Mitchell River National Park is a national park in the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, northeast of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

. The park adjoins the northern boundary of the Prince Regent National Park. The nearest towns are

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

, to the southwest, as well as Wyndham, to the southeast. Created in 2000, the park covers an area of over on the Mitchell Plateau (Ngauwudu). The two main features of the park are Mitchell Falls (a waterfall on the

Mitchell River Mitchell River may refer to: Australia *Mitchell River (Queensland) *Mitchell River (Victoria) *Mitchell River (Western Australia) *Mann River (New South Wales) is sometimes referred to as Mitchell River. Canada *Mitchell River (Cross River) *Mit ...

) and Surveyors Pool (or Aunauyu). It lies in the traditional lands of the

Wunambal The Wunambal (Unambal), also known as Wunambal Gaambera, Uunguu (referring to their lands), and other names, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the northern Kimberley region of Western Australia. People The Wunambal were, according to Norma ...

, an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

people. The park is known for distinctive plants such as a species of

fan palm Fan palm as a descriptive term can refer to any of several different kinds of Arecaceae, palms (Arecaceae) in various Genus, genera with leaves that are palmately lobed (rather than pinnately compound). Most are members of the subfamily Coryphoide ...

; it is home to several significant and

threatened species A threatened species is any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensatio ...

, including the tiny rock wallaby known as the monjon and the

black grasswren The black grasswren (''Amytornis housei''), known as dalal to the Wunambal people, is a species of bird in the family Maluridae. It is endemic to Western Australia. Naturalist Frederick Maurice House discovered the black grasswren in 1901, as ...

. A new Kimberley National Park, which would encompass Mitchell River National Park, Prince Regent National Park and Lawley River National Park, was in the early stages of planning around 2015 by

Colin Barnett Colin James Barnett (born 15 July 1950) is an Australian former politician who was the 29th Premier of Western Australia. He concurrently served as the state's Treasurer at several points during his tenure and had previously held various other ...

's government, when permits to mine

bauxite Bauxite () is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH) ...

on the plateau were terminated, but since then () these plans have not been furthered.

History

The plateau's wildlife has remained unchanged for close to 50,000 years. Ngauwudu is the Wunambal people's name for the Mitchell Plateau. Wunambal people have lived in the area for many thousands of years, practising their culture based on

Wandjina The Wandjina, also written Wanjina and Wondjina and also known as Gulingi, are cloud and rain spirits from the Wanjina Wunggurr cultural bloc of Australian Aboriginal mythology, Aboriginal Australians, depicted prominently in rock art in northw ...

(to whom they refer as Gulingi) and Wunggurr lore and law. The Wunambal form part of a

cultural bloc In anthropology and geography, a cultural area, cultural region, cultural sphere, or culture area refers to a geography with one relatively homogeneous human activity or complex of activities (culture). Such activities are often associa ...

of Aboriginal peoples known as

Wanjina Wunggurr The Worrorra, also written Worora, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley area of north-western Australia. The term is sometimes used to describe speakers of the (Western) Worrorra language, and sometimes groups whose traditiona ...

. European explorers reached the region in 1921, led by surveyor William Easton, who named the Mitchell River after then

Premier of Western Australia The premier of Western Australia is the head of government of the state of Western Australia. The role of premier at a state level is similar to the role of the prime minister of Australia at a federal level. The premier leads the executive br ...

, James Mitchell. In 1965 a mining company called Amax Bauxite set up a camp on the plateau. The park was formed in 2000 without the consent of the

traditional owners Native title is the set of rights, recognised by Australian law, held by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups or individuals to land that derive from their maintenance of their traditional laws and customs. These Aboriginal title rig ...

or following proper procedure under the ''

Native Title Act 1993 The ''Native Title Act 1993'' (Cth) is an act of the Australian Parliament, the purpose of which is "to provide a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its co-existence with the national land management sys ...

''. the park encompasses over of the Mitchell Plateau.

Management and future plans

The park area falls into the

Uunguu The Wunambal (Unambal), also known as Wunambal Gaambera, Uunguu (referring to their lands), and other names, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the northern Kimberley region of Western Australia. People The Wunambal were, according to Nor ...

(Wunambal Gaambera) area of the

peoples. In May 2011, native title was eventually determined for the Wunambal Gaambera people, represented by the Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC. The first stage of the Uunguu

Indigenous Protected Area An Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) is a class of protected area used in Australia; each is formed by voluntary agreement with Indigenous Australians, and declared by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander representative organisation ...

(IPA) encompassing hectares was created at this time, with the second stage declared in 2015. The IPA covers . The WGAC works in partnership with

Bush Heritage Australia Bush Heritage Australia is a non-profit organisation with headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, that operates throughout Australia. It was previously known as the Australian Bush Heritage Fund. Its vision is: Healthy Country, Protected Forever. ...

, a

non-government organisation A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

working to preserve the environment. The WA Parks and Wildlife Service manages the park jointly with the Wunambal Gaambera. In March 2015, the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government or the Western Australian Governmen ...

agreed on a ban on mining with both Rio Tinto and Alcoa Australia, which would allow protection over an area of . The government had started on negotiations with traditional owners with a view to creating a huge

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

which would lie next to the already-planned Great Kimberley Marine Park. A new huge Kimberley National Park had been planned (based on a 2013 election commitment) to cover more than and would include the Prince Regent National Park and the Lawley River National Park]. Rio Tinto committed to worth of spending on land rehabilitation where drilling had already occurred. However, , with a change of government in 2017, the plan for the new park has not as yet advanced.

Flora and fauna

The Mitchell Plateau, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts, Pew Outback, "is the only part of mainland Australia where no native species extinctions have occurred". The park is biologically significant and contains over 50 species of mammal, 220 birds and 86

amphibian Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniote, anamniotic, tetrapod, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class (biology), class Amphibia. In its broadest sense, it is a paraphyletic group encompassing all Tetrapod, tetrapods, but excl ...

s and reptiles, including the

saltwater crocodile The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats, brackish wetlands and freshwater rivers from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaland to northern Australia and Micronesia. It ha ...

, king brown snake and

taipan Taipans are snakes of the genus ''Oxyuranus'' in the elapid family. They are large, fast-moving, extremely venomous, and endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Three species are recognised, one of which, the coastal taipan, has two subspecies. Ta ...

. There are

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

s as well as patches of

tropical rainforest Tropical rainforests are dense and warm rainforests with high rainfall typically found between 10° north and south of the Equator. They are a subset of the tropical forest biome that occurs roughly within the 28° latitudes (in the torrid zo ...

. A species of

Livistona ''Livistona'' is a genus of palms, the botanical family Arecaceae, native to southeastern and eastern Asia, Australasia, and the Horn of Africa. They are fan palms, the leaves with an armed petiole terminating in a rounded, costapalmate fan ...

palm

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the north Kimberley, '' Livistona eastonii'', may grow up to and some are as old as 280 years. The monjon (a small rock wallaby) and the

rough-scaled python The rough-scaled python (''Morelia carinata'') is a large-scaled python species endemic to Australia. No subspecies are currently recognized. Description The rough-scaled python is able to grow to around in total length. It has a triangular-sha ...

live in

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

areas of the plateau. Other important species include the

dugong The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest ...

, flatback turtle,

northern quoll The northern quoll (''Dasyurus hallucatus''), also known as the northern native cat, the North Australian native cat or the satanellus is a carnivorous marsupial native to Australia. Taxonomy The northern quoll is a member of the family Das ...

, scaly-tailed possum, and the golden-backed tree rat. The park is part of the Prince Regent and Mitchell River Important Bird Area, identified as such by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because of its importance for a range of bird species, especially those restricted to tropical savanna habitats. It is home to the near

, the

, which nests in sandstone crevices.

Access

The Mitchell Plateau track, off the Kalumburu Road ( north of the

Gibb River Road The Gibb River Road is a road in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Western Australia. Description The road is a former cattle route that stretches in an east–west direction almost through the Kimberley between the to ...

junction, is accessible by 4WD only. There is an

airstrip An aerodrome, airfield, or airstrip is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for public or private use. Aerodromes in ...

Climate

Mitchell River National Park has a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry "winter") and ''As'' (for a dry "summer"). The driest month has less than ...

( Aw) with warm temperatures present year round. The wet season typically runs from November through March and is very rainy. The following climate data is for Mitchell Plateau.

References