Plan of Management Sturt National Park © 2018 State of NSW and the Office of Environment and Heritage With the exception of photographs, the State of NSW and the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) are pleased to allow this material to be reproduced in whole or in part for educational and non-commercial use, provided the meaning is unchanged and its source, publisher and authorship are acknowledged. Specific permission is required for the reproduction of photographs. OEH has compiled this publication in good faith, exercising all due care and attention. No representation is made about the accuracy, completeness or suitability of the information in this publication for any particular purpose. OEH shall not be liable for any damage that may occur to any person or organisation taking action or not on the basis of this publication. All content in this publication is owned by OEH and is protected by Crown Copyright. It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) , subject to the exemptions contained in the licence. The legal code for the licence is available at Creative Commons . OEH asserts the right to be attributed as author of the original material in the following manner: © State of New South Wales and Office of Environment and Heritage 2018. This plan of management was adopted by the Minister for the Environment on 23 January 2018. Acknowledgments OEH acknowledges that Sturt is in the traditional Country of the Wangkumara and Malyangapa people. This plan of management was prepared by staff of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), part of OEH. For additional information or any enquiries about this plan of management or Sturt, contact the NPWS Tibooburra Office in Briscoe Street, Tibooburra, NSW 2880 or by telephone on (08) 8091 3308. Front cover: View from Jump-up Lookout, Sturt National Park. Photo credit: D Haskard, NPWS. Published by: Office of Environment and Heritage 59–61 Goulburn Street, Sydney NSW 2000 PO Box A290, Sydney South NSW 1232 Phone: (02) 9995 5000 (switchboard) Phone: 131 555 (environment information and publications requests) Phone: 1300 361 967 (national parks, climate change and energy efficiency information and publications requests) Fax: (02) 9995 5999 TTY: (02) 9211 4723 Email: [email protected] Website: www.environment.nsw.gov.au Report pollution and environmental incidents: Environment Line: 131 555 (NSW only) or [email protected] See also www.environment.nsw.gov.au/pollution ISBN 978-1-76039-991-7 OEH 2018/0081 Sturt National Park Plan of Management, January 2018 This plan has been printed on recycled paper ii iii Blank page iv Contents 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Location, reservation and regional setting ........................................................... 1 1.2 Statement of significance..................................................................................... 2 2. MANAGEMENT CONTEXT .......................................................................................... 4 2.1 Legislative and policy framework ......................................................................... 4 2.2 Management purposes and principles ................................................................. 4 2.3 Specific management directions .......................................................................... 5 3. VALUES ....................................................................................................................... 6 3.1 Geology, landscape and hydrology ...................................................................... 6 3.2 Native plants and animals.................................................................................. 10 3.3 Aboriginal connections to Country ..................................................................... 20 3.4 Historic heritage ................................................................................................ 23 3.5 Visitor use ......................................................................................................... 28 3.6 Information, education and research ................................................................. 40 4. THREATS................................................................................................................... 43 4.1 Pests ................................................................................................................. 43 4.2 Fire .................................................................................................................... 48 4.3 Climate change ................................................................................................. 49 4.4 Traversing the park with stock and domestic animals ........................................ 51 5. MANAGEMENT OPERATIONS AND OTHER USES ................................................. 53 5.1 NPWS management facilities and operations .................................................... 53 5.2 Non-NPWS access and operations ................................................................... 58 6. IMPLEMENTATION .................................................................................................... 61 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 67 v TABLES Table 1: Threatened and significant native plant species recorded or predicted to occur in Sturt .......................................................................................................... 13 Table 2: Threatened and significant native animal species recorded in Sturt ....................... 14 Table 3: Visitor experiences and facilities ............................................................................ 30 Table 4: Walking opportunities in Sturt ................................................................................ 33 Table 5: Weeds and pest animals recorded in Sturt ............................................................. 43 Table 6: Far West Region climate change snapshot ............................................................ 49 Table 7: List of management responses .............................................................................. 61 FIGURES Figure 1: Fort Grey visitor precinct and Lake Pinaroo ............................................................ 8 Figure 2: Dead Horse Gully visitor precinct .......................................................................... 37 Figure 3: Mount Wood visitor precinct .................................................................................. 38 Figure 4: Olive Downs visitor precinct .................................................................................. 39 Figure 5: Sturt location map .......................................................................... inside back cover vi 1. Introduction 1.1 Location, reservation and regional setting Features Description Sturt National Park Location Sturt National Park (also referred to as ‘Sturt’ or ‘the park’ in this plan) is located in the far north-west corner of New South Wales, approximately 330 kilometres north of Broken Hill and 400 kilometres west of Bourke (see Figure 5 inside back cover). The park extends to the north, east and west of the town of Tibooburra (population fluctuating between 85 and about 150 people) and is bordered by Queensland to the north and South Australia to the west. The park was named after Charles Sturt, the first recorded non- Aboriginal person to explore this region. Area The reserved area of Sturt National Park totals 325,329 hectares. The park also includes unreserved land known as the Warratta Paddock, which is vested in the Minister under Part 11 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974. This land comprises 12,391 hectares and is leased for the purpose of grazing. Reservation date The first section of the park was reserved in 1972. It has been progressively added to since. Previous tenure Sturt was formed from six former Western Lands leases (or parts thereof) issued under the Western Lands Act 1901 in the Western Division of New South Wales. These were Fort Grey, Binerah Downs, Olive Downs, Mount King, Whitta Brinnah and Mount Wood, and were acquired progressively since 1968. Although Whitta Brinnah has been managed as park since the initial reservation, it was not reserved until the expiry of mineral and mining interests in 2003. Regional context Biogeographic Sturt lies across two bioregions (Thackway & Cresswell 1995): region • the Simpson–Strzelecki Dunefields Bioregion in the west and north-west of the park (approximately 40% by area) • the Channel Country Bioregion in the central and eastern sections of the park (approximately 60% by area). 1 Features Description Surrounding At its main entrance from the south, the park abuts the town common of land use Tibooburra which is managed by the Tibooburra Common Trust under the Commons Management Act 1989. On its NSW borders, Sturt is surrounded by sheep and cattle grazing on Western Lands leases. Pastoral land in South Australia and Queensland is separated from the park by the Dog Fence (or Dingo Fence) constructed during the 1880s. Two Crown reserves associated with Charles Sturt’s exploration, which are also managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), adjoin the Part 11 land. Sturts Cairn reserve is 129.5 hectares and Pooles Grave reserve is 0.4 hectares. The nearest NSW parks