Purnululu · Joint Management
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Purnululu · Bungle Bungles · World Heritage

Help support joint management in Purnululu

Purnululu is celebrated the world over for its geology. Its Traditional Owners still have no formal say in how their own Country is managed — even as Traditional Owners now jointly manage nearly half of Western Australia's conservation estate.

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The petition is to the WA Legislative Council. Live in WA? Add your name. Just visiting? Share it with a West Australian who can sign.

Cathedral Gorge, Purnululu National Park  ·  © Matthew Birch Media

A World Heritage Area without a voice

Purnululu is one of a small number of places in Australia recognised for its significance by UNESCO as a World Heritage site, inscribed in 2003. It is internationally recognised and protected for its landscape — but the people whose families have looked after this Country for tens of thousands of years still have no formal role in how Purnululu is managed.

Across Western Australia, 30 Traditional Owner groups now jointly manage 42.8% of the State's conservation estate — some 13.2 million hectares — in partnership with the government (Dept of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, 2024–25). Purnululu, a World Heritage Area, is not among them. A petition to the WA Parliament is asking the State to change that.

More than twenty years ago, Purnululu's own World Heritage nomination set out what was meant to come:

“Today, the visitor to Purnululu National Park has little opportunity to see, to appreciate or to understand these values that are integral to this aspect of the Park. In the future, after … the establishment of a joint management regime and Aboriginal people are able to act as the guides and interpreters of this place, these values and their significance will become an essential and integral component of the visitor experience.”
— Purnululu World Heritage Nomination (Nomination File 1094), 2002
1987
Purnululu National Park is declared, created from the former Ord River reserves. Nearly four decades on, joint management with its Traditional Owners still isn't in place.
2003
UNESCO inscribes Purnululu as a World Heritage site. Still no joint management.
1994–2022
A native title claim is lodged in 1994. 28 years later — December 2022 — the Federal Court recognises the Traditional Owners' native title, including exclusive possession, the strongest form of recognition in Australia, over part of the park. Still no joint management.
2028
A total solar eclipse is expected to bring a major influx of visitors — adding pressure to a park still managed without its Traditional Owners at the table.

Three questions the State hasn't answered

1

Why is there still no joint management? Purnululu has been a national park since 1987, and its original management plan says the estate will be jointly managed. It isn't.

2

Why does the State fund joint management with other Traditional Owners, but commit nothing to the Traditional Owners of a World Heritage Area?

3

Why does Purnululu still run on a management plan dated 1995–2005 — with no relevance to 2026 or the 2022 Native Title determination? How hard is it to fund an update, and does the State really care?

“You can't separate the people from the land.”

Add your voice

Sign the petition →

Every signature supports Traditional Owner input into the management of their Native Title lands in Purnululu. The petition is open until 3 September 2026. If you can't sign, please share this page with someone who can.