Limmen National Park, announced in 2012, is the third largest national park in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

, after

Judbarra / Gregory National Park Judbarra National Park, formerly Gregory National Park, is a national park in the Northern Territory of Australia, 359 km south of Darwin. The park is the second largest national park in the Northern Territory, after Kakadu National Park, ...

, with an area of approximately . Located about 600 km south-east of Darwin on the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary is ...

, the park incorporates wetlands, sandstone structures and numerous rivers, including the

Limmen Bight River The Limmen Bight River is a river in the Northern Territory, Australia. The headwaters rise at the base of the Favenc Range near O.T. Downs and Broadmere Stations. It then flows in a northerly direction, with many smaller tributaries feeding the ...

from which the park takes its name.

Controversy and Mining

Limmen National Park was declared in 2012 but approximately 20% of the area originally planned for the park was excluded to allow for Iron Ore exploration and extraction, a decision welcomed by Western Desert Resources, the company developing an Iron Ore mine in the excised region. However, the NT Environment Centre argued that the NT Government had been "unnecessarily generous to miners" and concerns were also raised by the Amateur Fishermen's Association of the Northern Territory and neighbouring pastoral lease holders, upset by Western Desert Resources building a haul road across their property. Following a decline in the price of Iron Ore, Western Desert Resources went into administration in 2014 and their mining operations ceased. In 2018, the Northern Territory Government approved a new operator to restart the mine, this time operated by Nathan River Resources, a company owned by international shipping and mining company

British Marine British Marine is the trade association for the UK leisure, superyacht and small commercial marine industry, currently representing 12 regional associations, 16 Group Associations and 1600+ members across the UK marine supply chain. These include ...

Heritage and attractions

A major attraction in the park are the "Lost Cities"—

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

rock formations resembling tall

apartment block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdictio ...

Rock art

Miniature

rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...

of the

stencil Stencilling produces an image or pattern on a surface, by applying pigment to a surface through an intermediate object, with designed holes in the intermediate object, to create a pattern or image on a surface, by allowing the pigment to reach ...

led variety at a rock shelter known as Yilbilinji, in Limmen National Park, is one of only three known examples of such art. Usually stencilled art is life-size, using body parts as the stencil, but the 17 images of designs of human figures,

boomerang A boomerang () is a thrown tool, typically constructed with aerofoil sections and designed to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. A returning boomerang is designed to return to the thrower, while a non-returning b ...

s, animals such as

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

s and

long-necked turtle ''Chelodina'', collectively known as snake-necked turtles, is a large and diverse genus of long-necked chelid turtles with a complicated nomenclatural history. Although in the past, ''Macrochelodina'' and ''Macrodiremys'' have been considered se ...

s, wavy lines and geometric shapes are very rare. Found in 2017 by

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

s, the only other recorded examples are at Nielson's Creek in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and at

Kisar Island Kisar, also known as ''Yotowawa'', is a small island in the Southwestern Moluccas in Indonesia, located to the northeast of Timor Island. Most of the island is included within the Southernmost Islands District ('' Kecamatan Pulau Pulau Terselatan ...

in Indonesia. It is thought that the designs may have been created by stencils fashioned out of

beeswax Beeswax (''cera alba'') is a natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus ''Apis''. The wax is formed into scales by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal segments of worker bees, which discard it in or at the hive. The hive workers ...

References

External links

Northern Territory Government National Parks and ReservesOfficial fact sheet and map
{{authority control Carpentaria tropical savanna National parks of the Northern Territory Protected areas established in 2012 2012 establishments in Australia