Is Parks Victoria in Trouble? Here’s What We Know

 

Parks Victoria has been publicly criticised over the management of its national parks for years, but 2024 brought more turmoil than usual.

It’s been a rollercoaster for the hard-working crew at Parks Victoria over the last few months. Responsible for managing 3,000 land and maritime parks, including 45 national parks, on a shoestring budget, the staff at Parks Victoria have their work cut out for them. All while combating the impacts of climate change, the proliferation of invasive species, and competing economic priorities, there’s no denying these government employees are doing their best.

Some of the highs and lows of the past few months include the failure to legislate promised new national parks in Victoria’s Central West, the hasty departure of the CEO, the widespread uproar over climbing bans at Dyurrite/Mt Arapiles, free camping for six months, and the sale of not one, but two mountain resorts by the Victorian Government.

As a lover of Victoria’s national parks (so much so that I visited every single one of them in 2020), this is an evolving PR disaster I’ve been following closely. For years, I’ve been incredibly frustrated by the severe underfunding of Parks Victoria, whose annual state budget was cut by $95m this year, from $433m in 2022-23 to just $338m in 2023-24. While I love good quality healthcare, reliable public transport, and a decarbonised electricity grid, I also think protecting our wild places is a worthy and vital investment.

In late November, the minister responsible for Parks Victoria, Steve Dimopoulos, announced a comprehensive review of the government agency stating, ‘current operations need to be improved to meet community expectations’. For months, if not years, speculation has been rife amongst the environmental and conservation community that Parks Victoria could become non-existent and fold into the Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Action (DEECA).

Who manages Victoria’s public lands?

At the moment, the management of 8 million hectares of public land in Victoria is divided between Parks Victoria, which manages national parks and other conservation parks (4 million hectares), DEECA, which manages state forests (3.2 million hectares) and 1,200 public land reserves, or voluntary committees of management, such as ‘Friends of’ groups.

DEECA has only been DEECA since January 2023, prior to that it was DELWP AKA the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. This was part of a 2022 election promise from then-Premier Daniel Andrews, who shifted responsibilities such as urban planning to a different department and gained agencies including agriculture, resources, and energy.

But why does this matter? For better or for worse, the places we love to recreate, where endangered critters call home, and responsible for some of the world’s best drinking water, are at the mercy of state politics and budgets. If either is in disarray, you can guarantee that the future of our wild places will be tossed around like a bag of scroggin on a long hike. So let’s rewind ten years when the Victorian Labor Government came into power, and the revolving door of Labor Environment Ministers began.

The Never-Ending Reshuffle

Despite the Victorian Labor Party being in power since 2014, the all-important environment portfolio has been anything but stable. At this time, the minister’s office has changed hands four times, with reshuffles occurring in 2016, twice in 2022, and once in 2023. The Environment Minister is responsible for Parks Victoria and shares the responsibility for DEECA with three other ministers. In addition to this, the minister is also responsible for the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and Forest Fire Management Victoria, which sit under DEECA.

The regular turnover makes it incredibly difficult to create any stability or consistency between non-government organisations and the government. To complicate matters further, the current Environment Minister is also the Minister for Outdoor Recreation, as well as Tourism, Sport and Major Events. With an increasing ‘pay to play’ attitude being adopted by Parks Victoria, some people are expressing discomfort at having the same person appointed to conserve nature, also trying to monopolise it for tourism purposes.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and Steve Dimopoulos, Minister for Environment, Tourism, Sport and Major Events and Outdoor Recreation

Delays on New National Parks

But this issue pre-dates the current minister. In 2021, the Victorian Labor Government, after years of consultation and community advocacy, committed to opening new national parks at Wombat-Lerderderg and Mount Buangor/Mount Cole in Victoria’s Central West. The agreement also included the expansion of Bendigo Regional Park to include Wellsford, which would become the new Pyrenees National Park by 2025. Throughout the intervening years, the Labor Government has reiterated its commitment to legislating the new parks by the end of 2024.

Nevertheless, the final sitting days of the Victorian Parliament have passed for the year and 41 months after committing, the parks promised by then-Premier Andrews are still waiting.

This delay has caused frustration and fury within the environmental sector, including the Victorian National Parks Association, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to protecting and advocating for Victoria’s parks. Executive Director Matt Ruchel’s frustration is clear, stating ‘As wildlife habitats continue their rapid decline, our elected leaders are stuck in slow motion. After years of unnecessary delays, this government is once again twiddling its thumbs, defying both environmental experts and the wishes of the Victorian community’.

Ruchel is concerned that the recently-announced review of Parks Victoria could be a ‘trojan horse for dismantling hard-won nature protections’, and urges the government that ‘sufficient funding for core management must be central to the review’.

Mt Cole in central Victoria, is one of the promised new national parks | @hilarymcallister_

Cost Cutting & Discounts

Like many decisions made by the government and bureaucrats, sadly, this question comes down to cold, hard cash. To save some pennies, the Victorian Government recently announced it’d sell the operating rights to two state-owned ski resorts, at Mt Baw Baw and Lake Mountain, and stop paying millions of dollars in subsidies to struggling alpine businesses.

This announcement was fresh off the back of a free camping bonanza after Premier Jacinta Allan announced on October 13th that camping would be free at all 131 of Parks Victoria’s paid campgrounds from December 2024 until June 2025, costing the budget a cool $7.3 million in booking fees. The announcement also included $1.7 million in funding to support additional maintenance, repairs, and operations costs to ensure campgrounds are up to scratch.

Read more: The Hidden Cost of Free Camping

It builds on the Labor Government’s half-price camping initiative that’s been in place since 2019 and, according to the government, saved campers $25.7 million. Significant money has been spent in Gariwerd creating the Grampians Peaks Trail, costing $33 million to construct, and has resulted in the closure of other walking tracks, instead funnelling people onto the 164km trail. More recently, Parks Victoria announced a $23 million dollar investment at Wilsons Promontory to develop a 50,000-hectare wildlife refuge to protect the Country and enable more sustainable visitation in the future.

A campsite on the Grampians Peaks Trail | @disco_steww

A ‘Great Outdoors Taskforce’

With increasing wild and erratic weather, the cost of maintaining, improving, and managing ecosystems will only become more expensive. Native forest logging ended in Victoria almost a year ago, which opens the door for even more rehabilitation and protection of public forests and lands for conservation and recreation. Cue the implementation of the ‘Great Outdoors Taskforce‘, which is responsible for managing 1.8 million hectares of Victorian state forest previously managed for timber harvesting.

People have until the 12th of January 2025 to have their say on the future of the forests in Gippsland, East Gippsland, and the North East. The taskforce will then take the public’s feedback into consideration and ‘explore’ ‘options for future uses and care of the forest’, but have already ruled out ‘large-scale changes to land tenure, which includes not creating any new national parks.’

As State Forests fall under the purview of DEECA, the Great Outdoors Taskforce should remain unscathed from Parks Victoria’s review. Here’s hoping that the flashy-sounding Taskforce results in tangible, favourable outcomes for these ravaged forests as it’s all starting to feel like an episode of Utopia.

Logging coupes backing onto Errinundra National Park in East Gippsland, Victoria | @calumnhockey

Climbing Bans at Dyurrite/Mt Arapiles

The cherry on top of the Parks Victoria saga is the closure of 48% of climbing routes on Dyurrite/Mt Arapiles. This comes on the back of the release of the Dyurrite Cultural Landscape Plan, which was undertaken by Parks Victoria and the Barengi Gadjin Land Council, who are the Traditional Custodians of Dyurrite.

This announcement was met with frustration and disappointment from the local climbing community, who felt they were excluded from the consultation process. Peak body climbing group, Climbing Victoria, has been advocating to members of parliament and the community to find a middle ground that respects cultural heritage but allows both beginner and advanced routes at Dyurrite to remain open.

Almost three weeks later, the Minister announced that the CEO of Parks Victoria, Matthew Jackson, was stepping down ‘by mutual agreement’ and that the consultation period would be extended until February 2025 and overseen by the interim chief executive. Whilst consultation remains open, this will continue to be a very live and complex issue. It’s the beginning of many difficult conversations that should be had across Victoria about understanding and respecting cultural heritage values, the role that joint management with Traditional Owners has on our landscapes, and finding a balance between recreation, culture, and conservation.

Climbing at Dyurrite/Arapiles | @patcorden

What’s next?

For better or worse, there’s still a lot more of this story to unfold. It’s still being determined what will become of Parks Victoria and the 4 million hectares of parks and reserves it’s responsible for.

As a lover and frequent user of Victoria’s incredible parks and reserves, I’ll be watching with anticipation that Parks Victoria survives the turmoil and, rather than be axed, receives the funding it deserves. For too long our wild places have been seen as a commodity, and I fear if they fall under the responsibility of DEECA, they’ll be treated as another item on the department’s to-do list, rather than the complex, sensitive, and incredibly precious life-sustaining ecosystems that they are.

The good news is there are plenty of good people doing good things to advocate for stronger environmental laws and the creation of new national parks. Supporting the work of organisations like VNPA is a great place to start, as well as getting involved with your local Friends of Group which provide essential on-the-ground conservation through volunteering.

If you’re not from Victoria but want to learn more about our amazing wild places, Parks Victoria’s podcast Closer to Nature will take you on an informative and immersive journey through some of our most beloved and vulnerable national parks.

Feature image by Jontee Langdon