Australia dedicates Ngurra Kayanta and Umpila IPAs, adding 1.99 million hectares to National Reserve System

Overview of the New Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs)

The Australian federal government has formally dedicated two new Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs), adding a combined total of nearly two million hectares to the National Reserve System. The larger of the two, the Ngurra Kayanta IPA, covers 1.95 million hectares across the Great Sandy Desert in the south-eastern Kimberley region of Western Australia. The second, the Umpila IPA, encompasses 42,803 hectares of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, spanning from montane rainforest to coastal estuaries on the Coral Sea. Both dedications were announced through joint media releases by the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW).

These dedications carry direct and immediate consequences for environmental professionals, infrastructure proponents, resource developers, and land use planners operating across regional Australia. The new conservation boundaries alter the ecological significance classifications applied to adjacent land, trigger additional referral and assessment obligations under Commonwealth and state legislation, and reshape the spatial context for any project requiring biodiversity or ecological impact assessments in the affected regions. Understanding exactly where these boundaries sit, what species and habitats they protect, and how they connect to existing protected estates is now a baseline requirement for any work in or near the Great Sandy Desert or Cape York.

Beyond the immediate project-level implications, these dedications represent a measurable step toward Australia’s international commitment under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to protect 30 per cent of the nation’s land and oceans by 2030. Indigenous Protected Areas currently contribute more than half of all land added to Australia’s National Reserve System, making them the single most significant tenure category driving progress toward that target. For planners, lawyers, and environmental consultants advising on long-range project pipelines, the trajectory of IPA expansion is not slowing down.

Key details of the Ngurra Kayanta and Umpila IPA dedications

The Ngurra Kayanta IPA is the largest of the two new dedications, covering 1.95 million hectares in the Great Sandy Desert. The formal dedication ceremony was held at Jalyirr, also known as Lady Edith Lagoon, near Balgo in Western Australia. The IPA is managed by Traditional Owners whose country encompasses this arid desert landscape. Its boundaries are spatially significant because the Ngurra Kayanta IPA connects directly with five existing IPAs: the Martu, Kiwirrkurra, Ngururrpa, Paruku, and Warlu Jilajaa Jumu IPAs. The result is an essentially unbroken corridor of First Nations-managed conservation land across a vast section of the Australian arid zone. This level of landscape-scale connectivity is rare in any national reserve system and carries considerable weight in biodiversity offset assessments and regional conservation planning frameworks.

The Ngurra Kayanta IPA supports several nationally threatened species listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act). Confirmed species of note include the greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis), listed as Vulnerable under the EPBC Act; the red goshawk (Erythrotriorchis radiatus), listed as Endangered; the princess parrot (Polytelis alexandrae), listed as Vulnerable; and the night parrot (Pezoporus occidentalis), listed as Endangered. The presence of the night parrot is particularly significant given its extreme rarity and the legal weight attached to any project that could affect its habitat, even indirectly. Any proposed activity within or adjacent to this IPA that could affect these species would require assessment under the EPBC Act’s significant impact guidelines.

The Umpila IPA covers 42,803 hectares on the eastern Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. It spans a diverse ecological gradient, from the rainforest slopes of the McIlwraith and Macrossan Ranges down to estuaries, coastal wetlands, and Coral Sea coastline near Lockhart River. The IPA connects with the Kulla (McIlwraith Range) National Park and the Oyala Thumptang National Park, forming what is described as the largest unbroken section of protected rainforest in central Cape York. Threatened and significant species confirmed within or directly associated with the Umpila IPA include the southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii), listed as Endangered; the palm cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus), listed as Vulnerable; the McIlwraith leaf-tailed gecko (Saltuarius eximius); the green python (Morelia viridis); dugongs (Dugong dugon); and marine turtles. The overlap of terrestrial, freshwater, estuarine, and marine habitats within a single IPA boundary adds complexity to any future project-level assessment in the region.

Management of both IPAs will be led by Traditional Owners and Indigenous Rangers. Stated management priorities include biodiversity monitoring, protection of cultural sites, implementation of “right-way” cultural fire management, and control of invasive species. In the Great Sandy Desert context, the primary invasive threats identified are buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) and feral camels and cats. In Cape York, weed management and feral animal control are also central management objectives. These on-ground management programs are directly relevant to consultants designing biodiversity monitoring programs or ecological restoration works in adjacent areas, as they establish a land management authority and a set of operational priorities that any neighbouring project must acknowledge and, where appropriate, align with.

Australian context: EPBC Act, 30 by 30 targets, and state planning frameworks

Under the EPBC Act, an Indigenous Protected Area does not carry the same statutory designation as a Commonwealth reserve under the Act’s reserve provisions. However, this does not diminish the legal and practical weight an IPA carries for project proponents. An IPA is a formally recognised component of the National Reserve System, and the presence of EPBC Act-listed threatened species and ecological communities within its boundaries means that any action in or adjacent to an IPA that could have a significant impact on those species or communities will trigger a referral obligation under Part 3 of the EPBC Act. The relevant test is not whether the action occurs inside the IPA, but whether it could affect a matter of national environmental significance — and IPA boundaries are strong indicators of where those matters are likely to be found.

At the state level, the dedication of these IPAs has flow-on effects for planning and environmental impact assessment frameworks in both Western Australia and Queensland. In Western Australia, the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA) requires that proposals likely to have a significant effect on the environment be referred to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). The presence of a formally dedicated IPA — and the threatened species assemblages it supports — increases the likelihood that nearby proposals will meet the significance threshold triggering EPA assessment. In Queensland, the State Planning Policy and the Nature Conservation Act 1992 (Qld) operate alongside Commonwealth requirements, and the spatial extent of the Umpila IPA’s protected rainforest and coastal habitats will inform both state referral decisions and offset calculations under Queensland’s biodiversity framework.

For proponents working on infrastructure, resources, or land use projects in these regions, the practical implication is straightforward: these dedications must now be treated as a material constraint in early project scoping. Ecological assessments, biodiversity offset strategies, and referral advice prepared without accounting for the new IPA boundaries and their associated species records will be incomplete. Consultants and legal advisers should update their project files, GIS datasets, and referral checklists accordingly, and should anticipate that Commonwealth and state regulators will treat proximity to these IPAs as a factor warranting closer scrutiny in any assessment process.

References and related sources

• Primary source: ministers.pmc.gov.au
• nit.com.au
• sers.net.au
• minterellison.com
• EPBC Act

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This is an iEnvi Machete news summary. Prepared by iEnvi to summarise the source article for contaminated land, groundwater, remediation, approvals and site risk professionals.

Published: 06 Jul 2026

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