PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA 7 JUNE 1985
JOINT STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER
AND THE PREMIER OF NEW SOUTH WALES
NEW SOUTH WALES RAINFORESTS NOMINATED TO
WORLD HERITAGE LIST
The Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, and the Premier of New South
Wales, Mr Wran, announced today that the New South Wales
rainforests would be nominated to the World Heritage List.
The nomination will be lodged with the Secretariat of the
World Heritage Committee in Paris and will be considered by
this UNESCO Committee during 1986.
The World Heritage List, established under the UNESCO
Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural
and Natural Heritage ( the World Heritage Convention),
identifies areas of " outstanding universal value", ther
disappearance or destruction of which would constitute a
" harmful impoverishment of the heritage of all nations of the
world". Eighty three countries have signed the World Heritage
Convention and to date there are some 188 properties on the
World Heritage List. These properties range from the Grand
Canyon in the USA, the Pyramid Fields of Egypt, Chartres
Cathedral, France, and the Taj Mahal in India, to the
Sagarmatha National Park ( containing Mt Everest) in Nepal.
Five Australian properties are already on this list the
Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park, the Willandra Lakes
Region, the Lord Howe Island Group and the Western Tasmania
Wilderness National Parks.
The rainforests now nominated comprise seven areas of New
South Wales totalling 205,000 hectares. They contain nine
National Parks, five Nature Reserves and three Flora
Reserves. A schedule of the nominated properties is
attached.
The Prime Minister and the Premier said the New South Wales
rainforests represented both cool temperate and sub-tropical
forests and were the descendants of vegetation types which
occurred in Australia over many millions of years. As a
reflection of the continuity of habitat the rainforests
contained many " primitive" organisms, both plant and animal,
of great value to science.
The nominated sites also included significant samples of wet
and dry sclerophyll forest and striking examples of landscape
diversity. The rainforests are survivors of the ancient
Gondwanan super-continent, the progenitor of all present
southern continents. Their value is therefore not limited to
Australia. An agreement was reached during 1984 with all Commonwealth,
State and Territory Ministers responsible for wildlife
conservation and national parks for dealing with the
nomination of places in Australia for inclusion on the World
Heritage List.
Mr Hawke said the Commonwealth's announced policy in relation
to world heritage nominations was not to take unilateral
action and the Commonwealth Government was delighted to
receive the New South Wales nomination.
The Prime Minister paid tribute to the foresight of the New
South Wales Government in protecting the State's rainforests.
" Because of the legal protection and the active conservation
measures taken by Mr Wran and his Ministers, the rainforests
of New South Wales will be preserved for future generations
of Australians", Mr Hawke said.
Group Pa/ Rcs" cr. e Area
Border Ranges National Park 21,223 ha.
Tweed Volcano Limpinwood Nature Reserve 2,442 ha.
Group Numinbah Nature Reserve 300 ha.
Mount Nothofagus Flora Reserve 350 ha.
Mount Warning National Park 2,210 ha.
Nightcap. National Park 4,945 ha.
Total 42,275 ha.
Washpool National Park 27,715 ha.
Washpool/ Gibraltar Range National. Park 17,273 ha.
Gibraltar Range Group Total 44,988 ha.
Coastal Group fluka Nature Reserve 136 ha.
New England National Park 29,323 ha.
New England Dorrigo National Park 7,819 ha.
Group Mount Hyland Nature Reserve 1,634 ha.
Total 39,276 ha.
Werrikimbe National Park 34,753 ha.
Hastings. Mount Seaview Nature Reserve 1,623 ha.
Group Banda Banda Flora Reserve 1,400 ha.
Total 37,776 ha.
Barrington Group Barrington Tops National Park 39,113 ha.
Southern Group Mount Dromedary Flora Reserve 1,255 ha.
Total Area of
all Groups. 204,819 ha.
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