Australia National Parks

Australia has more than 24 million hectares of land dedicated to national parks, ranging from desiccated deserts to verdant rainforests.

The first national park, being the Royal National Park, which is also ranks as the second national park in the world. Royal National Park, which is located in New South Wales, was created in 1879.

The federal government and all state governments take care of their designated national parks of responsibility, and together they make up a very efficient working national park system that is beyond compare to any national park system in the world.

The Australian Constitution gave the responsibility of management and creation of national parks to each State government.

Each state will be fully responsibility for every national park that is within their jurisdiction. However, the federal government also took its share of responsibility by handling 15 of the official national parks in Australia.

There are about 516 national parks in Australia, stretching over 25.7 million of hectares of Australian land. These national parks include reserves and protected areas, which covers over 38 million hectares. And that is 7.55% of the continent’s total land area.

Water parks are also very abundant in Australia, covering around 38 million hectares. To date, there are around 145 marine protected areas, which include the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the Commonwealth Marine Parks. The federal government takes care of around 19 out of the total 145 marine parks.

Aside from the national parks in Australia’s mainland, there are more still in the continent’s external territories.

There’s the Australian Antarctic Territories, covering 1,153 hectares, Christmas Island, with 8,952 hectares; Heard and McDonald; Norfolk Island, which has 650 hectares; and Pulu Keeling, stretching through 2,602 hectares. Including these areas, Australia would have a total of 60.4 hectares of land that is protected. These national parks are Australia’s way of letting the whole world learn of its Aboriginal origins—their way, the natural blessings that they shared, which may also be the reason that attracted the British colony back then.