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Vision

To excel in the natural and cultural heritage management of Booderee by acknowledging and utilising traditional and scientific expertise.

Key Objectives

To conserve the biodiversity and cultural heritage of the Park;

To provide for the appreciation and quiet enjoyment of the Park; and

To benefit future generations of members of the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community.

Foreword

We believe visitors and all those connected with Booderee National Park recognise it as a very important and special part of Australia’s heritage which needs careful management and cooperation between all interested parties.  It is home to the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community, it is a National Park with considerable cultural and biological significance, and it is a valued destination for numerous visitors.

The management plan, which will be the first for the Park, will set out how the Park will be managed over the next seven years.  First, however, this draft is being published to enable public comment and input.  We encourage public submissions on the draft plan or specific provisions in order to achieve a plan which protects the interests of the Park’s owners, the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council, provides for the conservation of the Park’s precious resources, and best meets the needs and aspirations of the wider community.

Public comment has already been taken into account in developing this draft management plan.  In response to invitations in 1997, some 49 submissions were received.  The Board of Management has carefully considered those submissions and a wide range of management issues.

With a sense of excitement, responsibility and pride, we present for public comment this first draft management plan for Booderee National Park.  We look forward to receiving many contributions which will enhance the value of the finalised management plan which we shall present to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage for tabling in the Federal Parliament, together with the comments we receive and how these have been addressed in the final plan.

Annette Brown Peter Cochrane   

Chair Director of National Parks

Booderee National Park

    Board of Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOreword 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

WRECK BAY ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY COUNCIL VISION STATEMENT 

 DESCRIPTION OF BOODEREE NATIONAL PARK 

Booderee — a unique place 

Natural Features 

History 

Significance 

Booderee – a centre of management excellence 

Key issues for the Wreck Bay Community 

 DRAFT Management Plan for Booderee National Park 

Part 1 — Introductory Provisions 

1.1 Short title 

1.2 Commencement and Termination

1.3 Interpretation 

1.4 Legislative Context 

1.5 Purpose and Content of a Management Plan 

1.6 IUCN World Conservation Union Category 

Part 2 – How the Park will be Managed 

2 Decision making 

2.1 Consulting and Making Decisions

2.2 IUCN Categorisation and Zoning 

2.3 Evaluation of Proposals 

3. Telling people about the park 

4. Cultural heritage management 

5. Natural heritage management 

5.1 Landscape and Geology

5.2 Marine and Freshwater Management 

5.3 Fire 

5.4 Native Plants and Animals 

5.5 Introduced Species 

6. The Booderee Botanic Gardens

Objectives for the Booderee Botanic Gardens

6.1 Living Collection and Natural Vegetation Management 

6.2 Nursery Management 

6.3 Management of Lake McKenzie

6.4 Weed Management in the Gardens

6.5 Pest and Pathogen Management 

6.6 Scientific Use 

6.7. Herbarium Management 

6.8 Information, Education and Interpretation 

6.9 Relationship with Australian National Botanic Gardens

6.10 Relationship with Other Botanic Gardens and Other Institutions 

7. Visitor and recreation management 

7.1 Visitor Use 

7.2 Camping

7.3 Walking

7.4 Swimming, Snorkelling and SCUBA Diving 

7.5 Boating 

7.6 Recreational Fishing and Collecting Activities 

8. Commercial activities management 

8.1 General 

8.2 Tours

8.3 Commercial Fishing 

8.4 Other Commercial Activities 

9. Administration 

9.1 Operational Management

9.2 Resource Use in Park Operations 

9.3 Capital Works and Infrastructure 

9.4 Access and Roads

9.5 Essential Services

9.6 Staffing

9.7 Training 

9.8 Compliance and Enforcement 

9.9 Financial Management

9.10 Leaseholds and Other Occupancy Issues

9.11 Neighbour Relations

10. Research and monitoring

11. Evaluation of performance

PART 3 – MISCELLANEOUS 

Appendix 1 — Significant Species 

Flora 

Fauna 

International treaties and agreements 

Appendix 2 — Australian IUCN reserve management principles (extract) 

Bibliography

INDEX 

    List of Figures

Figures 1.1  & 1.2  – Location of Booderee National Park 

Figure 1.3 – Booderee National Park 

Figure 2.1  – Zoning

Figure 6.1  Booderee Botanic Gardens

List of Tables

Table 1 Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Timeline 4

Table 2.1   Description of zones 29

Table 2.2   Types of activities appropriate to zones 30

Table 3.1  Interpretation & Information Matrix  36

Table 9.1   Routine Operations  96

WRECK BAY ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY COUNCIL VISION STATEMENT

‘Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council seeks to be a respected equal and valued part of a culturally diverse Australian society.  By controlling and managing its own lands and waters, the Community aims to become self sufficient and able to freely determine its future and lifestyle.  The Community desires to do this by protecting its interests and values while preserving for future generations, its unique identity, heritage and culture.’

To achieve this vision Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Council’s Goals are:

• Sole ownership of all lands and waters within the Jervis Bay Territory.
• Sole management of its freehold land and waters, allowing for Community responsibility, empowerment and self determination.
• Sole representation of the Community’s united and democratically agreed interests, at all levels of Government and in all external dealings so as to protect Community and members rights.
• Environmentally sustainable development, to allow a productive economic base for the Community. By managing Booderee as an ongoing park, the Community seeks to protect the land and waters while earning income, creating jobs and achieving financial security.
• Social and cultural development, linked with appropriate cultural training and education, to improve Community empowerment and management, security and wellbeing, while preserving Community value.
• Improved health, housing and living standards, to levels at least comparable with good practice in other Australian communities.
• Recognition and support from the wider Australian community and Government, to achieve these worthwhile and positive goals.

DESCRIPTION OF BOODEREE NATIONAL PARK

Booderee — a unique place

Booderee National Park is located on the south-east coast of Australia, within the Jervis Bay Territory (Fig 1.1).  It comprises most of the Bherwerre Peninsula (Bherwerre means a large area of water), on the southern side of Jervis Bay and St Georges Basin, and includes part of the waters of Jervis Bay (Fig 1.2).

Natural Features

Geological

The underlying rock of the Bherwerre Peninsula is Permian sandstone of the southern Sydney Basin, about 260 million years old.  Near Vincentia and in a few small areas on the Peninsula there is evidence of an ancient landscape, Tertiary or older (more than 2 million years old), which overlaid the Permian rocks.  About 130,000 years ago the sea was close to its present level but the Bherwerre Peninsula was probably quite different in shape from now.  During the last ice age, 20–15,000 years ago, the sea level was about 120 metres lower than it is now, and the coastline was about 20 kilometres further east, near the edge of the continental shelf.  Jervis Bay was an open, vegetated valley more than 90 metres above sea level, with Currambene Creek flowing between what are now Bowen Island and Beecroft Peninsula.  The landscape as we know it, with its present coastline, dates from the stabilisation of the sea level about 6,000 years ago, after the ice age. Most of the surface of the Peninsula and Bowen Island is Quaternary sediments — sand dunes, swamp deposits and alluvium — younger than 10,000 years, overlying the Permian sandstone.  The present shape of the Peninsula is due partly to the Permian rock and partly to the post-glacial deposits.

Climatic

Being coastal, temperature extremes are rare at Jervis Bay.  Maximum temperatures range from an average of 24C in February to 16C in July, while average minimum temperatures range from 18C to 9.5C respectively.  Annual rainfall is approximately 1200 mm, which is relatively evenly distributed throughout the year, although there is usually more rain in June and July and less in spring.

The prevailing winds in summer are north-easterly, while the main winter winds are from the south-west, but a clear diurnal cycle in wind patterns is superimposed on the seasonal changes.

Biological

The Park contains a diverse range of well preserved coastal plant communities including remnant rainforest, heath communities, woodland and coastal littoral communities.  More than 600 species of naturally occurring terrestrial plants have been recorded.  But Jervis Bay also has some of the largest and most pristine seagrass meadows on the NSW coast.  Seagrass meadows affect physical and chemical processes and play major roles in the biology of coastal ecosystems.

Some 26 native terrestrial mammal species have been recorded in Booderee, though more are expected to occur there, and 13 marine mammal species.  There is a diverse bird fauna with some 200 species recorded.  In addition to 17 species of terrestrial reptiles, two species of marine turtle and one sea snake species have been recorded.  There are also 15 amphibian species.  At least 308 fish and marine macroinvertebrate taxa were recorded during shallow water surveys in Jervis Bay.  The macrobenthic infauna of the Bay encompasses more than 500 species, including more than 150 polychaete species, 190 molluscs and 180 crustaceans.

History

Booderee is a Koori owned place.  It is home to the people of Wreck Bay Community.  It holds the evidence of the traditional owners’ ancestry, and with the wind, the water and all life reflected in the past, it is the home and spirit of the Wreck Bay people.  Koori people are born of the land and have lived off the land forever.

Aboriginal people lived in this region long before the sea rose to its current level and the present Bherwerre Peninsula was created.  The oldest archaeological evidence of Aboriginal occupation in the region includes a site at Burrill Lake, about 30 kilometres south of Jervis Bay, dating to more than 20,000 years ago.  At that time, the coastline would have been about 20 kilometres east of the present coast, and evidence of coastal Aboriginal communities would have been submerged as sea levels rose to the present level.

More than 100 prehistoric Aboriginal sites have been recorded on the Bherwerre Peninsula, some probably dating back to the stabilisation of the sea level about 6000 years ago.  The majority are shell middens, but there are also rock shelters, burial sites, ceremonial grounds, stone-flaking sites and axe-sharpening grooves.  The distribution of these recorded sites emphasises the importance of the eastern end of Wreck Bay.  The high density of midden sites here mirrors the preferred fishing zones of the present Community.  Ceremonial bunan or bora grounds are known only from the immediate hinterland of this section of Wreck Bay, and nearly all known grinding groove sites are in the catchments of Mary and Summercloud Bays.

Early historical records describe meetings between explorers and Kooris in the area.  In the 1830s the impact of settlement led to a significant reduction in the Koori population as groups were marginalised and their lands expropriated.  Aboriginal reserves were established during the late 1800s and, with time, the sizes of the reservations were reduced or the reserves revoked as the demand for coastal lands grew.

Despite the continuing pressure of settlement in the area, the Wreck Bay settlement was established by Koori initiatives in the early 1900s (Table 1).  They favoured the area because of strong traditional and cultural ties, its closeness to both the bush and the sea for collection of food and other resources, and its distance from non-Aboriginal settlements.  Because of this initiative, Koori cultural practices of the Wreck Bay people have been able to survive.

Koori people of Wreck Bay have always strongly pursued and been committed to the recognition of ownership of their traditional home in the Jervis Bay area.  This commitment and pursuit for recognition has not wavered and has persevered through a number of changes to Government administration and management of the area.

In 1791 Lieutenant Bowen named Jervis Bay after Sir James Jervis, his former naval commander.  European settlement of the district began about 1827.  Construction of the Cape St George lighthouse began in 1854, and the elegant structure was completed in 1856.  Unfortunately the lighthouse was built in the wrong spot, and it came to be regarded as a navigational hazard, resulting in its partial demolition by naval gunnery in the early 1900s.  Harriet Parker, the daughter of an assistant lighthouse keeper, was accidentally shot dead by a friend when they were looking for a horse near Green Patch in 1887.  Her grave is in the Green Patch camping area.

Figures 1.1  & 1.2  – Location of Booderee National Park

Table 1 Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community Timeline

This is an opening excerpt, not the complete document.