A window of opportunity to protect Queensland’s precious wild rivers has just opened on Cape York Peninsula. The Stewart, Archer and Lockhart river basins (including the incredible Aurukun wetlands - almost five times the size of the world famous Kakadu wetlands) have just been nominated for protection - and it’s up to all of us to make it happen!

Cape York Peninsula, one of the last great wild places on Earth, is a magnificent natural and cultural landscape of wild rivers and wetlands, savannah, sand dunes, remote beaches, reefs and rainforests.

Wild Rivers are the life support systems of the Cape’s communities and its incomparable environments. Whilst there have been some advances in protecting the Cape’s global conservation values, the rivers that sustain them remain open to many of the same threats that have torn the heart out of other Australian rivers - such as the Murray.

This can change with your urgent action and support.

The Queensland Government has released protection proposals for the Archer, Stewart and Lockhart River basins (including major streams, creeks and wetland areas) under Queensland’s Wild Rivers legislation. With protection will come sustainable livelihoods for Indigenous people - who wish to live and work on their ancestral homelands under the Wild River Ranger program.

This is your opportunity. With community consultations underway, you can make a difference by supporting the protection proposals and ensuring the Government improves their current minimalist approach to the size of the river protection areas.

The Queensland Government is also poised to release a protection proposal for the Wenlock River by the end of the year. With powerful mining interests threatening the success of this proposal, the Queensland Government needs a very clear signal that Australians will accept nothing less than full protection of this national icon.

Take action now by sending a cyberaction to the Queensland Minister for Natural Resources and Water and to other Northern Queensland politicians. This will also act as a formal submission into the protection proposals for the Archer, Stewart and Lockhart River basins.

Thanks for taking action!

Cyberactivist : noun a person using internet campaigning tools to bring about social or political change.

Glenn Walker
Wild Rivers Campaigner
The Wilderness Society Qld Inc.