Opening of new lookout at Junction Pool, Karijini Nat Park

8/10/97

Visitor facilities and safety in the Karijini National Park have been improved with the opening of a new lookout at Junction Pool.

Environment Minister Cheryl Edwardes today opened the Junction Pool Lookout while on an inspection tour of the park.

"The lookout is on the edge of Hancock Gorge and provides visitors with a magnificent view into the pool where the Hancock, Joffre and Red gorges meet," Mrs Edwardes said.

The new facility replaces Oxer's Lookout, which was closed after a geotechnical survey revealed the site was unsafe, and is one of three new lookouts that will be installed in the park.

A second will be built on a stable section of the narrow isthmus leading to the old Oxer's Lookout and the third will overlook Weano Gorge. Additional improvements will include shade shelters and picnic facilities.

The 627,444ha Karijini National Park is the State's second biggest national park behind Rudall River (1.3 million hectares), also in the Pilbara.

Its features include the spectacular gorges of the Hamersley Range, geological formations dating back 2,500 million years and a variety of ecosystems with more than 30 species of native mammals, 133 species of birds, 90 species of reptiles and eight species of fish.

The faunal life includes five rare species - the pebble-mound mouse, peregrine falcon, grey honeyeater, grey falcon and Pilbara olive python.

More than 480 species of native flowering plants are known to exist in the park. The flora represent a transition between two climatic regions.

The Junction Pool Lookout was supported by a grant from the Office of National Tourism of the Department of Industry, Science and Training. It was designed by Karratha company Astron Engineering and built by Byblos Engineering of Tom Price.

Mrs Edwardes said members of the Karijini Aboriginal Corporation and GreenCorps constructed the path to the lookout.

"Facilities such as lookouts and walk trails are examples of how conservation and tourism development can be integrated so that the environment and visitors alike benefit," she said.

"These sustainable and sympathetic developments give people safe access to the park's attractions with minimal impact on conservation values they have come to see.

"It means that if we integrate our conservation efforts with tourism, then both will develop far more strongly than if they are allowed to evolve in isolation."

The new lookout also incorporates a gate and anchor points which can be used for rescues from Hancock Gorge.

"The Department of Conservation and Land Management places a high priority on visitor safety and urges people visiting the park and other conservation areas to keep to walkways and be particularly careful near the rims of the gorges," Mrs Edwardes said.

Media contacts: Ministerial Diana Russell Coote (08) 9421 7777

CALM Chris Muller (08) 9143 1488