West Kimberley National Heritage Place

A draft guide for landholders

Oscar Range © Jiri Lochman, Lochman Transparencies

© Commonwealth of Australia 2012This work is copyright. You may download, display, print and reproduce this material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other rights are reserved. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to Commonwealth Copyright Administration, Attorney General’s Department, Robert Garran Offices, National Circuit, Barton, ACT, 2600 or posted at http://www.ag.gov.au/Copyright

DisclaimerThe content of this document has been compiled using a range of source materials and is valid as at June 2012. The Australian Government is not liable for any loss or damage that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of reliance on the contents of the document.

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What is the purpose of this document?This document has been developed to help people understand what it might mean for them now that the West Kimberley has been included in the National Heritage List. It provides information about the West Kimberley’s National Heritage values and what the listing might mean for pastoralists, the mining industry, the tourism sector, the fishing and aquaculture industries and Indigenous people.

What is the National Heritage List?The National Heritage List recognises, celebrates and protects our most important natural, Indigenous and historic heritage places. Places in the National Heritage List reflect our continent’s development, from its ancient origins and its first people to its architectural masterpieces, the spirit and ingenuity of our community and our unique, living landscapes.

There are currently over ninety-five places in the National Heritage List. These include iconic landmarks like Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Bondi Beach, the Great Barrier Reef, the Sydney Opera House, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Port Arthur Historic Site, the Ningaloo Coast and the Stirling Range National Park.

What makes the West Kimberley special? The West Kimberley is one of Australia’s very special places. A vast area of dramatic and relatively undisturbed landscapes of great biological richness and important geological and fossil evidence of Australia’s evolutionary history, the region is home to a rich and dynamic Aboriginal culture and a proud pastoral and pearling tradition. Some of the features that make the West Kimberley outstanding at the national level are:

Inspirational landscapes The West Kimberley is renowned for its dramatic and beautiful landscapes, including the towering cliffs, rocky headlands, sandy beaches, natural rivers, spectacular waterfalls and thousands of islands located off its remote sandstone coast. Inland lies the rugged Kimberley plateau, with its deep gorges and cascading waterfalls; the striking King Leopold Ranges; and Windjana and Geikie gorges, which cut through the limestone of an ancient coral reef.

King George Falls © Col Roberts, Lochman Transparencies

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Ancient geologyAround 1,800 million years ago the Kimberley was a separate land mass that collided with the ancient Pilbara and Yilgarn, forming the core of the future Australian continent. The King Leopold Ranges are the remnants of massive mountains thrown up by the collision and their folded and crumpled rocks tell an important story of the shaping of Australia.

Bold Bluff, King Leopold Range © Jiri Lochman Lochman Transparencies

The Oscar, Napier, Emmanuel and Pillara Ranges are the remains of a vast coral reef, similar in scale to the Great Barrier Reef, which existed nearly 400 million years ago but is now high and dry in the landscape. The remarkable Gogo fish fossils from this ancient reef system provide a rare insight into the evolution of life on Earth, including the development of live birth and the earliest four-limbed vertebrates.

Gogo fish fossil Courtesy of the Trustees of the Western Australian Museum

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Carpenter’s Gap 1 rock shelter Courtesy of Sue O’Connor

Biological richnessThe rugged Kimberley plateau, northern coastline and rivers continue to provide a vital refuge for many native plants and animals that are found nowhere else or have disappeared from much of the rest of Australia. In addition, Roebuck Bay is internationally recognised as one of Australia’s most significant sites for migratory wading birds.

Rich and dynamic Aboriginal cultureThe West Kimberley has been occupied by Aboriginal people for at least 40,000 years and continues to be home to Aboriginal groups practising traditional law in the world’s oldest continuous culture. Carpenter's Gap and Riwi rock shelters provide rare archaeological evidence of Aboriginal life and culture, including Australia’s earliest evidence of art and Aboriginal trade networks that were operating during the last Ice Age.

From the Dampier Peninsula north along the Kimberley coast, Aboriginal people used the unique double log raft, galwa or kalum, and their intimate knowledge of the massive tides to travel to offshore islands and otherwise inaccessible coastal areas.

Purple-crowned Wren © Hans & Judy Beste, Lochman TransparenciesGolden-backed Tree Rat © Marie Lochman, Lochman Transparencies

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In the Wanjina–Wunggurr homeland, Wanjina creator beings, manifested in rock art figures, stone arrangements and landscape features, continue to be central to the laws and customs of the Wanjina–Wunggurr people. Painted images of creator beings, ancestors, plants and animals in rock shelters and caves across the west Kimberley represent a stunning visual record of an ongoing Aboriginal painting tradition that is considered to be one of the longest and most complex ‘rock art’ sequences anywhere in the world. The beautifully executed Gwion-Gwion/Girrigirro rock paintings of the Wanjina–Wunggurr and Balanggarra homelands provide an extraordinary insight into the material culture of Aboriginal society over thousands of years.

The history of Aboriginal people in the Kimberley has been one of resistance, adaptation and survival in the face of dramatic change. In the 1890s, Jandamarra and the Bunuba people’s intimate knowledge of the rugged Oscar and Napier Ranges was crucial in their struggle to resist European pastoral settlement. The dispute at Noonkanbah station in 1980 between Aboriginal people, a resource company and the Western Australian Government over oil drilling in a sacred area was a pivotal event in the national struggle of Aboriginal people to have their rights to practice traditional law and culture recognised.

Early European explorationThe Kimberley coast was the scene of some of the earliest European exploration of the Great South Land. Privateer William Dampier’s published accounts of his 1688 visit to the Kimberley were highly influential in the creation of European attitudes towards Australia and its people and stimulated later explorers such as James Cook.

A carved boab tree at Careening Bay provides rare physical evidence of the explorations of the eminent nineteenth-century Australian hydrographer, Phillip Parker King.

Rich pastoral and pearling historyThe west Kimberley has a proud pastoral tradition, involving both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. Fossil Downs Station was established in 1886 by the MacDonald and MacKenzie families after a three year journey of more than 5,600 kilometres droving cattle from Goulburn in New South Wales – the longest overlanding cattle drive in Australia’s history.

Droving cattle on Fossil Downs station Courtesy of the National Archives of Australia

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The west Kimberley is also a special place in the minds of Australians for the region’s colourful pearling history. Probably less known but equally important, Kimberley pearl shell is the most widely distributed item in Aboriginal Australia, traded across two thirds of the Australian Continent.

What are the National Heritage values of the west Kimberley National Heritage place? On 31 August 2011, the Australian Government Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (the Minister) included the West Kimberley and its National Heritage values in the National Heritage List. The National Heritage values of the West Kimberley are summarised according to the National Heritage List criteria in Appendix A.

What does National Heritage listing mean?National Heritage listing provides recognition and protection of outstanding heritage values. It does not change land ownership and does not affect Native Title. Management of National Heritage listed places remains with the current landowner or manager.

The listing of the west Kimberley as a National Heritage place helps ensure that heritage values are part of decision-making and heritage protection will be balanced with the social and economic aspirations of the Kimberley community.

Under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), it is the National Heritage values of a National Heritage place that are protected, not the entire place itself.

A person cannot take an action that has, will have or is likely to have a significant impact on the National Heritage values of a listed place without the approval of the Minister.

An action would be likely to have a significant impact on National Heritage values of a listed National Heritage place if there is a real chance or possibility that it would cause one or more of the National Heritage values to be:

lost

degraded or damaged, or

notably altered, modified, obscured or diminished.

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Mitchell Falls © Marie Lochman, Lochman Transparencies

Some National Heritage values, such as important geological features, are generally more robust than others and are at a lower risk of being significantly impacted by actions other than those involving major ground disturbances. Others, such as the mangrove and vine thicket plant communities, and particular Aboriginal sites, are more sensitive to disturbance.

Actions that would be likely to require approval include, but are not restricted to:

damaging important geological formations

inhibiting important landscape or ecological processes

fragmenting habitat important to biodiversity conservation in the region

causing the long-term reduction in rare, endemic or unique plant or animal species

introducing pollutants or other intrusive elements with substantial and/or long-term impacts

permanently removing, damaging or altering important physical fabric associated with historic values

obscuring important lines of sight in manner which is inconsistent with relevant values, or

permanently diminishing the cultural value of a National Heritage place for a community or group to which its National Heritage values relate.

For information on whether or not an action is likely to have a significant impact see the EPBC Act referral guidelines for the West Kimberley National Heritage place (Referral Guidelines). This document provides assistance in the ‘self-assessment’ process by matching the National Heritage values of the west Kimberley with activities that are likely to have a significant impact. Different parts of the west Kimberley have been listed for different heritage values, which vary in their robustness and scale. Large geological values are less susceptible to disturbance than smaller place-based values.

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In light of this variation in sensitivity, the Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (the department) has developed a draft zoning system that provides for six levels of protection. National Heritage values in each zone share similar sensitivities to disturbance. The map on page 5 of the Referral Guidelines provides an indicative guide to whether proposed activities in different parts of the region are likely to need referral under the EPBC Act.

The EPBC Act allows for some exemptions to the requirement for assessment and approval. This means some activities may not need assessment or approval if certain criteria are met.

Further general information is available on:Approvals: www.environment.gov.au/epbc/approval.htmlExemptions: www.environment.gov.au/epbc/about/exemptions.htmlReferrals: www.environment.gov.au/epbc/assessments/referral-form.html or,

phone 1800 803 772

Pastoralists are encouraged to use the services of the Environmental Liaison Officer at the National Farmers’ Federation. The officer can be contacted by phoning (02) 6274 2672 or emailing environment@nff.org.au.

The Sacred Heart church at Beagle Bay mission courtesy of Donna Harkess

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What does National Heritage listing mean...

For pastoralists?Many of the west Kimberley’s National Heritage values occur on pastoral lands and have been managed by pastoralists over many years. While some biological values, such as those associated with vine thickets, are sensitive to disturbances like fire or land clearing, other values, such as the geological values associated with the Devonian limestone ranges, the King Leopold Ranges, Yampi Peninsula and the Fitzroy Uplands, are more robust. Indigenous heritage values associated with places such as rock painting sites, stone arrangements and significant natural landscape features are sensitive and management should be guided through effective engagement with Traditional Owners.

Further information is available on the department’s website at:

http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/assessments/refer.html and http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/assessments/referral-form.html

For the mining industry?National Heritage values occur in many areas of interest to the mining industry. As noted above for pastoralists, some biological values such as those associated with vine thickets are sensitive to disturbances like fire or land clearing; other values, such as the geological values associated with the Devonian limestone ranges and with the King Leopold Ranges, Yampi Peninsula and Fitzroy Uplands are more robust. Indigenous heritage values associated with places such as rock painting sites, stone arrangements and significant natural landscape features are sensitive and management should be guided through effective engagement with Traditional Owners.

Importantly, if you have previously referred an action for approval under the EPBC Act and a decision has been made by the Minister, the decision remains unchanged. Previous decisions made under the EPBC Act cannot be changed by National Heritage listing. If you already have EPBC approval for your mine, National Heritage listing does not mean that you need to submit a new referral for the same activity.

For the tourism industry?Tourism in the west Kimberley occurs widely across the landscape in a range of environments and at many different scales. While most tourism activities are unlikely to have any impact on National Heritage values, or be affected by National Heritage listing, tourism operators need to be aware of the sensitivities of some heritage values.

Many visitors to the Kimberley are interested in engaging with Indigenous culture and appreciating Aboriginal heritage places. An important issue for tourism operators and visitors is respecting Aboriginal law and culture. While the importance of not damaging rock art may be obvious to everyone, visitors and tourism operators should be aware that many places important to Aboriginal people have restrictions about who can go there. Some places are only used for ceremony: some places are only for men and others only for women. Photography can also be a sensitive issue, as many of the rock art sites in the Kimberley are of deep cultural significance to their Indigenous custodians, and some images can only be viewed by particular people. You may cause someone serious distress by taking a picture. It is also important never to remove any object from an Aboriginal site.

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One way of ensuring that you are not having a negative effect on Indigenous heritage and culture is to visit Aboriginal sites in the company of a Traditional Owner. In that way you will learn about the Indigenous traditions in the area you are visiting and by being aware of rules of behaviour, you won’t do the wrong thing.

Stick to the approved 4WD tracks and don’t wander out into the bush, unless you are certain that it’s okay for you to do so. Sacred sites exist in many areas throughout the Kimberley and will often not have any sign posts indicating their existence. You may cause someone serious distress if you visit a place that is supposed to be off-limits.

Activities in the West Kimberley National Heritage place should be carried out in accordance with the principles set out in Ask first - a guide to respecting Indigenous heritage places and values which can be found at: http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/ahc/publications/commission/books/ask-first.html

Windjana Gorge © Dennis Sarson, Lochman Transparencies

For fishing and aquaculture industries?National Heritage values identified in marine areas in the west Kimberley include traditional Indigenous sources of pearl shell – used in ceremony and highly prized by Aboriginal people, and the most widely traded commodity in Aboriginal Australia – and the intangible values associated with the traditional use of the galwa or double log raft. The Kimberley coast and islands also have important geological, biodiversity, aesthetic, Aboriginal heritage and archaeological values.

An aquaculture development or activity could potentially require a referral under the EPBC Act if it is likely to have a significant impact on the listed National Heritage values. Examples might include activities like:

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development of large scale infrastructure in coastal areas commercial collection of pearl shell from identified traditional Indigenous sources large scale infrastructure close to traditional Indigenous pearl shell sources activities that impact on Aboriginal heritage places.

Importantly, if you have previously referred an action for approval under the EPBC Act and a decision has been made by the Minister, the decision remains unchanged. Previous decisions made under the EPBC Act cannot be changed by National Heritage listing.

For Indigenous people?National Heritage listing does not change land ownership, and does not affect your Native Title rights. The provisions of the EPBC Act include a specific statement that it does not affect the operation of the Native Title Act 1993.

For Indigenous communities wishing to undertake development activities, the same conditions apply as for other individuals or organisations, that is, if an activity is likely to have a significant impact on listed National Heritage values, it should be referred to the Minister for approval under the EPBC Act.

The EPBC Act Regulations state that:

Indigenous people are the primary source of information on the value of their heritage and the active participation of indigenous people in identification, assessment and management is integral to the effective protection of indigenous heritage values.

National Heritage listing will help to protect your important heritage places.

Threats and Conservation ActionsIf you have National Heritage values on or near your property then continuation of good land management is vitally important if these values are to be maintained for the benefit of future generations.

To assist in the protection of National Heritage values of a National Heritage place, relevant expert advice should be sought during the planning phase of any proposed action that has the potential to have a significant impact on the relevant National Heritage values of a National Heritage listed place. When considering the potential impact of a proposed action, it is relevant to consider all adverse impacts from the action, including direct, indirect and offsite impacts such as downstream or downwind impacts, upstream impacts and facilitated impacts (impacts which result from further actions which are made possible or facilitated by the action).

Impact mitigation aims to avoid significant impacts and should be applied in a hierarchical order:

1. Avoid impacts – preserve National Heritage values and avoid their further loss or

2. Mitigate impacts – apply measures to reduce the degradation of National Heritage values from an activity

3. Monitor effectiveness of mitigation – effective monitoring of impact mitigation should occur with appropriate regularity and enable adaptive management.

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Survey work may be required to help identify if there are any National Heritage values on or near your property.

Can I get funding to protect any listed National Heritage values on my property?The department works with owners and managers of listed places to ensure that National Heritage values are protected. The Australian Government may provide financial or other assistance for the identification, promotion, protection or conservation of National Heritage places.

The major sources of Australian Government funding for activities that benefit Australia's heritage are:

Competitive programs under which eligible parties can apply for their project to be considered as part of a formal funding round; and

Discretionary, ad hoc or non-competitive grants under which funds are approved by the Minister.

For more information on these sources of funding, please visit the department’s website at http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/programs/index.html.

Where can I go for further information?

Kimberley-NHL@environment.gov.au

or

Major Assessments and ProjectsHeritage & Wildlife DivisionDepartment of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and CommunitiesPO Box 787CANBERRA ACT 2600

Other policy statements are available to help you understand the EPBC Act. These can be obtained from the department’s website at http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/guidelines-policies.html, or by contacting the community information unit by emailing ciu@environment.gov.au or by calling 1800 803 772.

Kapok Bush (Cochlospermum fraseri)© Jiri Lochman Lochman Transparencies

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Useful websites EPBC Act web site: http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc

EPBC Act Policy Statement 1.1 - Significant Impact Guidelines: http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/publications/nes-guidelines.html

Information about other National Heritage places: http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/national/index.html

Environment Liaison Officer – National Farmer’s Federation: http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/information/farmers.html

Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation website: http://www.dec.wa.gov.au/

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Appendix ANational Heritage values of the West Kimberley National Heritage place

LISTING CRITERION HERITAGE VALUE

A

The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in the course, or pattern of Australia's natural and cultural history.

Assembling a continent

The King Leopold orogen of the west Kimberley has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for recording pre-Rodinian and Proterozoic plate tectonic processes, key events in the evolution of the Australian continent.

Ecology, biogeography and evolution

The Devonian Reef of the Kimberley has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) because it is a continuous record of 20 million years of reef deposition and shows the response of a Late Devonian reef to a mass extinction event.

The Gogo fossil sites have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for important transitional fossils that document the evolution of early tetrapodomorph fish.

The northern Kimberley coast and islands, the Kimberley Plateau and the west Kimberley Devonian reefs have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for plant, mammal, reptile, frog and invertebrate species richness and endemism; and as refugia protecting against human-induced environmental changes.

Vine thickets of the northern Kimberley coast and islands and the Kimberley Plateau, and the Devonian reefs of the west Kimberley, are of outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for their evolutionary refugial role that has resulted in high invertebrate richness and endemism.

The Drysdale, Prince Regent, Roe, Moran, Carson, Isdell, Mitchell and King Edward Rivers are of outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as areas of evolutionary refugia demonstrated by nationally high values for freshwater fish and turtle endemism.

Wealth of land and sea

Carpenter's Gap 1 and Riwi rock shelters have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as they demonstrate the operation of Aboriginal social and economic networks 30,000 years ago over distances of 500 kilometres.

Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as it provides evidence of the antiquity of the symbolic use of ochre on a rock surface, the earliest 'art' in Australia's cultural history.

Pearl shell beds at a number of identified sites from Bidyadanga to Cape Londonderry, where in Aboriginal law and culture, the shell is believed to be created by Dreamtime Beings and is collected by Traditional Owners, have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as the source of the item most widely distributed by Aboriginal people in the course of Australia's cultural history.

Contact, change and continuity

The Kimberley coast is recognised for its association with early European exploration of the continent. The William Dampier (Cygnet) (1688) landing place, around Pender Bay, Karrakatta Bay, King Sound, the Buccaneer Archipelago and nearby coast, has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for its association with William Dampier and the influence of his published observations. The environment observed by Dampier is substantially unmodified since his 1688 landing and can be seen today.

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The place where the tree marked F136 once stood has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for its association with the pioneering overlanding journey undertaken by the MacDonald brothers in 1883-1886.

The limestone ranges of the Devonian Reef have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as the place where Bunuba resistance held back the advance of European settlement for 13 years, an unusual achievement by Aboriginal people in the history of Australian frontier conflict.

Bungarun (Derby Leprosarium) has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as the only extant facility to tell the national story of leprosy treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia's cultural history.

The areas of Noonkanbah station encompassing the station gates, the crossing at Mickey’s Pool, Pea Hill and the unsuccessful exploration well have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as the site of the Noonkanbah dispute, an important event in the national struggle of Aboriginal people to have their rights to practice traditional law and culture recognised, and to protect their heritage for future generations.

B

The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia's natural and cultural history.

Ecology, biogeography and evolution

The late Devonian Gogo fish fossil sites have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (b) for remarkable preservation of a diverse fauna of entire fossil fish skeletons complete with the rare preservation of extensive soft tissue.

The Dampier Coast dinosaur tracks have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (b) as the best and most extensive evidence of dinosaurs from the western half of the continent, some of which are unknown from body fossils; for the diversity and exceptional sizes of the sauropod prints; and the unique census of the dinosaur community that they provide.

The fossil human footprint sites of the Dampier Coast have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (b) as one of only three documented human track sites in Australia and the only documented evidence of human tracks from the west coast of Australia.

Wealth of land and sea

Carpenter's Gap 1 rock shelter has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (b) for its rare archaeological sequence of micro and macro-botanical remains spanning 40,000 years that contributes to our understanding of the impacts of climate change on flora composition though time, and the rare evidence it provides of plant procurement strategies used by Aboriginal people from the Pleistocene, through the last glacial maximum, a period when many occupation sites were abandoned across Australia, and into the Holocene.

Contact, change and continuity

The Mermaid tree within Careening Bay has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (b) as rare, in situ, physical evidence of nineteenth century hydrographers and in particular the survey work of Phillip Parker King, one of Australia's most important early marine surveyors.

C

The place has

Ecology, biogeography, climate and evolution

The Devonian reef outcrops of the Lennard Shelf have outstanding heritage value to

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outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Australia's natural and cultural history.

the nation under criterion (c) because of their potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the climatological and biological processes that affect major reef systems.

Gogo fossil sites

The Gogo fish fossils have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) as they have significant potential to yield new information about the natural history of Australia, the evolution of Australian vertebrates and about new technologies that can be used to study fossils.

Human ecology and adaptation

The coastline from Cape Londonderry to Cape Leveque and the Devonian reef complex have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) for their potential to yield significant new archaeological information contributing to an understanding of Australia's natural and cultural history.

The rock paintings of the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland and the Balanggarra native title claim area have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) for their potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of climate change and species extinction; early Aboriginal material culture and technology development; and the interactions between Aboriginal people and outsiders.

The west Kimberley coast between Cape Londonderry and Cape Leveque has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) for its potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the nature and the effect of mega-tsunami events.

Contact, change and continuity

The west Kimberley coast from Cape Londonderry to the Lacepede Islands has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (c) for its potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Indonesian-Aboriginal interaction in Australia's cultural history.

D

The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of:(i) a class of Australia's natural and cultural places; or(ii) a class of Australia's natural and cultural environments.

Ancient landscapes, geological processes

The west Kimberley coast from Helpman Islands in King Sound to the western shore of Cambridge Gulf, including islands, peninsulas, inlets and inundated features, has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (d) for demonstrating the principal characteristics of a major coastal landform type, in an extensive region without significant modification by coastal infrastructure.

The Devonian carbonate complexes of the Lennard Shelf have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (d) for demonstrating the principal characteristics of a very well preserved proto-Australian carbonate ramp environment on an ancient continental shelf.

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Ecology, biogeography and evolution

The dinosaur tracks and associated ichnofossils, plant macrofossils and Cretaceous depositional environments of the Broome Sandstone exposed in the intertidal zone of the Dampier Coast have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (d) for preserving snapshots of the ecology of the Mesozoic.

Roebuck Bay has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (d) due to the place's importance as a class of avian habitat (a migratory hub or staging post), and for the regular presence of migratory, protected or endangered avifauna.

The Fitzroy River and a number of its tributaries, together with their floodplains and the jila sites of Kurrpurrngu, Mangunampi, Paliyarra and Kurungal, demonstrate four distinct expressions of the Rainbow Serpent tradition associated with Indigenous interpretations of the different ways in which water flows within the catchment and are of outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (d) for their exceptional ability to convey the diversity of the Rainbow Serpent tradition within a single freshwater hydrological system.

E

The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group.

Wealth of land and sea

The Kimberley coast from the Buccaneer Archipelago to King George River has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (e) for its aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian community., including its rugged sandstone coast with rocky headlands and prominent peaks and striking landforms, sandy beaches, pristine rivers, waterfalls and drowned river valleys with rich flora and fauna, off shore reefs and numerous islands in extensive seascapes in a sea supporting diverse marine life. The unusual effect of tidal movement is also part of the aesthetic appreciation of some areas like the Horizontal Waterfall.

The Mitchell River National Park has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (e) for its aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian community.

King George Falls and King George River have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (e) for their aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian community.

Geikie Gorge Conservation Park and Geikie Gorge National Park have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (e) for their aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian community.

Windjana Gorge National Park has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (e) for its aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian community.

The King Leopold Ranges Conservation Park has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (e) for its aesthetic characteristics valued by the Australian community.

Aboriginal rock art paintings in the west Kimberley, particularly in the Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland and Balanggarra native title claim area and the Devonian reef, are both powerful and of deep religious significance to Kimberley Aboriginal people and have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (e) as they represent a stunning visual record of an ongoing Aboriginal painting tradition in a substantially unmodified landscape.

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F

The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period.

Design and innovation

Considered one of the longest and most complex painted 'rock art' sequences anywhere in the world, (Morwood 2002, 143) the west Kimberley complex of painted images is a creative achievement by Kimberley Aboriginal people that has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (f).

The Sacred Heart church at Beagle Bay mission has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (f) for the high degree of creative and technical achievement in the use of pearl shell and other locally sourced media to decorate the interior, combining western religious and Aboriginal motifs.

Technical response to environmental constraints

The manufacture of the double log raft from mangrove logs (particularly Rhizophora stylosa) is a unique adaptation to the massive tidal variation of the west Kimberley and has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (f) for demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement by Aboriginal people in the course of Australia's cultural history.

G

The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

Wealth of the Land and Sea

Broome and the nearby region has outstanding (intangible) heritage value to the nation under criterion (g) as a place which has a special association with the Australian community because of the romance of Broome, its pearling history, its remote and beautiful location at the gateway to the Kimberley's outback and pearling coast, its association with pearls and the town's stories associated with the development of a unique Australian community with a distinctive cultural diversity.

H

The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place's special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia's natural or cultural history.

Contact, Change and continuity

The William Dampier (Cygnet) 1688 landing place has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (h) for its special association with the life and work of William Dampier.

The limestone ranges of the Devonian Reef, known to the Bunuba as Barlil, have outstanding value to the nation under criterion (h) for their association with Jandamarra, whose campaign of resistance was unprecedented in Australian history, as was the ferocity of the police and settler response. Jandamarra's death in 1897 ended the last large-scale organised violent resistance by Aboriginal people in Australia's cultural history.

I

The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation

Wanjina–Wunggurr Tradition

The Wanjina-Wunggurr homeland, where the painted images on rock and other features in the land, sea and sky, including natural rock formations and man-made stone arrangements, are manifestations of the Wanjina and the Wunggurr Snake, are of outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (i) because of their importance as part of Indigenous tradition.

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because of the place's importance as part of Indigenous tradition.

Appendix BMaps showing the approximate positions of National Heritage values of the west Kimberley National Heritage place

The following figures provide approximate positions of the individual National Heritage values listed for the West Kimberley. For referral matters, the overall West Kimberley National Heritage place boundary description should be used; this can be found in the official gazettal notice:http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/laws/publicdocuments/pubs/106063_05.pdf

Figure 1 National Heritage values - Geoheritage

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Figure 2 National Heritage values – Biodiversity

Figure 3 National Heritage values – Indigenous values (map 1 of 2)

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Figure 4 National Heritage values – Indigenous values (map 2 of 2)

Figure 5 National Heritage values – historic and aesthetic values

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