Legislative Council Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2) 53 2 Parliament of South Australia Legislative Council published Question Time Ediacara Conservation Park Ediacara Conservation Park The Hon. G.E. GAGO Legislative Council Ediacara Conservation Park The Hon. G.E. GAGO (15:02): My question is to the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation. Will the minister inform the chamber about the recent announcement to expand the Ediacara Conservation Park that was made during the recent country cabinet? The Hon. I.K. HUNTER Legislative Council Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change Ediacara Conservation Park The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:02): I thank the honourable member for her fantastic question. I am very pleased that she did not do to me what I did to her when she took a question without notice on Ediacara and fossils many years ago from myself. I think, from memory, I actually took a very interesting story about Ediacaran fossils from, I think, Nature or New Scientist—I cannot remember, but one journal. It carried a front page on South Australia's Ediacaran fossils, and I approached the minister in the chamber with a question. Luckily, she was prepared for it, she knew all about the Ediacaran fossils. I think she had just been up there and seen them for herself. We had a lovely time talking about the science of Ediacaran fossils, which I am here to do again today. So, I thank her for her question; it is very exciting. The Hon. S.G. Wade interjecting: The Hon. I.K. HUNTER Legislative Council The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Well, it would be, the Hon. Mr Wade, but a few things have happened since then, so I will update the chamber on that. In February and early March, cabinet travelled to the northern Flinders Ranges for a series of meetings at Port Augusta, Quorn, Leigh Creek and Parachilna. Ministers had very busy programs, including meetings with individual community members and groups, a community barbeque, a public forum in Port Augusta, discussions with pastoralists and with Alinta workers and families at Leigh Creek, and a visit to the Aroona Dam (for myself at least) outside Leigh Creek. The community, I am hoping, enjoyed the opportunity to share their views and voice their opinions to government, just as much as government ministers and chief executives enjoyed the opportunity to engage with groups and those individuals. I would like to thank everyone who participated in the recent country cabinet and made it such a big success. As part of the country cabinet program, on 1 March we visited the Ediacara Conservation Park, located 25 kilometres west of Beltana. The park protects places of significance to the Adnyamathanha people and has an important South Australian mining industry history, as well as its world-renowned Ediacara fossil deposits. These fossils, which I think I have talked to the chamber about previously, were first discovered by Dr Reg Sprigg in 1946. They are soft-bodied organisms dating back up to about 635 million years ago. At the time of the discovery, Dr Sprigg could not really get a lot of interest generated about the discovery. No-one believed that soft-bodied creatures could fossilise as they did and, indeed, they did not very often. There are a number of places around the world—I think three or four—where they have the same period of fossils but none as brilliant as they are preserved here in South Australia, certainly none as accessible as they are here in South Australia. They are the first known radiation, I am advised, of multicellular animal life. They relate to the first geological time period to be recorded in history for the Southern Hemisphere. The discovery of these fossils provided scientists with a new understanding of the evolution of life on earth. It was so significant that an entire geological era was named after the old Ediacara minefields and the Ediacara Hills where they were first found. While many of the fossil outcrops can be found inside the park, a number were also located on crown land outside the park's current boundary. I think we can all agree that we have an obligation to protect this heritage and it was therefore very pleasing to be able to announce during our visit that the state government will more than double the current size of the Ediacara Conservation Park. The fossil site and its surrounds were declared a conservation park in 2007, the same year they were given national heritage listing. The state government has now added 2,500 hectares of land to the north, bringing the total protected area to 4,765 hectares, I am advised. This will significantly assist in the protection of these fossils and complement our other strategies, which include: restricting park access to geologists and palaeontologists, student groups and conference excursions; investigating options for establishing an interpretive site at an alternative location where visitors can view fossils without impacting on the fossils within the park itself; and working cooperatively with the Beltana and Nilpena stations and the South Australian Museum to appropriately manage access to the fossil sites. Due to the significance of the Ediacara fossil deposits and the geological significance of areas such as Arkaroola and Brachina Gorge and other northern Flinders Ranges reserves such as Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park, the state government is exploring opportunities for world heritage listing of the Flinders Ranges, with a focus on geology and early life. The expansion of the Ediacara Conservation Park adds to the state's growing protected areas. Over the last 13 years, this government has proclaimed 69 new parks and added land to 76 existing parks. In addition, when Labor came to government in South Australia in 2002, there was just 70,000 hectares of South Australia that had wilderness protection status—just 70,000 hectares. We have increased this to 1,843,448 hectares. What a massive increase: from 70,000 hectares to 1.8 million hectares. South Australia now has the largest percentage of both public and private protected land of any Australian mainland jurisdiction, approximately 27,675,000 hectares. I am advised that is equivalent to the size of the state of Victoria. That is something I think we can all be very proud of indeed. This state government is very concerned to look after our precious heritage and we will be coming back with further plans about how we will improve on that into the future.