-tail eagle.
The national park will help Tarlka Matuwa Piarku Aboriginal Corporation and Martu Traditional Owners to protect and manage their Country, and create tourism and economic development opportunities on Martu Country.
This is a historic milestone in the McGowan Government's Plan for Our Parks initiative and will have long-lasting benefits for people and nature.
Today we congratulate Martu Traditional Owners, Tarlka Matuwa Piarku Aboriginal Corporation and the WA Government for creating this new national park! Help celebrate this win by sending a message of support to the Premier, Environment Minister and Aboriginal Affairs Minister!
Photo: Lake Carnegie Nature Reserve. Credit: Bill Kruse