Protected areas of Australia

The following protected areas which are designated as national parks are managed by the Australian government and in some instances in conjunction with indigenous land owners:[2]

• Booderee (owned by the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community and co-managed)[3][4]
• Christmas Island
• Kakadu
• Norfolk Island
• Pulu Keeling
• Uluru-Kata Tjuta

Australia's first national park - and the second in the world - is Royal National Park in New South Wales, established in 1879.[5]

The National Heritage List is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003.[6] The list includes natural and historic places, including those of cultural significance to Indigenous Australians. Once on the National Heritage List the provisions of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 apply.[7] Some of these also form part of the World Heritage Sites listed in a separate section below.

• Australian National[8]
• Booderee (owned by the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community and co-managed)[3][4]
• Norfolk Island[9]

As of 2014 there are 12 Antarctic Specially Protected Areas[10]

• Amanda Bay
• Ardery Island and Odbert Island
• Clark Peninsula
• Frazier Islands
• Hawker Island
• Marine Plain
• Mawson's Huts
• North-eastern Bailey Peninsula
• Rookery Islands
• Scullin and Murray Monoliths
• Stornes
• Taylor Rookery

As of 2014 there is 1 Antarctic Specially Managed Area[10]

• Larsemann Hills

The Australian Government manages an estate of marine protected areas known as Commonwealth marine reserves (CMR) which was established under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). These marine reserves are in Australian waters, but not state or territory waters.[11][12] A majority of the reserves are not in effect until new managements plans are released following a review of reserves established in 2012.[13][14]

In addition to the Coral Sea CMR[15] and the Heard Island and McDonald Islands CMR,[16] there are a further 57 Commonwealth marine reserves grouped into 5 geographical regions called Commonwealth marine reserve networks:

• North network (8 reserves)[17]
• North-west network (13 reserves)[18]
• Temperate East network (8 reserves)[19]
• South-east network (14 reserves)[20]
• South-west network (14 reserves)[21]

Calperum and Taylorville Stations are pastoral leases located next to each other near Renmark in South Australia and which were purchased for conservation purposes using both private and Australian government funds. Calperum Station was purchased by the Chicago Zoological Society in 1993 while Taylorville Station was purchased by the Australian Landscape Trust in 2000 with the ownership of both leases being deeded to the Director of National Parks. Both properties are managed by the Australian Landscape Trust.[22][23]

As of April 2020, the following sites are listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites:[24]

• Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh, Qld and Naracoorte, SA)
• Australian Convict Sites, consisting of 11 remnant sites
• Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, Vic
• Fraser Island, Qld
• Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, formerly Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves
• Great Barrier Reef, Qld
• Greater Blue Mountains Area, NSW
• Heard and McDonald Islands, Antarctica
• Kakadu National Park, NT
• Lord Howe Island
• Macquarie Island
• Ningaloo Coast, WA
• Purnululu National Park, WA
• Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens
• Shark Bay, WA
• Sydney Opera House
• Tasmanian Wilderness
• Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, NT
• Wet Tropics of Queensland
• Willandra Lakes Region, NSW

An Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) is a class of protected area formed by agreement with Indigenous Australians and formally recognised by the Australian government as being part of the National Reserve System. As of April 2020 there are 75 IPAs occupying about 67,000,000 hectares (170,000,000 acres) and comprising more than 44% of the National Reserve System.[25]

The following biosphere reserves belonging to the UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve program are located within Australia:[26][27]

• Croajingolong, Victoria (1977)
• Riverland, South Australia (1977)
• Kosciuszko, New South Wales (1977)
• Prince Regent River, Western Australia (1977)
• Mamungari (formerly Unnamed), South Australia (1977)
• Uluru (Ayers Rock-Mount Olga), Northern Territory (1977)
• Yathong (1977)
• Fitzgerald River, Western Australia (1978)
• Hattah-Kulkyne and Murray-Kulkyne, Victoria (1981)
• Wilsons Promontory, Victoria (1981)
• Mornington Peninsula and Western Port, Victoria (2002)
• Barkindji, New South Wales (2005)
• Noosa, Queensland (2007)
• Great Sandy, Queensland (2009)

As a contracting party to the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (known as the Ramsar Convention), Australia is encouraged "to nominate sites containing representative, rare or unique wetlands, or that are important for conserving biological diversity, to the List of Wetlands of International Importance".[28] As of March 2014, the Australian Government has nominated 65 Ramsar sites.[29]