Protection for Cape Melville

A new project at Cape Melville will improve signage and manage access to protect the unique plants and animals in the popular national park.

The rugged land is jointly managed by the Cape Melville, Flinders and Howick Islands Aboriginal Corporation and the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Coordinated by Cape York NRM, the project is in response to increased creation of informal tracks, together with illegal camping and illegal harvesting of coastal vegetation for firewood, as well as damage being caused by feral animals.

“Cape Melville has a huge influx of visitors every year, being so beautiful and one of those more accessible parks on the east coast,” Biodiversity Project officer James Dobson said.

“And those huge numbers of visitors aren’t always sticking to designated tracks, they’re making tracks into sensitive coastal ecosystems like littoral rainforests and dune systems. The funding will enable rangers to go in and put up signage and barriers to prevent access to these sensitive areas.” 

“So we’re coming in from two directions,” James said. “My side of the project will be specifically blocking off tracks that lead to areas of littoral rainforests.”

This Biodiversity Bright Spots work required littoral rainforest surveying, which included a week of training with four Traditional Owner rangers in flora survey techniques, led by JCU botanist Dr James Hill. 

The training surveying was completed last week and was a great success, according to Cape York NRM fire coordinator Andrew Drenan. 

“We learned about survey methodology and identifying the littoral rainforest community and the dominant plants therein,” Andrew said. 

“The littoral rainforests were found to be in good condition, but under threats including cattle, wind and storm erosion, and human impact such as unauthorised bush campsites.”

The coastal ecosystems side of the funding is being managed by Cape York NRM’s Coastal Ecosystems Coordinator David Preece, who will be assisting Traditional Owners in establishing fence-lines for riparian areas on coastal wetlands.

Cape Melville National Park (Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land) features the rocky headlands of Cape Melville, granite boulders of the Melville Range, sandy beaches of Bathurst Bay, sandstone escarpments and inland dunes.

The Traditional Owners include the Aba Yalgayi, Muli, Bagaarrmugu, Wurri, Manyamarr, Gambiilmugu and Yiirrku Aboriginal peoples.

The park is isolated and many plants and animals, such as the foxtail palm, are found only in the park and nowhere else in the world.

“And it’s more than just coastal vegetation,” Dave said. All sorts of creatures rely on the ecosystems, for example, the Torresian imperial pigeon (Ducula spilorrhoa), which is a significant cultural indicator of seasonal change and also a food source; fruit bat species - all sorts. It’s a very unique ecosystem and rainforest so comes with a unique assemblage of fauna.”

The National Park is recognised as a very popular area with visitors. While these sensitive areas are being protected, there are still plenty of tracks open and designated camping areas for visitors to enjoy the beautiful beaches. (QPWS has more information on their website) https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/cape-melville/camping

Rangers have already planned where the new infrastructure will go and the work is expected to be completed before this year’s wet season.

This project is supported by Cape York NRM, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program and Reef Trust 7 Program.