Parts of Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula have today been elevated to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative list, but experts warn what many regard as a coup could be a double-edged sword.
The decision has been decades in the making and was announced by the Queensland and federal environment ministers, alongside traditional owners in Cairns.
The region, which attracts about 150,000 tourists a year, is known for its rugged national parks, pristine waterways, secluded beaches, rich Indigenous culture and rock art.
Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the Cape had plant and animal species that weren’t found anywhere else and thousands of years of culture that needed protecting.
“We know that there’s evidence of occupation of around 34,000 years and that history, that culture, and that tradition is in an unbroken line with the people who are standing with us today,” she said.
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Ms Plibersek said the listing wouldn’t change existing land tenure but if there was development, it had to respect “globally important values”.
A listing is often celebrated as a sign of cultural and natural significance which brings tourism dollars, but experts say it can lead to the degradation of historic and sacred sites and ultimately, “overtourism”.
World Heritage expert Adjunct Professor Jon Day from James Cook University cited several international cities struggling to strike the balance.
“[It] can often be the worst thing for tourism,” he said.
“A World Heritage listing for any property is like a magnet to people, who say, ‘oh, that must be impressive’.”
But he said it can cause problems if there were not enough resources to manage tourist numbers.
“Venice has now brought in restrictions and new fees for tourists because the influx of visitors was putting a strain on infrastructure, ” he said.
“Maya Beach in Thailand, that has to close every year to tourists to give the area a break, and there are World Heritage sites in Scotland that are trying to bring in restrictions on cruise ships.”
On the flip side, a well-managed listing provides much greater benefit, Mr Day said.
“There are around two million paying tourists a year who visit the Great Barrier Reef … they generate money and jobs.”
It has been more than five decades since the international community put together a list of the world’s most important cultural and natural sites.
The World Heritage Convention was signed, and the resulting World Heritage List — places of “outstanding universal value” — was formed.
There are now 1,199 sites on the list, including the Galapagos Islands, the Great Wall of China, and Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and the Great Barrier Reef.
Australia is home to just 20 World Heritage Areas and Queensland Premier Steven Miles said five are in his state.
“I want iconic places like the Cape to be protected for future generations to love.
“This is monumental,” he said.
Cape York’s tentative listing is the first step in the years-long World Heritage nomination process.
The federal government has endorsed six other sites for inclusion on that list including:
- The Flinders Ranges in South Australia
- A remote Western Australia peninsula, home to more than a million Indigenous rock art paintings
- An extension to the Fraser Island World Heritage Area that will include the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park
- An extension to the Gondwana Rainforest area
- The Parramatta Female Factory, which housed convict women in colonial times
- The Worker’s Assembly Halls, including the Trades Hall in Broken Hill
Hindrance to development
Traditional owner and chairman of the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation Michael Ross said construction was underway on a new cultural centre near Laura at significant cost so it would be beneficial to bring tourists into the area.
“It’s about looking out for our country, looking after significant sites and protecting cultural values in the area,” Mr Ross said.
Mr Ross said opinion was divided in Cape York and that concerns had been raised about whether the listing would impede economic development, through development restrictions.
“There is some misinformation about what the listing would mean, but I believe that it will benefit a lot of people. We have a lot of significant sites across this country,” he said.
Traditional owner Allan Creek, a Southern Kaantju man, also supported the listing, because it would give them a chance to look after the country for ever.
“So we don’t have to bend this way and that way every time the government change their mind or a big company tells us what we need to do,” he said in a statement.
‘More red tape’
Jack Colquhoun and his family run Cape York Camping Punsand Bay, at the tip of Queensland, which welcomes thousands of tourists each year.
“On paper, it sounds wonderful from a tourism perspective, but it will impede development,” Mr Colquhoun said.
“It will add another layer of red tape and will make it harder to improve infrastructure and community services, which Cape York desperately needs.”
He grew up in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Daintree rainforest, which still has no access to mains power.
His own business at Punsand Bay is also completely off-grid.
“I saw that community struggle with red tape and it could happen here too under this listing. There’s nothing wrong with our national parks the way they are.”
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