National park opens
HABITAT the endangered yellow-bellied glider and Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroo call home has been granted the highest level of protection by the creation of Queensland’s newest national park.
On Friday 1800ha of state forest north of Ravenshoe was officially declared the Tumoulin (Mungurru Wabu) National Park by Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon.
Ecologist Dr John Winter from the Tree Kangaroo and Mammal Group has long advocated to secure protection for the previously logged area that straddles Tumoulin Rd on the doorstep of the Kaban wind farm.
“It’s a gem of a park,” he said.
“It’s has fantastic biodiversity because it goes from rainforest at a fairly high altitude, right down through tall eucalypt
forest to dry eucalypt forest.
“And it’s full of threatened species including greater gliders. It’s got tree kangaroos, yellow-bellied gliders and the magnificent brood frog.
“It’s right on the doorstep of Ravenshoe and nowhere else in the wet tropics can you get such a beautiful transition with that biodiversity.”
The new national park is now open for day use visits
only. Signs are expected to be erected in the next month.
Currently there are no plans by Queensland National Parks to allow camping.
During a visit to Cairns on Friday, Ms Scanlon encouraged visitors to enjoy the Atherton Tableland wildlife and biodiversity at the new national park.
“There’s a lot of threatened species in this national park that we want to make sure we protect,” she said.
“We’ll continue to work with traditional owners and conservation groups around improvements to the park but people can certainly go and visit, it’s a beautiful place.”
Traditional owner Liam Roberts said it had been a two year process to achieve the state forest transfer to a national park that came about due to expiring land tenure at the site.
“We’ve worked to build this, (the transfer to a National Park) will help lead us into a better protected park in the future and all the cultural values will be protected as part of that, as well as all the plants and animals that are in the park,” he said.