ACTION UPDATE: 12 October 2021 |

Despite our efforts the innocuously named ‘Great Ocean Road and Environs Protection Amendment Bill 2021’ was passed in the Victorian Parliament with the support of the cross bench. We do not support legislation that hands significant areas of the Otway National Park, and other parks including the Twelve Apostles, to a Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority.

This is a national parks land grab by tourism interests. It will put Parks Victoria in a subordinate role, handing crucial guardianship responsibilities under the National Parks Act 1975 to a tourism-focused authority. Introducing new overriding legislation will strip protections and weaken the integrity of the parks estate. It sets a terrible precedent for environmental management across the state.

Before any land is formally handed over to the new authority, and afterwards, we’ll continue to monitor how this process is rolled out. With your help we’ll take whatever action is needed to protect the important national parks and reserves along the Great Ocean Road.

It is our mission to make sure the strong conservation objectives of the National Parks Act are observed, now and into the future.

Thanks to all who asked their representatives in Victoria’s upper house to keep our national parks under public management. Your action demonstrated that much of the community did not support this terrible move.

It’s one of the worst moves for the integrity of national parks in decades.

The Victorian Government plans to hand over control of some of our most iconic national parks along the Great Ocean Road to a new tourism-driven authority.

The primary motive for managing our finest remaining natural areas should not be income generation. It should be conservation.

Yet we’ve just been notified this proposed bill will be debated, and likely passed, in Victorian Parliament’s Upper House THIS WEEK.

We need to tell our representatives RIGHT NOW not to support this backwards step in nature conservation. 

It will put Parks Victoria in a subordinate role, handing crucial guardianship responsibilities under the National Parks Act 1975 to a tourism-focused authority. This is a national parks land grab by tourism interests.

One of the biggest issues is that new authority won’t be government-funded. It will have to generate income from carparks, campgrounds and other fees – a move that will put pressure on our already vulnerable parks.

Introducing new overriding legislation will strip protections and weaken the integrity of the parks estate. It sets a terrible precedent for environmental management across the state.

That’s why we need to urgently call on our MPs to not allow this legislation to pass the Legislative Council this week.

The Great Ocean Road is more than a road. It delivers spectacular access to some iconic land and sea scapes, including the world-famous Twelve Apostles Marine National Park and the Great Otway National Park with its lush forests and beautiful beaches.

National parks have been successfully protecting 80 per cent of the Great Ocean Road for decades.

There are significant issues with the management of increasing tourism along the road, and the assortment of campgrounds, parking areas, toilet blocks and other small areas of public land. It makes sense for a new agency to simplify and coordinate the road’s problematic facilities.

But it is a shocking territorial leap to snatch management of the national parks along the coastline as well.

Our national parks and their manager Parks Victoria need improved government funding, not a takeover.

The new law would fundamentally change the aim of park management. Instead of primarily protecting our native plants and animals and the landscape it would see managing the national parks as a ‘compromise’ between environmental management and the tourism economy.

Please send your message before this bill is debated in the Upper House. Our representatives need to know Victorians do not want it to pass.

Great care needs to be taken to ensure that Victoria’s prized natural areas are protected and to respect the purpose and value of our national parks