Dinosaur Coast National Heritage Management Plan 2025
WARNING: This plan contains names and images of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which we live, work, and conduct our research and we pay our respects to their Ancestors and Descendants. We support the continuation of their culture and protection of Country.
The Dinosaur Coast National Heritage Management Plan 2025 received funding from the Australian Heritage Grants Program. This management plan for the dinosaur tracks and associated ichnofossils, plant macrofossils and Cretaceous depositional environments of the Broome Sandstone exposed in the section of the Dampier Coast intertidal zone shown on Map 1.2 has been prepared for the purposes of Section 324X of the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
The plan was prepared for Dinosaur Coast Management Group Inc, PO Box 2478 Broome WA 6725.
www.facebook.com/dinosaurcoast
© Dinosaur Coast Management Group 2025
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the Purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 no part may be reproduced without written permission from the Dinosaur Coast Management Group.
Prepared by:
Stephanie Johnston & Associates
Neale Draper & Associates
Andrew Maland GIS
Significant contributions were received from the Goolarabooloo Millibinyarri Indigenous Corporation; UQ Dinosaur Lab (School of the Environment, formerly the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland); Yawuru Registered Native Title Holders Body Corporate; and Dianne Bennett. In addition, the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions; the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water; the Kimberley Ports Authority; and the Shire of Broome collaborated throughout and provided valuable input.
Front cover image: Damian Kelly
All uncredited images are used courtesy of Stephanie Johnston & Associates.
The recommended citation for this publication is: Dinosaur Coast National Heritage Management Plan 2025 Dinosaur Coast Management Group, Broome.
[IMG] Michael John Corpus (Micklo) 10 July 1959 – 8 May 2022 (Photo: Steve Salisbury)
This Dinosaur Coast National Heritage Management Plan is dedicated to the memory of Michael John Corpus (Micklo) 10 July 1959 – 8 May 2022.
A senior Yawuru Man and Native Title Holder (Rubibi Determination of 2006), Micklo has always said ‘look after Country and it will look after you’.
As Chairperson of the Dinosaur Coast Management Group since 2016, Micklo was always focussed on the need to protect the ichnofossils of the Broome Sandstone, both for their relevance to the cultural heritage of the Dampier Peninsula and for their scientific significance globally.
The preparation of this plan has brought together a diverse group of people and agencies who now have a shared commitment to protect the National Heritage values of the dinosaur tracks and the rocks they are preserved in – First Nations peoples, not-for-profit organisations, community groups, researchers, business interest groups, local government, state government departments, federal government departments, and statutory authorities. Let us each deliver our implementation responsibilities as a mark of respect to a man who loved his Country.
Permission has been granted by the family to publish this dedication and image, and to acknowledge Michael John Corpus by name.
1.1 NHVs for the Dampier Coast dinosaur tracks and Cretaceous landscape 12
1.2 Development of the management plan 13
1.2.1 Guidelines for developing a national heritage management plan 13
1.2.2 Dinosaur Coast Management Group, project team and project steering group 14
1.3 Vision, objectives and limitations 15
1.3.1 Vision and objectives 15
1.3.2 Other NHVs in the management area 16
1.3.3 Spatial data limitations 16
1.4 Project area location and description 18
2.1 Geological and palaeontological overview 21
2.1.3 Other Broome Sandstone fossils 22
2.2 Scientific documentation of dinosaur tracks and the Broome Sandstone Lower Cretaceous heritage 23
2.2.1 History of scientific recognition and documentation 23
2.2.2 History of conservation and management 25
3 Description of the landscape 29
3.2.8 Cable Beach Foreshore 42
3.3 Summary comparative analysis 45
4.1 NHVs and statements of national significance for the West Kimberley National Heritage Place 48
4.2 NHVs and statements of national significance relating to the Dampier Coast 48
4.2.1 National Heritage criterion (a): events and processes 48
4.2.2 National Heritage criterion (b): rarity 50
4.2.3 National Heritage criterion (d): principal characteristics of a class of places 52
4.2.4 National Heritage criterion (g): social value 53
4.2.5 National Heritage criterion (h): significant people 54
4.3 Other documented heritage values within the DCNHMP management area 54
4.3.1 Values documented at the national and international level 54
4.3.2 Values documented at the state, regional and local level 57
4.4 Potential additional NHVs 72
4.4.1 Cultural heritage values of ichnofossil sites 72
4.4.2 Human footprint sites in the DCNHMP area 73
5 Key issues, opportunities and constraints 74
5.1.2 Process for decision-making around NHV impacts 76
5.1.3 Additional protection mechanisms at the state and local level 77
5.2 Existing management frameworks 77
5.3 Incorporation of Broome Sandstone NHVs management into existing JMPs and Yawuru CMP 79
5.4.1 Fragility and dynamic nature of the intertidal sandstone environment 81
5.4.2 Lack of understanding of the NHVs and EPBC Act processes 81
5.4.3 Anomalies in the NHL gazettal boundary and a lack of dynamic shared spatial data 82
5.4.4 Pressures of population growth and urban development 82
5.4.5 Disturbance and damage from vehicular access 82
5.4.6 Growth of tourism and growth of interest in dinosaur fossils 82
5.4.7 Land tenure, resourcing and management of the public realm 83
5.5 Summary of proposals for change, and potential pressures on the Broome Sandstone environment 83
5.5.5 Gantheaume Point Zone 86
5.5.6 Cable Beach Foreshore Zone 87
5.6.2 NHVs as an in situ museum 88
5.6.4 Cultural, scientific and economic enterprise 89
5.6.5 Tourism and interpretation 89
5.6.6 Education and research 90
5.6.7 Management and monitoring 90
6 Conservation management policy 91
6.3 Key objectives, strategies and actions 97
6.3.1 Objective to increase understanding and awareness of the Dinosaur Coast and its NHVs 97
6.3.2 Objective to conserve and protect the NHVs of the Dinosaur Coast with best-practice adaptive management 99
6.3.3 Objective to monitor and manage the impacts of coastal erosion and other environmental processes 100
6.3.4 Objective to manage the impacts of the expansion of Broome and associated coastal development and infrastructure 101
6.3.5 Objective to manage increasing visitor interest in the tracks and an increasing number of visitors 102
6.3.6 Objective to create opportunities for the Broome community 104
6.3.7 Objective to improve the experience of visitors to the Dinosaur Coast 105
7 Implementation of the DCNHMP 107
Appendix A: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette Notice for the West Kimberley 139
Appendix B: EPBC Act Schedules 5A and 5B: National Heritage Management Plans and Principles 139
Appendix C: Flow charts of the EPBC Act assessment processes 139
Appendix D: CV Act Miscellaneous Plan 1992 139
Click each link below to open the relevant Map in a new tab.
Click each link below to open the relevant Appendix in a new tab.
[IMG] Australia’s Dinosaur Coast follows the coastline northwards from Roebuck Bay and Broome to Cape Leveque at the tip of the Dampier Peninsula in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Carmen Lawrence AO
Patron of the Dinosaur Coast Management Group Inc.
[IMG] Photo: Steve Salisbury
Just over a decade ago, as Chair of the Australian Heritage Council, I was delighted to preside over the inscription of the West Kimberley in the National Heritage List. The enduring, deep cultural significance of the Kimberley area to the Aboriginal people and the unrivalled, largely unspoiled beauty and power of the landscape easily commanded attention in the listing process. Less obvious, and nearly overlooked in early assessments, but ultimately included for their heritage significance, were the ichnofossils (trace fossils including dinosaur tracks) preserved in the Broome Sandstone and exposed in the intertidal zone between Roebuck Bay and Cape Leveque.
Recognising the significance of the fossils and protecting and preserving these stunning records of the Cretaceous period quickly became the focus – indeed the obsession – of a dedicated group of local volunteers, including the former beloved Chairman of the Dinosaur Coast Management Group, Yawuru man, Michael Corpus (Micklo). The group have engaged in energetic public advocacy and long hours of research and discussion to highlight the cultural and scientific importance of these dinosaur tracks. Together with the responsible public officials, they have now produced this comprehensive and detailed management plan. Throughout, the importance of continued scientific research and documentation is highlighted. Critical too, for effective long-term protection of the fossils is the emphasis in the plan on the application of the precautionary principle in any decisions affecting the area.
Although too many of us take our cultural and heritage riches for granted, we can be deeply grateful that, with the implementation of this plan, these unique treasures will be preserved for future generations. With effective protection, World Heritage Listing would be a distinct possibility.
Australia’s Dinosaur Coast follows the coastline northwards from Roebuck Bay and Broome to Cape Leveque at the tip of the Dampier Peninsula in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The Broome Sandstone located in the intertidal zone (ITZ) along this coast is renowned for its fossilised dinosaur tracks and preserves a variety of other animal, plant and fossils of the Lower Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era. These values are recognised under two criteria of the West Kimberley National Heritage listing. The primary aim of this Dinosaur Coast National Heritage Management Plan 2025 (DCNHMP) is to enable multiple stakeholders to work in partnership with the area’s Indigenous peoples to appreciate, study, protect and manage these National Heritage values (NHVs) into the future.
The DCNHMP does not include the full extent of the known Broome Sandstone outcrops, dinosaur tracks and other Lower Cretaceous fossils within the West Kimberley National Heritage Place, but considers only the 50 kilometres of coastline between Willie Creek and Crab Creek. Neither does the DCNHMP attempt to describe and manage all the natural and cultural values associated with this dynamic landscape. Instead, it serves as a comprehensive ancillary document to a suite of existing and complementary joint management plans (JMPs) for the marine and terrestrial components of the Yawuru Conservation Estate around Broome, and the multiple local, state and federal statutory frameworks that affect or intersect the defined intertidal management area.
Chapter 1 introduces the management setting and outlines the objectives and limitations of the DCNHMP. Because the mapped National Heritage boundary for this section of the coast includes only a limited portion of the ITZ referred to in the written descriptions and statements of significance contained in the 2011 Commonwealth Gazette notice for the National Heritage listing, this section defines and maps a management area made up of nine distinct management zones that better reflect those written descriptions.
Chapter 2 examines the scientific context of the Dinosaur Coast NHVs, gives an overview of the landscape’s geological and palaeontological features and summarises the history of recognition, research and management of that heritage to date. As the National Heritage listing occurred in 2011, this chapter brings readers up to date with the latest available scientific data and research.
Chapter 3 provides detailed descriptions and maps for each management zone, identifies the areas of significance and vulnerabilities within the landscape, and includes updated geological and palaeontological information and additional management resources. The DCNHMP primarily uses English-language place names to identify locations and zones related to the plan, recognising that Yawuru Registered Native Title Holders Body Corporate (Yawuru RNTBC, often referred to as the Yawuru PBC) and Goolarabooloo may use different place names that do not necessarily coincide with the defined management zones. Areas of relevance to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing are identified, categorised and mapped within each zone, based on their geological and palaeontological significance, as advised by The University of Queensland (UQ) Dinosaur Lab team.
Chapter 4 details the relevant geological and palaeontological values and summarises other documented heritage values contained within the DCNHMP management area, including a range of biological, historical and cultural values associated with the cultural landscape and its diverse custodians. Here further independent specialist anthropological research and documentation is recommended as the next step towards recognition of cultural values associated with the ichnofossils.
Chapter 5 sets the context for the development of management policy by identifying the key issues, opportunities and constraints associated with the cultural landscape. These range from the fragility and dynamism of the landscape in the face of natural and human impacts, to the pressures of population growth, a growing number of visitors and increasing visitor interest. The complexity of land tenure, resourcing and management of the public realm and the need for a more strategic management approach to supervision and monitoring of the NHVs and other relevant geological and palaeontological features located in the ITZ is at the heart of this discussion.
An overview of the self-assessment and referral obligations under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) recommends application of the precautionary principle when undertaking self-assessment due to the inaccuracies in the mapped Commonwealth Gazette boundary and the need to take into account upstream impacts on the NHVs. A summary of the complex management frameworks and associated land managers and land tenures, and a list and analysis of specific proposals that illustrate potential pressures on the Broome Sandstone NHVs are also included in this chapter.
Finally, Chapters 6 and 7 outline a joint management framework incorporating a ten-year implementation plan of actions for land managers and other members of the Broome community to protect, manage and promote awareness and understanding of the West Kimberley Dinosaur Coast using an adaptive management approach, and for that process to create value and benefit for current and future generations.
The West Kimberley (Map 1.1) was inscribed as a place on Australia’s National Heritage List (NHL) established by the EPBC Act on 31 August 2011, encompassing an area of approximately 19.2 million hectares. The West Kimberley National Heritage Place is described as
… one of Australia’s most special places. It is a vast area of dramatic and relatively undisturbed landscapes that has great biological richness and provides important geological and fossil evidence of Australia’s evolutionary history.
With sheer escarpments and pristine rivers that cut through sandstone plateaux and ancient coral reefs to create spectacular waterfalls and deep gorges, the region’s remoteness has created a haven that supports plant and animal species found nowhere else on the Australian continent.
Against the backdrop of this extraordinary landscape is woven a remarkable account of Aboriginal occupation over the course of more than 40,000 years and the story of European exploration and settlement, from William Dampier’s landing at Karrakatta Bay to the development of rich and vibrant pastoral and pearling industries that continue today (DCCEEW 2022).
The ichnofossils (trace fossils including dinosaur tracks) plant fossils and depositional environments of the Lower Cretaceous Broome Sandstone exposed in the ITZ of the Dampier Coast between Roebuck Bay and Cape Leveque have been recognised under criterion (b) and criterion (d) of the West Kimberley National Heritage listing:
Criterion (b) The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural and cultural history.
VALUES: Ecology, biogeography and evolution – Dampier Coast
The Dampier Coast dinosaur tracks have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (b) as the best and most extensive evidence of dinosaurs from the western half of the continent, some of which are unknown from body fossils; for the diversity and exceptional sizes of the sauropod prints; and the unique census of the dinosaur community that they provide (Commonwealth of Australia 2011).
Map 1.1 West Kimberley National Heritage listing location and boundary
Criterion (d) The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of: (i) a class of Australia’s natural and cultural places; or (ii) a class of Australia’s natural and cultural environments.
VALUES: Ecology, biogeography and evolution of the Dampier Coast Cretaceous landscape
The dinosaur tracks and associated ichnofossils, plant macrofossils and Cretaceous depositional environments of the Broome Sandstone exposed in the intertidal zone of the Dampier Coast have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (d) for preserving snapshots of the ecology of the Mesozoic (Commonwealth of Australia 2011).
These NHVs are described in detail in Chapter 4 and the complete Commonwealth Gazette notice for the West Kimberley is at Appendix A. This DCNHMP provides a management plan for the ichnofossils and Lower Cretaceous landscape of the Broome Sandstone exposures along the southern end of the Dampier Peninsula, within the project area described in Chapter 1.4. The DCNHMP does not include the full extent of known Broome Sandstone outcrops, dinosaur track and other Lower Cretaceous fossils within the West Kimberley NHL area, but focuses on the coastal area around Broome between Crab Creek and Willie Creek (Map 1.2). The northern boundary of the management plan area coincides with the boundary of the Yawuru Native Title Determination area. It is hoped that the DCNHMP will be extended or serve as a precursor for additional areas of the Dampier Peninsula coastline.
The Commonwealth guidelines for the development of national heritage management plans describe what should be included.
A management plan is a tool intended to provide sufficient information for managers to protect and manage the heritage values (local, state and national) of heritage places.
It is in an owner’s interest to prepare a management plan to guide day-to-day management, assist in decision-making and to support local, state and Commonwealth approval processes. A management plan should comprehensively describe the place, state its official National Heritage values and identify any other heritage listings. It should specify the objectives, policies and principles that will govern the management of the place’s heritage values and provide guidance on the preparation of project proposals to ensure that there are no adverse impacts on heritage values. It may also identify areas and items that do not embody heritage values or that are intrusive, and allow these to be removed or altered without affecting the values of the place (DEWHA 2008: 3).
Map 1.2 DCNHMP management area and management zone boundaries
These ‘Working Together’ guidelines (DEWHA 2008) are based on the requirements of the EPBC Act, Regulations, Schedule 5A (Management plans for National Heritage Places) and Schedule 5B (National Heritage management principles) (see Appendix B). The ‘Working Together’ guidelines are consistent with the management plan development guidelines in the Australia ICOMOS (AICOMOS) Burra Charter (AICOMOS 2013a). The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) is the Heritage division of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). In addition to these guidelines, the plan has been informed by other National and World Heritage management plans.
The Dinosaur Coast Management Group (DCMG) is a not-for-profit organisation, formed in 2015 to protect and promote the dinosaur tracks of the Dampier Peninsula and to educate the public about their cultural and scientific importance (dinosaurcoast.org.au). DCMG obtained grant funding from the Australian government to support the development of the DCNHMP and engaged an Adelaide-based consulting team to develop and produce the plan comprising Stephanie Johnston (Stephanie Johnston & Associates), Neale Draper (Neale Draper & Associates) and Andrew Maland (Andrew Maland GIS).
To guide the development of a shared management plan, DCMG recruited a project steering group made up of representatives of the following stakeholder groups who are responsible for implementation of the DCNHMP:
The steering group has been consulted at key stages throughout the development of the management plan, and their input has been incorporated where appropriate. Additional consultation has included the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH), Environs Kimberley (Kimberley region environmental NGO), Australia’s North West Tourism (ANW), the Broome Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and the Broome Historical Society and Museum (BHS&M).
The development of the DCNHMP has followed the Commonwealth guidelines ‘Working together: managing National Heritage Places’ (DEWHA 2008). As recommended in that guide, this management plan has been developed and structured using the best-practice standards of the Burra Charter (AICOMOS 2013a).
The methodology used by the research team and DCMG committee has included extensive background research and direct consultation with the project steering group and individual stakeholders over a four-year period, including field trips and face-to-face consultation meetings in Broome, online meetings, and circulation of draft management plan components for feedback. The time frame for preparation of the management plan primarily was determined by the acquittal conditions of two Australian Heritage Grants to DCMG.
In relation to cultural heritage and consultation, the methodology is guided by:
The vision for this DCNHMP is:
To understand, protect and promote the Dinosaur Coast and create opportunities for the Broome community.
The primary purpose of the DCNHMP is to provide a shared national heritage management plan to enable all stakeholders to facilitate this vision through the following range of objectives:
The DCNHMP is concerned with the NHVs of the Broome Sandstone outcrops, dinosaur tracks and associated fossils along the coast of the southern Dampier Peninsula and Roebuck Bay (Map 1.2). Other NHVs associated with the West Kimberley National Heritage Place may intersect the DCNHMP management area and these are discussed further in Chapter 4.
This management plan also refers to the cultural heritage significance of dinosaur tracks to some local Indigenous groups in Chapter 4.3.2. Detailed, site-specific documentation of these cultural heritage associations lies outside the scope of the management plan.
The DCNHMP management area is shown in Map 1.2 and described in Chapter 1.4 below. Criterion (d) of the West Kimberley National Heritage listing refers to the dinosaur tracks and associated ichnofossils, plant macrofossils and Cretaceous depositional environments of the Broome Sandstone exposed in the ITZ of the Dampier Coast from Roebuck Bay to Cape Leveque, and this location information is annotated to the map inset for these NHVs in Map 1.1. However, the Commonwealth Gazette boundary does not always match the described area of where these values actually occur. At the time that the West Kimberley was inscribed on the NHL, there was no accurate spatial information for the extent of the Broome Sandstone exposures, the distribution of the ichnofossils and associated palaeoenvironmental features, nor indeed for the extent of the ITZ itself. A large portion of the ITZ is not captured in the originally gazetted mapping (see Chapter 3, Maps 3.1–3.21). There are also internal inconsistencies and ambiguities between the gazetted map, the written boundary coordinates and the written descriptions of where the values are located. The majority (56%) of the areas now mapped as containing geological and palaeontological features relevant to the National Heritage listing are located outside of the gazetted NHL boundary. The substantial spatial data that have been recorded since the listing will therefore need to be incorporated into any future update of the NHL mapping of the Dampier Coast ITZ.
Specifically, there are several inherent difficulties in mapping the ITZ as described in the National Heritage listing. The landward boundary used for this DCNHMP is the best representation of the highest tide mark (Highest Astronomical Tide, HAT), mapped primarily from cadastral boundaries and extent of tidal inundation around Dampier Creek.
There are few datasets available of the Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT) line that have complete coverage of the management area on which to base the seaward boundary. Of those available, all ultimately are unsuitable as they are positioned to the landward side of recorded palaeoenvironmental features exposed within the ITZ. Commonly available versions of the LAT dataset appear to be coincident with that shown on the 1:50,000 scale Commonwealth-produced maps of the Broome region published in 1997 using data sourced in 1988 and 1989, suggesting that these datasets are quite possibly out of date and inaccurate. Data was sought directly from Geoscience Australia for their yet unreleased lowest tide mapping which is to form part of the next Australian Maritime Boundary (AMB) dataset. This data was derived from a series of aerial imagery captured over a much greater period. The data has been released for use in the NHL management plan without the straight-line segments the AMB now includes to close bay areas such as Roebuck Bay so as to more generally follow the open coastline. Unfortunately, this dataset also appears to capture the average lowest tide only, with known heritage features and field observations again falling seaward of this line.
In general, the use of any recorded version of HAT and LAT or High Water Mark (HWM)/Low Water Mark (LWM) to map the ITZ as a boundary is problematic, as this area is highly variable in width around the coast, being dependent on many highly localised environmental conditions. Although the intertidal area can be easily described with words it is very difficult to map accurately.
With the benefit of data provided by UQ, the proposed Dinosaur Coast Management Reference Group (DCMRG) now has access to spatial data that accurately records the low waterline in key areas of the DCNHMP management area, and the spatially defined areas containing palaeoenvironmental features relevant to the National Heritage listing. Using these data as a guide, the use of a constant 600 metre width ITZ based on the coastline as defined by Western Australian state (Landgate) data has been used to define a simple and reliable seaward boundary that incorporates the entirety of the LWM mapping and mapped geological and palaeontological features.
DCCEEW (formerly DAWE) has advised that the EPBC Act will only apply to values contained within the current gazetted NHL boundary (though see Chapter 1.3.3 above regarding ambiguities in the gazetted boundary spatial mapping and written boundary descriptions). Actions ‘upstream’ also come under the EPBC Act, meaning that values contained within the gazetted boundary (e.g., Broome Sandstone, dinosaur tracks, human footprints, etc.) are protected from actions that may occur outside the boundary, but that cause collateral impacts on those internally located values. However, that does not mean that a ‘value’ – e.g., Broome Sandstone exposures, tracks or fossil human footprints – that occurs outside the NHL-gazetted boundary is protected under the EPBC Act. That said, any threats to areas outside the gazetted boundaries may be relevant to the extent that they diminish the values located within the boundary (e.g., an impact on the diversity of track types or the significance of certain track associations or trackmaker behaviours). When deciding whether or not a proposed action is likely to have a significant impact on the gazetted NHVs, the precautionary principle is relevant. Until the inaccuracies described in Chapter 1.3.3 for the mapped gazettal boundary are corrected, the referral process for assessment of development actions under the EPBC Act needs to follow the gazetted written description of the NHL boundary for this section of the Dampier Coast as being the ITZ bounded by the highest and lowest astronomical tides. Further guidance on EPBC Act obligations and referral processes is provided in Chapter 5.1 and Appendix C.
The DCNHMP includes consideration of Broome Sandstone, dinosaur tracks and other geological and palaeontological features located outside the current mapping of the gazetted NHL boundary, and also makes the recommendation that the NHL map boundary be updated and expanded to include current, accurate data for the ITZ and the ongoing research and documentation of Broome Sandstone, dinosaur tracks and human footprints. Consequently, both the current mapping interpretation of the gazetted NHL boundary and the updated management plan boundary are shown on all relevant maps in the management plan.
Dinosaur tracks in the Broome Sandstone have been recorded at numerous places along the Dampier Peninsula coastline, but the DCNHMP covers only the area between Willie Creek and Crab Creek. The DCNHMP management area (“the project area”) is generally the ITZ along approximately 50 kilometres of coastline centred on the town of Broome (Map 1.2). This occurs both within and outside the West Kimberley National Heritage Place (Maps 1.3 and 1.4). The regulatory implications of this are discussed in Chapter 1.3.4 (below). Spatial data limitations in the definition of the management plan boundary are summarised above in Chapter 1.3.3.
The project area commences in the southeast at the mouth of Crab Creek, which is situated in the northeast of Roebuck Bay, continues west along the northern shore of Roebuck Bay to Dampier Creek, turns southwest through Broome Town Beach and extends to Entrance Point, northwest past Reddell Point along Reddell Beach to Gantheaume Point, turns first northeast then north before continuing along Cable Beach past the Cable Beach Foreshore area to Cape Latreille (Coconut Wells), continues north to a point midway across Willie Creek, and finally turns east to include the southern shore of Willie Creek before terminating at a point approximately midway along the Willie Creek eastern shoreline.
The landward boundary for the management plan area is derived from the most appropriate cadastral boundaries adjacent to and above the tidal HWM. The seaward boundary is defined by a constant 600 metre seaward buffer of the coastline as defined by Western Australian state (Landgate) spatial data.
The landward boundary of the project area commences in the southeast at the mouth of Crab Creek (located in the northeast of Roebuck Bay). It then continues west along the northern shore of Roebuck Bay to Dampier Creek, turns southwest through Broome Town Beach and extends to Entrance Point. It then goes northwest past Reddell Point along Reddell Beach to Gantheaume Point, turns first northeast, then north along Cable Beach past the Cable Beach Foreshore area to Cape Latreille (Coconut Wells). From here the boundary continues north to the Willie Creek inlet before turning south then east and finally northeast, before terminating at a point approximately midway along the eastern inlet coastline and coincident with the intersection of the northwestern boundary of the Rubibi Community Native Title Determination.
The northern project area boundary line connecting the landward to the seaward boundary runs generally east to west, commencing landward midway along the eastern shoreline of the Willie Creek estuary, continues seaward west-northwest across the estuary, before turning west to continue out through the mouth of Willie Creek to meet the 600-metre offshore seaward boundary. The northern project boundary is consistent with northwestern boundary of the Rubibi Community Native Title Determination (Map 1.3).
The seaward boundary commences at the point in the mouth of Willie Creek where the Rubibi Community Native Title Determination northwestern boundary and the 600-metre offshore boundary intersect. It continues parallel and 600 metres offshore from the coastline, heading first south to Cable Beach, then southwest to Gantheaume Point, southeast past Reddell Beach to Entrance Point, turning northwest around Entrance Point then continuing northeast along Town Beach to the Dampier Creek inlet, then east-southeast and finally southeast along the northern shore of Roebuck Bay to Crab Creek.
The southeastern project area boundary line, connecting the 600-metre offshore boundary to the landward boundary, commences at a point due west and seaward of the most southeasterly point of the landward boundary near Crab Creek, and extends approximately 1,135 metres due east in a straight line to connect the 600-metre offshore boundary to the point of commencement.
From Willie Creek south almost to the Cable Beach Foreshore Reserve, most of the intertidal project area has non-exclusive Native Title and is part of the Yawuru Guniyan Binba Conservation Park (DBCA 2020). The southeastern end of the project area at Roebuck Bay from west of the Broome Bird Observatory (BBO) to Crab Creek also has non-exclusive Native Title and is within the Yawuru Nagulagun/Roebuck Bay Marine Park (DPW 2016b). Nearly all of the Roebuck Bay section of the DCNHMP area is within the Yawuru Nagulagun/Roebuck Bay Marine Park. Native Title has been extinguished within the remainder of the project area bordering Broome and Dampier Creek/Roebuck Bay. Currently neither the Yawuru Birragun Conservation Park (DPW 2016a) nor the Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park (DBCA 2018) extend into the ITZ, although the Yawuru Cultural Management Plan (Yawuru CMP) (Yawuru RNTBC 2016) includes a recommendation to expand the Yawuru Conservation Estate to include the Port of Broome section of the ITZ.
Map 1.3 Rubibi Native Title Determination Status
Map 1.4 Yawuru Conservation Estate
To enable more fine-grained reporting and targeted management recommendations the greater project area is divided into nine distinct management zones (Map 1.2):
These zones are primarily defined by coastal landforms and the related presence or absence (to date) of Broome Sandstone and other geological units that preserve features relevant to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing, with secondary consideration given to common levels of access, and tertiary consideration given to levels of immediate risk. Areas containing geological and palaeontological features relevant to the National Heritage listing are mapped within each zone and categorised either as ‘outstanding’ or simply ‘relevant’. The nine zones are described in detail in Chapter 3.
The occurrence of dinosaur tracks is restricted to the location of Broome Sandstone within the greater project area, while the Broome Sandstone itself is a recognised NHV. Known exposures of Broome Sandstone generally lie within but are not entirely bounded by the best possible mapping of the ITZ (see Chapter 1.3.3). Other features relevant to the National Heritage listing may occur in other rock units in the study area.
The Broome Sandstone is a Lower Cretaceous stratigraphic unit within the Canning Basin of northwestern Western Australia, currently dated by plant macrofossils, dinocysts and palynology to the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian to Barremian), making it between 140 and approximately 127 million years old (McLoughlin 1996; Nicoll et al 2009; Smith et al 2013; Salisbury et al 2017: 17).
During the Mesozoic, through much of Jurassic and into Early Cretaceous, the Canning Basin was covered by shallow marine shelves and marginal continental platforms that formed the eastern margin of the expanding rift system between Australia and India-Madagascar (Veevers & Wells 1961; Veevers 1967; Playford et al 1975; Leslie et al 1976; Plumb 1979; Forman & Wales 1981) (McCrea et al 2011: 12).
Broome Sandstone
The Broome Sandstone forms a portion of the eighth depositional cycle within the Canning Basin, emplaced during three cycles of transgression and regression (Interval 8 of Forman & Wales 1981). The base of the Broome Sandstone disconformably overlies the Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous (Tithonian– Berriasian) sediments of the Baleine Formation and the Jarlemai Siltstone (Brunnschweiler 1957; Yeates et al 1984; Nicoll et al 2009; Smith et al 2013). Overlying the Broome Sandstone are the clastic sediments of the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) Parda Formation and the Melligo, Frezier, and Leveque sandstones (Brunnschweiler 1957; Veevers & Wells 1961; Forman & Wales 1981), and the Upper Cretaceous–Neogene Emeriau Sandstone (Veevers & Wells 1961; Forman & Wales 1981).
Pervasive northwest–southeast-trending fault systems divide the Canning Basin into several subunits, greatly reducing the surficial exposure of many units. As a result, exposure of the Broome Sandstone is limited to the Broome Platform, the Jurgurra Terrace, and the Fitzroy Trough (Haines & Wingate 2007). Onshore exposures of the Broome Sandstone are limited to discontinuous shore platforms and low rocky cliffs spread over approximately 200 km of the western coastline of the Dampier Peninsula, from Roebuck Bay north to Cape Leveque … (Brunnschweiler 1957). Exposures of Broome Sandstone along the coast rarely exceed a thickness of 11–15 m (during low tide). Boreholes, however, show that the preserved portion of the Broome Sandstone is at least 274 m thick (McWhae et al 1958; Veevers & Wells 1961; Playford et al 1975; Forman & Wales 1981; Gibson 1983; Yeates et al 1984; Haines 2011). Paleogene–Quaternary coastal deposits also often unconformably overlay the more landward portions of the Broome Sandstone (Salisbury et al 2017: 14–15).
These main characteristics of the Broome Sandstone are summarised in relation to dinosaur track and other fossils in Salisbury et al (2017) and McCrea et al (2011).
The Broome Sandstone preserves a variety of Lower Cretaceous animal and plant fossils, but is renowned for its fossilised non-avian dinosaur tracks.
The Broome Sandstone on the Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia, preserves the most diverse dinosaurian track fauna in the world. Twenty one different types of tracks have been identified, preserved in over 70 tracksites scattered over approximately 80 km of coastline from Roebuck Bay north to Minarriny (Coloumb Point) (Glauert 1952; Colbert & Merrilees 1967; Long 1990, 1992a, 1993; Thulborn et al 1994; Long 1998, 2002; Thulborn 2002; Rich & Vickers-Rich 2003a; Willis & Thomas 2005; Thulborn 2009 [Thulborn 2009b], 2012; Commonwealth of Australia 2011; Salisbury et al 2017; Romilio et al 2017). With the exception of a few fragments of bone from other fossil localities in Western Australia (Long 1992b; Long & Cruickshank 1996; Long & Molnar 1998; Agnolín et al 2010; Salisbury & Long 2018), this ichnofauna constitutes the primary record of dinosaurs for the western half of Australia, with many of the tracks having no obvious counterpart among described body fossils from other parts of the continent. The dinosaurian ichnofauna of the Broome Sandstone comprises five different types of tracks made by predatory theropod dinosaurs, at least six types of tracks assigned to long-necked herbivorous sauropods, four types of tracks assigned to two-legged herbivorous ornithopods, and six types of tracks assigned to armoured dinosaurs. Among the tracks is the only confirmed evidence for stegosaurs in Australia. There are also some of the largest dinosaurian tracks ever recorded, with some of the sauropod tracks being 1.7 m long.
In recognition of their outstanding heritage value, dinosaurian tracks in the Broome Sandstone were included in the West Kimberley National Heritage Area in 2011 (Place ID 106063; Commonwealth of Australia 2011) (Salisbury & Romilio 2019: 1).
The Broome Sandstone dinosaur tracks occur within a rich diversity of other fossil evidence, including plant macrofossils and invertebrate trace fossils.
In addition to dinosaurian tracks, the ichnofauna of the Broome Sandstone also comprises invertebrate trails and burrows with meniscate fillings (Brunnschweiler 1957; Thulborn et al 1994). Body fossils include arenaceous foraminiferans, microplankton, meiospores (Towner & Gibson 1983), and rare bivalves (Yeates et al 1984). Marine bivalves have been reported from outcrops exposed at or near Cape Leveque (Brunnschweiler 1957; McCrea et al 2011). Bennettitaleans, pteridosperms, and araucarian and podocarpacean conifers dominate the rich and diverse plant macrofossil assemblage. Other plant macrofossils include lycophytes, ferns, and pentoxylaleans (White 1961; McLoughlin 1996). Overall, the flora is thought to be indicative of fern-dominated coastal marshes and stream border communities, and Ptilophyllum swamp forests (Forman & Wales 1981). McLoughlin (1996) suggested that the abundance of bennettitaleans was indicative of a relatively warm, but seasonal climate (Salisbury et al 2017: 15).
This section provides a short summary of the history of scientific documentation of the dinosaur tracks and Lower Cretaceous palaeontological heritage preserved in the Broome Sandstone. A more detailed account is found in Salisbury et al 2017: 5–9.
Glauert (1952) reported the discovery by Walter Jones of Broome in 1945 of large impressions ‘shaped like giant emu tracks’, approximately 13 inches (330 millimetres) long, in the Broome Sandstone at extreme low spring tide near the Point Gantheaume Lighthouse. In fact, some of these tracks had been encountered by a group of Girl Guides in 1935 and reported in a Perth newspaper article in 1946 (Salisbury et al 2017: 5–6). Glauert noted:
Although so recently brought to our knowledge the tracks have long been familiar to the aborigines, who have given them the name of warragunna, and who have a legend to account for their origin. The story is that a native walking along the beach noticed the tracks and at once began to follow them. Suddenly a very large bird was seen trying to get across the bay in a southerly direction. When the bird turned and came towards him the native fled, not stopping until he reached “Willy’s Creek,” where his footprint can be seen (Glauert 1952: 82–83).
This information came from Jones. Glauert published a sketch of the tracks, provided by Mr Jones, and he based his description on reports, measurements, and a cement cast of one of the prints (Colbert & Merrilees 1967: 21).
McWhae et al (1958) referred to these tracks and the fossil flora at Gantheaume Point in their description of the Broome Sandstone:
The unit contains plants with Lower Cretaceous affinities, and is believed to be, in the main, a continental deposit. At Gantheaume Point, well-preserved footprints of a three-toed iguanadont [sic: iguanodont] reptile can be seen in the Broome Sandstone when the tide is low (McWhae et al 1958: 107).
Veevers and Wells (1961) reached essentially the same conclusions.
The Gantheaume Point tracks were examined in the field by Colbert and Merrilees (1967), who described three fossil locations, including two at Gantheaume Point and one at the adjacent Reddell Beach. Colbert and Merrilees (1967: 23) concluded that all of the prints described could be assigned to a new ichnotaxon, which they named Megalosauropus broomensis.
The Geological survey of Western Australia (GSWA) Memoir 2, ‘The Geology of Western Australia’, contains a brief description of the Broome Sandstone fossils at Gantheaume Point (Playford et al 1975). The fossil plant species recorded by White (1959) were noted and theropod dinosaur prints were mentioned (citing Colbert & Merrilees 1967) and illustrated.
In 1987 local Broome resident and naturalist Paul Foulkes began to record dinosaur tracks along the Dampier Peninsula coast known to Goolarabooloo Law Boss Paddy Roe OAM (deceased), whose family group has maintained strong cultural associations with the dinosaur tracks as part of the Northern Tradition of the Song Cycle (see Chapter 4.3.2) (Salisbury et al 2017: 7). Foulkes recruited other local enthusiasts as well as John Long at the Western Australian Museum.
Long visited Broome in mid-1990, and, in addition to more theropod tracks similar to M. broomensis, he was able to confirm the presence of numerous other tracks and trackways referable to sauropods, large and small ornithopods, and quadrupedal ornithischians, at tracksites he was taken to by Foulkes, Middleton, and another Broome local, John Martin (Long 1990; Rich & Vickers-Rich 2003a) (Salisbury et al 2017: 7).
In a general-audience book on the Dinosaurs of Australia and New Zealand, Long (1998: 53) recorded that dinosaur footprints were first recognised in extensive outcrops of Cretaceous rocks in northern Western Australia in the 1940s, as had been outlined earlier by others (e.g., Glauert 1952; Colbert & Merrilees 1967; see Salisbury et al 2017 for further detail). He noted that he studied finds that were shown to him by Paul Foulkes and friends from Broome, revealing at least six different kinds of dinosaur tracks, and that ongoing research by Thulborn, Hamley and Foulkes (see the summary published in 1994) was revealing additional types of footprint, ‘including some of the world’s largest sauropod tracks’.
Since 1987 one of the present authors (P.F.) has discovered many more dinosaur footprints in the Broome Sandstone, some of them very different in appearance from Megalosauropus broomensis. It is now apparent that the Broome Sandstone contains a rich dinosaurian ichnofauna, including the tracks of sauropods, theropods, ornithopods and quadrupedal ornithischians. Our preliminary studies have revealed at least 10 distinct morphological types of dinosaur tracks in the Broome Sandstone, some referable to existing ichnogenera and others almost certainly indicative of new ichnotaxa. By world standards this is a remarkably diverse ichnofauna … (Thulborn et al 1994: 87).
Thulborn et al (1994) also studied the palaeoenvironmental evidence preserved with the dinosaur tracks in the Broome Sandstone.
Thulborn et al (1994) provided the first detailed account of the dinosaurian tracksites on the coast north of Broome. Although intended as a preliminary assessment of the sauropod tracks, their study focused primarily on the depositional settings directly associated with the dinosaurian ichnites. Thulborn et al (1994) found that dinosaurian tracks in the Broome Sandstone occurred in what they regarded as two distinct paleoenvironmental settings: a ‘lagoonal/tidal paleoenvironment’ and a ‘swamp/forest paleoenvironment’. They distinguished each of these paleoenvironmental settings based upon observed differences in sedimentary features, track preservation, and faunal and floral compositions. Confirming the earlier reports of Long (1990, 1992a), Thulborn et al (1994) identified at least ten different types of dinosaurian tracks, referable to theropod, sauropod, ornithopod, and thyreophoran trackmakers. Only the sauropod tracks were described in any detail, with further information provided in Thulborn (2002). A more exhaustive account of the sauropod tracks and the sedimentary structures associated with them has been provided recently by Thulborn (2012), who indicated that the total number of dinosaurian ichnotaxa present in the Broome Sandstone could be as high as 16 (Salisbury et al 2017: 8).
The Commonwealth and Western Australian environmental assessment process for the proposed Browse Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project at James Price Point in 2010–2011 (approximately 60 kilometres north of Broome) included submissions from Thulborn and others regarding the significance of the Broome Sandstone exposures and dinosaur tracks. A short report on the James Price Point footprint sites by Mikael Siversson (2010) from the Western Australian Museum ascribed low significance to those intertidal exposures inspected during three days of fieldwork.
A further field assessment was commissioned by the Department of State Development at the request of the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and was conducted by palaeontologists Richard McCrea, Curator of the Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre, British Columbia, Canada and Dr Martin Lockley, Professor of Geology at the University of Colorado at Denver, USA. These scientists inspected sites in the vicinity of James Price Point with Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury, UQ (McCrea et al 2011: 43), while part of their field team made preliminary GPS and photographic records of dinosaur tracks at intertidal locations around Broome Gantheaume Point, Reddell Beach and Roebuck Bay (Red Cliffs) (McCrea et al 2011: 7).
McCrea et al (2011: iii) acknowledged the participation and advice of Traditional Owners including Jabbir Jabbir, Goolarabooloo and Yawuru, as well as the Kimberley Land Council, in accomplishing their fieldwork.
In addressing a major study objective to ‘place the palaeontological features that may be impacted by the development into a local, regional, national and international context’ (McCrea et al 2011: 3), the report concluded:
As the science of vertebrate ichnology has matured, efforts to nominate sites and regions for World Heritage status represent just one example of efforts to preserve fossil footprint resources as local, regional or national heritage sites. All such endeavours require evaluation of the resource, along the lines of the effort undertaken in this survey. This is because local communities and local, regional and national governments need to understand the resources in their areas of jurisdiction in order to make appropriate management decisions. In the case of the Broome region, already part of the larger Kimberley Heritage region, there is no doubt that a significant paleontological resource exists, that has yet to be adequately documented (McCrea et al 2011: 49).
By the time the McCrea et al (2011) report was completed, the West Kimberley NHL area already had been gazetted (Commonwealth Gazette 2011).
Palaeontological and related research coordinated by UQ Dinosaur Lab has continued ever since (Romilio et al 2017; Salisbury et al 2017), and they also have produced a palaeontological assessment of the Broome Safe Boat Harbour Project location at Reddell Point–Entrance Point (Salisbury & Romilio 2019). Their summary of the current, cumulative state of scientific knowledge of the Broome Sandstone dinosaur tracks is quoted above in Chapter 2.1.2.
[IMG] Figure 2.1 Aerial view of Minyirr – Gantheaume Point (Photo: Neale Draper)
To date there have not been any specific, government-based management or protection measures for Broome Sandstone fossils, including dinosaur tracks. Collecting and selling fossils is regulated in Western Australia. However, destruction of fossils and sites through natural erosion processes or through development construction work is not mentioned. There is a State Register of geoheritage sites maintained by the Geological Survey of Western Australia, but these sites do not have any legal protection. More information is on the website of the Western Australian Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS) at dmp.wa.gov.au/Geological-Survey/Geoheritage-1412.aspx.
DEMIRS highlights the significance of the Broome Sandstone dinosaur track sites and refers to a presumed cycle of disappearance and replenishment of the visible population of tracks, as the Broome Sandstone exposed in the ITZ naturally erodes through tidal action.
[IMG] Figure 2.2 Minyirr – Gantheaume Point current interpretation shelter and signage (Photo: Neale Draper)
The tracks provide valuable information on the diversity of dinosaurs in Australia at the time, their community structure and even aspects of their individual style of movement. The sites are considered to be of world significance due to the diversity of footprints seen. The trackways, as part of the West Kimberley, were registered on the Australian National Heritage List in 2011. As the trackways are very close to the coast, some of them can only be visited when the tide is low; at high tide, the tracks are covered by the ocean. The footprints will eventually be completely eroded by waves, but other buried footprints will likely become exposed in time (DMIRS 2022).
At the first published track site location of Gantheaume Point (Minyirr) (Figure 2.1) there is at the time of publishing a dilapidated shelter with site interpretation information provided by the SOB and the former Rubibi Aboriginal Land, Heritage and Development Council (Figure 2.2), and a sign on the path to the point advising that the area is culturally sensitive (Figure 2.3). The interpretation signs at the shelter describe some local Aboriginal creation stories associated with this locality, historical information, local plants and geology, and a description of the dinosaur tracks, with the added advisory note:
These footprints are difficult to find and can only be seen at very low tide. Conditions can be treacherous and visitors are not encouraged to seek out the prints.
As an alternative viewing experience, there is a misleading concrete facsimile of three theropod tracks (all left feet) on the cliff top (Figure 2.4). There is no interpretive information on this display. All of these interpretative features are in poor condition.
Contemporary scientific publications generally avoid giving the location of tracks (e.g., McCrea et al 2011, Salisbury et al 2017), except where they already are publicly well known, such as at Gantheaume Point (e.g., Glauert 1952, Romilio et al 2017). Anonymity has long been a primary means of protection for palaeontological, archaeological and cultural sites of significance. The premise is that if only a few people are able to recognise sites without assistance, and in the absence of public information on locations, those places are partly protected, at least from deliberate damage.
McCrea et al (2011: 49) recommended detailed scientific recording of track sites and salvage of type specimens to a museum or other institution, to mitigate the impacts of natural erosion or human activities. Other scientists made strong recommendations in the particular case of the proposed Browse LNG development to avoid harm by preserving the James Price Point area tracks in situ and industrial development not occurring at that location (see Salisbury et al 2017 for a summary).
More recently, Salisbury and Romilio (2019) conducted a palaeontological survey of the proposed location for construction of the Broome Safe Harbour Project. Their survey contains significant, detailed results for this location.
Over 140 National Heritage listed dinosaurian track-bearing surfaces in the Broome Sandstone were recorded in the survey area. Many of these surfaces preserve multiple tracks and trackways, so the total number of individual tracks is much higher. Some areas, such as Reddell Point are heavily trampled and probably include hundreds of individual tracks and trackways. We conservatively estimate that there are more than 500 individual tracks in the survey area, potentially spanning many tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years of dinosaurian activity between 140–127 million years ago (Salisbury & Romilio 2019: vi).
The Reddell Point–Entrance Point area preserves the most southerly dinosaurian track-bearing surfaces in the Broome Sandstone within the West Kimberley. These tracksites may therefore sit within a unique part of the great delta system that formed the Broome Sandstone 140–127 million years ago. The dinosaurs that inhabited this area may have lived in the most coastal of all the palaeoenvironmental settings that formed part of the Broome Sandstone delta system, and could therefore represent a unique part of the palaeontological story that we are beginning to reconstruct for this area. In the context of this broader story, all the tracks in the survey area are important, and only in their entirety can they help us to reconstruct this prehistoric ‘lost world’ of the Kimberley (Salisbury & Romilio 2019: vii).
Referring to the NHL values of the Broome Sandstone and dinosaur track sites, Salisbury and Romilio (2019) conclude that the construction of the boat harbour at that location would not only cause extensive direct destruction to Broome Sandstone and dinosaur tracks, but also cause significant, wider collateral damage to an adjacent site at Reddell Beach and Entrance Point by changing sedimentation and erosion patterns. The report recommends that the project should be moved to another location that would not cause significant harm to the dinosaur tracks, or at least radically redesigned to reduce its impacts on them (Salisbury & Romilio 2019: vii–viii).
In practice, the focus of ongoing management of dinosaur track sites comes from volunteers in the DCMG, established in 2015. This non-government organisation has continuously worked to manage and protect dinosaur track sites through public education initiatives and providing information on local development planning proposals that may impact these sites.
[IMG] Figure 2.3 Signage at Minyirr – Gantheaume Point advising that the area is culturally sensitive
The DCMG also responds to development proposals that may harm dinosaur track sites in the absence of any existing process for considering these sites and their NHL values. The DCNHMP is intended to provide a better alternative for management of the Broome Sandstone and Lower Cretaceous fossil sites. DCMG volunteers continue to record and monitor track sites, providing additional field data for UQ researchers.
As a result of a DCMG nomination, the dinosaur tracks are recognised as Place 73 in the SOB Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places with a classification ‘A’ ‘Exceptional Significance’. DCMG also nominated the tracks for inclusion in the State Register in August 2019; however, that nomination is yet to be assessed.
In general, management initiatives to date have focussed on a combination of keeping many of the dinosaur track site locations confidential, while at the same time improving educational and promotional public information on the importance of the sites, with visitor guidance and interpretation for locations at Broome that already are widely known. Some local tourist maps indicate that dinosaur tracks can be seen at low tides from Gantheaume Point eastwards around Reddell Beach to Entrance Point.
[IMG] Figure 2.4 Minyirr – Gantheaume Point concrete casts of theropod tracks (all impressions of the left foot)
The Yawuru Native Title Holders also have two Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUAs) with the state of Western Australia and the SOB that have resulted in the establishment of four conservation parks that intersect or adjoin the DCNHMP area. The JMPs for these parks (DBCA 2018, 2020; DPW 2016a, 2016b), as well as the overarching Yawuru CMP (Yawuru RNTBC 2016) behind them, include the recognition and protection of dinosaur track sites and the extension of the Conservation Estate to include the ITZ in the Port of Broome Area (KPA) (Chapter 5.2, 5.3; Map 1.3).
There is also the unrecorded, ongoing management by Aboriginal Traditional Owners and Cultural Custodians of significant cultural places that may include Broome Sandstone exposures and Lower Cretaceous fossils, including dinosaur tracks. Cultural heritage significance and management of such sites are discussed in more detail in Chapter 4.4.
There is systematic scientific research continuing on the Broome Sandstone Lower Cretaceous fossil assemblages. This is based at UQ Dinosaur Lab (e.g., Salisbury et al 2017, Romilio et al 2017, the most recent publications from this research) and is a methodical, slow process, as is the publication of results.
These scientists also provide periodic assessment and verification of track discoveries reported through local volunteer data collection (Bennett 2022, 2024), though no database of verified discoveries and locations is publicly available. Apart from the detailed assessment of tracks in the Entrance Point/Reddell Beach area by Salisbury and Romilio (2019), dinosaur track-location data have not been published or provided to management stakeholders such as the SOB, KPA, DBCA or Yawuru. This has been addressed in this DCNHMP through the refined mapping of Broome Sandstone and dinosaur track exposure areas (Chapter 3 zone maps: geological and palaeontological features) by UQ. There is an inevitable gap between palaeontological field research and reporting timelines and the updating of spatial management information for local land and resource management agencies.
This gap is exacerbated by the inaccurate mapping of the extent of the Broome Sandstone and fossil exposures accompanying the NHL Gazette (Commonwealth of Australia 2011), which excludes the majority of the features that it is intended to protect and promote. The added complication is that the sites concerned occur in an ITZ with a depth range of approximately 10 metres with varying access, and ongoing erosion of recorded features and exposure of new ones.
UQ Dinosaur Lab continues to conduct research along the length of the Dinosaur Coast of the Dampier Peninsula, including the project area for this management plan, to increase knowledge of the extent, diversity and significance of the Dinosaur Coast fossil record.
The Dampier Peninsula ITZ comprises a very small portion of the total West Kimberley National Heritage Place, which covers about 19,200,000 hectares. The coastal landscape containing the Broome Sandstone extends from Cape Leveque in the north to Eighty Mile Beach in the south; however, outcrops are restricted to thin local coastal exposures, mainly around the Dampier Peninsula, and a few inland hill or creek-bed exposures (Gorter et al 1979 in McCrea et al 2011).
The landscape is subject to one of the highest tidal ranges anywhere in the world, and many of the dinosaur track sites can only be seen for short periods during very low tides. Seasonal cyclone and storm activity can also greatly affect the distribution of sand along this portion of coast, periodically exposing some rock platforms while burying others (Salisbury et al 2017). The coastal landscape of the defined management area between Crab Creek and Willie Creek features long sandy beaches, frequent intermittent exposures of Broome Sandstone, river estuaries, wetlands and tidal inlets, dense mangrove communities, and intertidal sand and mudflats that provide important habitat for diverse marine fauna, which in turn support large numbers of migratory shore birds. Low, red Pleistocene pindan cliffs of Mowanjum Sand and stretches of Holocene sand dune border the upper limit of the ITZ. In parts, the beach sands and other coastal sediments have lithified to form a diverse suite of Holocene rocks that include limestones, coquinas, calcilutites, aeolianites, and calcreted shelly calcarenites. Additionally, there are unnamed units of Cenozoic and Quaternary age that include ferruginised sandstones, ironstone gravels and conglomerates, and mottled muddy sands, muds and gravels (Semeniuk 2008; Salisbury & Romilio 2019).
Table 3.1 Summary of geological unit descriptions
Geological unit | Map label | Description |
Broome Sandstone | Kb | Cross-bedded, bedded to laminated, fine to very coarse sandstone, mudstone and minor conglomerate of Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian–Barremian) age. Contains dinosaur and invertebrate traces, and plant macrofossils. |
Built environment | BE | |
Cable Beach Sand | Qcd | Laminated, bedded, to low-angle cross-bedded, medium to fine to coarse sand and shelly sand; locally, patches of mid- to high-tidal cemented in situ beachrock, and slabs and breccia (the latter two embedded in laminated sand), bubble sand, and cross-laminated shelly sand and sand; when prograded it forms a sheet deposit under tidal beach face, otherwise it is ribbon shaped in geometry. Holocene/contemporary. |
Cape Boileau Calcarenite Lombadina Conglomerate | Qbr | CBC: Cemented beachrock comprising laminated, bedded, to low-angle cross-bedded, medium to fine to coarse calcarenite and shelly calcarenite, with local layers of bubble sand, and locally incorporated slabs and breccia of (earlier cemented beachrock) intraclasts; ribbon deposit formed on and buried under the tidal beach face. Contains fossilised human tracks. Holocene. LC: Within the Cable Beach Sand, deposits of reworked beachrock forming rounded slabs and breccia, pebble to boulder sized; these fragments of beachrock are embedded in laminated sand, bubble sand, and cross-laminated shelly sand and sand, or form a sand-free deposit resting on beachrock pavement; ribbon deposit formed along upper tidal beach face. Holocene. |
Djugun Member | Qdm | Within the Sandfire Calcilutite, muddy red quartz sand, muddy brown quartz sand (mud in the muddy sand is kaolinitic and/or calcilutaceous); sheet-like deposit occurring between red sand and calcilutite. Holocene/contemporary. |
Holocene aeolian dune sand (Church Hill Sand + Shoonta Hill Sand) overlying Pleistocene Mowanjum Sand | Qsz | CHS: Mainly structureless, but locally laminated to cross-laminated red quartz sand; shoe-string to lensoid deposit formed as supratidal dunes. Holocene/contemporary. SHS: White fine-grained sand; shoe-string to lensoid deposit formed as supratidal dunes. Holocene/contemporary. MS: ‘Pindan’; structureless red sand (red sand and red muddy sand, root structured and mottled). Pleistocene. |
Horsewater Soak Calcarenite | Qhsc | Cross-laminated aeolian calcarenite; shoe-string deposit formed as earlier Holocene supratidal dunes; lithified. Contains invertebrate trace fossils. |
Sandfire Calcilutite | Qsc | White/cream/grey largely structureless, to bioturbated, to laminated, to locally indurated calcilutite; grades into underlying sand via calcilutaceous muddy sand, and into laterally adjoining sand via kaolinitic and calcilutaceous muddy sand; underlies sand flats, samphire flats, mangrove flats, and mid–low tidal flats; prism to wedge-shaped deposit formed under muddy tidal flats (note that this formational description encompasses the lithological characteristics of its component three members); lithified. Holocene. |
Unnamed Pliocene–Quaternary Conglomerate | PQc | Ironstone gravel and breccia; a gravel to cobble to boulder deposit of ironstone clasts and ferruginised sandstone eroded from overlying Cretaceous and Cenozoic sandstones; often unconformably overlies exposures of Broome Sandstone. |
Map 3.1 Overview of management zones and areas that contain geological and palaeontological features that are relevant to the National Heritage listing
The descriptions of the geological and palaeontological features in each management zone have been reviewed and updated by UQ Dinosaur Lab. The maps and spatial data which accompany these zone descriptions identify the areas within each management zone that contain geological and palaeontological features that are relevant to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing, and the following classifications have been supplied by Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury following consultation with staff in the Heritage Division of DCCEEW, Canberra during 2022 and 2023:
These are locations that contain palaeontological and geological features that are relevant to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing. For this stretch of coast this means either dinosaur tracks and associated trace fossils in the Broome Sandstone and/or exposures of Broome Sandstone that offer insight into depositional settings during the time that the dinosaur tracks were made. Fossilised human tracks in Holocene sediments are also considered relevant to the National Heritage listing.
Most of the exposures of Broome Sandstone in the management area would fall under these criteria. Some exposures, however, either (at least presently) contain no dinosaur and/or other trace fossils, or are so encrusted with marine life and sediment as to be of little value for interpretation.
These are places that meet all the criteria listed above, but also include either unique, rare, historically or culturally significant tracks, a high concentration of tracks, tracks that offer unique insights into the diversity of the Broome Sandstone dinosaur ichnofauna, the behaviour of the trackmakers, or the temporal or spatial distribution of the trackmakers; i.e., significant geological features that provide important insights into depositional settings during the time that the dinosaur tracks were made.
The Roebuck Bay Zone extends along the coast for 8.2 kilometres, commencing at the eastern end of the beach near the BBO adjacent to Crab Creek. It then follows westwards along the northern shore of Roebuck Bay to the establishment of continuous mangrove coverage of the Dampier Creek estuary approximately 500 metres west of the Crab Creek Road T-junction.
The coastal landscape features sandy beaches, small rocky points, intertidal sand and mudflats and frequent intermittent Broome Sandstone exposures with occasional sparse areas of mangroves. Low red pindan cliffs of Quaternary Mowanjum Sands border the upper limit of the ITZ. Sand and mudflats in the ITZ are habitat for a high diversity of invertebrates, including crabs, other crustaceans, bivalves, gastropods and marine worms, which in turn support a globally significant migratory bird hub. At its eastern end the Roebuck Bay Zone intersects with a wetland of international importance that is recognised and managed under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar Convention). The intertidal and mudflat ecological communities are believed to be in generally undisturbed condition, although changes to community composition have been observed in localised areas, and populations of blood cockles may be declining (DPW 2016b).
Map 3.2 Roebuck Bay Zone: Location
Map 3.3 Roebuck Bay Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
[IMG] Figure 3.1 Aerial view of Roebuck Bay area
The long stretch of south-facing beach has a large Broome Sandstone outcrop, mainly in the form of low-relief in situ bedding planes in the intertidal area. At the eastern end of the zone the low cliffs of red Mowanjum Sand recede to high tidal-flat muds of the Sandfire Calcilutite in the Crab Creek inlet (Semeniuk 2008). The in situ dinosaur tracks in the Broome Sandstone are preserved as natural moulds (i.e., impressions with negative relief). The majority of tracks recorded are attributable to sauropods and many of the tracks are in lengthy trackway sequences (McCrea et al 2011). Over 500 tracks have been recorded here, most of them sauropod tracks. In addition are several important examples of theropod tracks (assigned to Megalosauropus broomensis) and a possible example of Broome Sauropod morphotype A (Salisbury et al 2017; Bennett 2022, 2024). Numerous invertebrate fossil burrows with meniscate fillings as well as wave ripple marks can also be found in the Broome Sandstone outcrops here. As a consequence of all these features, the ITZ through this management zone is classified as having outstanding geological and palaeontological features relevant to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing.
[IMG] Figure 3.2 Sauropod trackways in the Roebuck Bay area showing tidal mud flats and Broome Sandstone exposures
There is continuous access to the ITZ via Crab Creek Road and the unnamed coastal road, sometimes referred to as the ‘Mangalagun Track’ with key access points also located at an informal car park and footpath at the T-junction, and four kilometres further northeast at the Gurlbinwila boat ramp, although this access is cut off each year during the wet season. There is also access via boat and hovercraft to known dinosaur track locations, in particular at the location known as Black Ledge which is around 200 metres east of the T-junction. There are numerous Aboriginal middens (Figure 4.9), campsites and other culturally significant sites along this stretch of coastline (Durack 1946; Salisbury et al 2017).
[IMG] Figure 3.3 Fossil burrows in Broome Sandstone in the Roebuck Bay area, likely made by small invertebrates such as molluscs or worms (Photo: Steve Salisbury)
The zone is vulnerable to boats and hovercraft, pedestrians, quad bikes and motorcycles, vehicles with boat trailers and increasing beach traffic due to improvements to the Gurlbinwila boat ramp near the BBO, public toilet facilities, formal and informal car parking and other facilities to support recreation and tourism.
The Roebuck Bay Zone is contained entirely within the Roebuck Bay Marine Park which is described and managed under the Yawuru Nagulagun/Roebuck Bay Marine Park JMP 2016 (DPW 2016b). The plan references fossil dinosaur footprints but acknowledges that the significance, condition and locations of these features are not currently well known. An Ecological character description for Roebuck Bay details the relevant components of the Ramsar Site and provides a framework for monitoring its key ecological values (Bennelongia 2009). The cultural context of the Yawuru Conservation Estate is detailed in the Yawuru CMP (Yawuru RNTBC 2016) which also references the geological and palaeontological features. A palaeontological survey by McCrea et al (2011) for the Western Australian Department of State Development covers the Roebuck Bay Zone. References to the history of track discoveries in the zone include Long 2002: 182, Long 1998, 2002 and Latham v. The Queen 2000. See also Yawuru Birragun Conservation Park JMP (DPW 2016a).
[IMG] Figure 3.4 Recreational fishing on the Broome Sandstone reef in the Roebuck Bay area (Photo: Damian Kelly)
[IMG] Figure 3.5 Ichnofossil tourism in the Roebuck Bay area
Map 3.4 Dampier Creek Zone: Location
The Dampier Creek Zone extends for 12.3 kilometres, commencing at the establishment of dense mangrove coverage approximately 500 metres west of the Crab Creek Road T-junction, and extending initially westward then southwest to the end of the mangrove coverage at Town Beach Jetty.
There are continuous coastal mangrove communities throughout the Dampier Creek Zone with few discernible beach areas, and no definitive coastline. Several mangrove species have been identified here and they are critical habitat for both terrestrial and marine wildlife species, while mangrove detritus is an important food source for animals in the Roebuck Bay Marine Park. Fish, invertebrate and crustacean species also use the mangroves as a nursery area (DPW 2016b: 40).
[IMG] Figure 3.6 Aerial view of Dampier Creek showing mangroves and tidal mudflats
[IMG] Figure 3.7 Coastal fortification and provision for pedestrian access to the Dampier Creek ITZ between Catalina Place and Town Beach Jetty
The Dampier Creek inlet is dominated by thick, tidal muds of the Sandfire Calcilutite and, in the supratidal area, the Djugun Member. To the east and south the muds fade to low, sloping cliffs of red Mowanjum Sand. An exposure of ferruginised sandstone eroded from overlying Cretaceous and Cenozoic sandstones forms a small island known as Buccaneer Rock, south of estuary mouth. Exposures of Broome Sandstone on the east and west margins of the creek mouth are very limited, although isolated sauropod tracks (one believed to be ex situ) have been recorded in Broome Sandstone exposures immediately north of Town Beach Jetty and 500 metres further north near Catalina Place (Bennett 2022, 2024).
There is limited informal pedestrian and boat access to the ITZ within the Dampier Creek estuary system although there is some access to the zone through the coastal reserve along Old Broome Road, and more regular pedestrian access along the two kilometre stretch of road between Gray Street and Town Beach Jetty. Built development borders the ITZ between Gray Street and Napier Terrace, and further south, to the east of Carnarvon Street, there is a boat ramp and footpath allowing access to a Broome Sandstone exposure immediately south of the Catalina Place stormwater runoff area where an ex situ sauropod track has been recorded. There is also extensive modification and fortification of the coast between Catalina Place and Town Beach Jetty (Figure 3.7).
Map 3.5 Dampier Creek Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Recreational fishing occurs throughout the estuary; however, access to the ITZ is limited and recordings of trackways and sandstone exposures are currently limited to the area within 500 metres north of Town Beach Jetty. The mud flats around Town Beach Jetty where sauropod tracks are recorded is a popular mud crabbing spot at low tide. Generally exposures of Broome Sandstone adjacent to the town are vulnerable to an increasing residential population, with built development and stormwater runoff creating changes in hydrological and sedimentary processes that are visible at Catalina Place.
[IMG] Figure 3.8 A tour group examines exposures of Broome Sandstone in the mangroves of Dampier Creek (Photo: Bart Pigram)
The mangrove communities or Gundurung of the Dampier Creek estuary are described and managed under the Yawuru Nagulagun/Roebuck Bay Marine Park JMP (DPW 2016b) while the Yawuru Birragun Conservation Park JMP (DPW 2016a) and Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP (DBCA 2018) describe and manage the reserve areas adjacent to the eastern and western shores of the Dampier Creek mouth respectively.
The Town Beach Zone extends for 4.7 kilometres, commencing at Town Beach Jetty and extending generally southwest along Demco Beach and Simpson’s Beach to the slipway at the northern end of the Port of Broome facility at Entrance Point.
The beach is mostly continuous and sandy with a small Broome Sandstone exposure and mangrove headland southwest of Town Beach Jetty (Figures 3.9 and 3.10). There are other occasional small exposures of Broome Sandstone along the beach and immediately north of the slipway, with sparse clumps of mangroves at the southern end of the zone.
[IMG] Figure 3.9 Sauropod trackway in exposures of Broome Sandstone along the Town Beach foreshore (Photo: Steve Salisbury)
Map 3.6 Town Beach Zone: Location
The Town Beach Zone has an extensively exposed intertidal area with small outcrops of Broome Sandstone that are intermittently covered with tidal mud and sand, broken coral and macrofauna. Low cliffs of Holocene aeolian dune sand (Church Hill Sand + Shoonta Hill Sand) overly Pleistocene red ‘pindan’ (Mowanjum Sand).
The Mowanjum Sand sits unconformably on an unnamed ironstone conglomerate that has eroded from the underlying Cretaceous and Cenozoic sandstones. Within the ITZ, cobbles and boulders of ferruginised sandstone from this conglomerate unconformably overly exposures of Broome Sandstone and extensive pavements of cemented Holocene beachrock (Cape Boileau Calcarenite). Recorded dinosaur tracks within exposures of Broome Sandstone are mostly eroded natural moulds. The majority of the more than 50 tracks recorded here can be attributed to sauropods (single prints, a single pair of hand and foot tracks and at least one partial trackway), with one Megalosauropus broomensis theropod track located near Demco Reserve. The mud and macrofauna covering the in situ, track-bearing sediments could also feasibly be covering smaller track features (McCrea et al 2011; Bennett 2022, 2024).
[IMG] Figure 3.10 Aerial view of the Broome Sandstone and mangrove headland adjacent Town Beach reserve and caravan park, with water treatment facility in the distance
There is high pedestrian traffic within the northern 1,000 metre section of the zone abutting the beachfront reserves and caravan park, and limited boat ramp vehicle access immediately southwest of Town Beach Jetty (Figure 3.10). Hovercraft and boat launching facilities are located at the south end of the zone just north of the slipway near a sandstone outcrop where no tracks have been recorded to date (Figure 3.11).
Map 3.7 Town Beach Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
[IMG] Figure 3.11 Hovercraft and boat launching site at the southern end of Town Beach Zone with Broome Sandstone in the background
The Town Beach ITZ is contained entirely within KPA waters. It is not included in the West Kimberley National Heritage listing boundary and is not managed within the Yawuru Conservation Estate. It is therefore vulnerable to high levels of pedestrian access from beach reserves at its northeast end, and the pressures of caravan park redevelopments and boat access at the port facility slipway. Overflow and deposition from the water treatment facility near Demco Reserve is already covering an outcrop of Broome Sandstone there (Figure 3.10).
The Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP (DBCA 2018) describes and manages the reserve area above the ITZ along Town Beach, while the KPA is responsible for management of the ITZ itself. See KPA Environmental Management Plan 2023. The palaeontological survey by McCrea et al (2011) also includes the Town Beach Zone.
The Entrance Point Zone covers two kilometres of coastline. It commences at the KPA slipway, then extends southeast to southwest around the Broome Port Jetty and Kimberley Marine Support Base (KMSB) floating jetty (under construction), southwest along two small sandy coves separated by a rocky headland, then southwest to northwest around three rocky points, finishing at the sandy beach at the southwestern end of Reddell Beach.
The zone consists of mostly rocky headlands of Broome Sandstone separating a series of isolated sandy beach coves, with additional exposures of Holocene Cape Boileau Calcarenite and Lombadina Conglomerate (part of the Cable Beach Sand) adjacent to the two existing boat ramps.
[IMG] Figure 3.12 Aerial view of Entrance Point showing the proximity of geological and palaeontological features to the existing car park and boat ramps
Map 3.8 Entrance Point Zone: Location
There are extensive exposures of Broome Sandstone in the Entrance Point ITZ. Broome Sandstone forms a nearly continuous reef that runs parallel to the shore, 200–300 metres wide for most of its length. These reefs preserve the most southerly dinosaurian track-bearing surfaces in the Broome Sandstone within the West Kimberley (Salisbury & Romilio 2019). The majority of track-bearing horizons seem to be concentrated in two main bands: the first starting close to the astronomical high-tide mark and extending 30–40 metres seawards; the second is between the 2.5 and 1 metre low-tide marks, close to the seaward edge of main reef system (Salisbury & Romilio 2019).
[IMG] Figure 3.13 View of Entrance Point from the reef showing the proximity of Broome Sandstone exposures to the location of the proposed new boat launching facility
A moderate abundance of tracks is found within these horizons, with over 350 tracks recorded to date (Bennett 2022, 2024). These are mostly attributable to sauropods but also include over 30 theropod tracks (Megalosauropus broomensis) and a single ornithopod track (Wintonopous middletonae), the second ichnospecies of Wintonopus to be recognised in Australia (Salisbury et al 2017; Salisbury & Romilio 2019). This particular track is one of only four Wintonopous middletonae documented on the entire Dampier Peninsula.
[IMG] Figure 3.14 Theropod trackway on one of the outer reefs of Broome Sandstone at Entrance Point (Photo: Nigel Clark)
[IMG] Figure 3.15 Ornithopod track (Wintonopous middletonae) in the Broome Sandstone at Entrance Point (Photo: Steve Salisbury)
[IMG] Figure 3.16 Large invertebrate burrows (trace fossils assigned to Thalassinoides) in the Broome Sandstone at Entrance Point
One horizon within the Entrance Point Zone, only visible at the lowest tide mark (1.2–0.3 metres), preserves one of the highest single concentrations of theropod tracks currently known within the Broome Sandstone environment. Preliminary research of this track site indicates evidence of gregarious behaviour among the theropod trackmakers. A number of the sauropod tracks and trackways that occur within the Entrance Point Zone also show morphological details suggestive of a new track type that is yet to be formally described or named (Salisbury & Romilio 2019). The abundance and diversity of tracks, their southerly location and the potential insights they might offer to the behaviour and palaeoecology of their trackmakers, make parts of the Entrance Point Zone of outstanding heritage value. The additional presence of ichnological values within the Cape Boileau Calcarenite adjacent to the two boat ramps (S. Salisbury, pers. obs. May 2022) also adds to the ‘outstanding’ category assigned to this area (Figures 3.13, 3.14, 3.15 and 3.16).
The zone experiences extremely high pedestrian traffic due to the ease of access and car parking. A high volume of boat launching traffic is generated by the beach launching facility adjacent the car park to the southeast, and a concrete boat ramp extension of the car park to the southwest (Figure 3.17). There is also private road access onto Broome Port Jetty, which intersects with the ITZ at the end of Port Drive.
In addition to intensive recreational boating, Entrance Point Zone currently incorporates sites that DCMG uses for school field excursions and a highly utilised local swimming beach. There are some well-publicised dinosaur track locations here. A large new boat launching facility is currently proposed, incorporating 12-metre-high groynes with a 40-metre-wide base, land reclamation for a further 250 trailer and car parking bays, an offshore breakwater and a four-lane boat ramp with floating jetties to support all weather and tide access for recreational fishing and charter boat tourism. Adjacent to the current KPA wharf, work has commenced on the KMSB which includes a fixed causeway linked to a floating jetty.
Entrance Point Zone was included in a detailed UQ palaeontological and geological survey which documented the richness of the Broome Sandstone exposures in this area and its extreme vulnerability to the development pressures of a proposed new safe boat harbour and breakwater (Salisbury & Romilio 2019). As a result of the study the location of the proposed harbour was changed. The original proposal also would have affected the reef system next to the jetty and large traditional campsite and shell midden near the Fishing Club, both of which have cultural heritage significance, as well as a substantial area of Broome Sandstone. The revised proposal avoids these impacts. However, the new proposed site has moved closer to other dinosaur tracks and significant Aboriginal cultural places and has since been determined to be a controlled action requiring assessment and approval under the EPBC Act before it can proceed (DAWE 2022). There are concerns about possible impacts on hydrological and sedimentary processes that could affect the Broome Sandstone and other matters of national environmental significance. Further information can be found at the Broome Boating Facility project website (broomeboatingfacility.com.au) and current EPBC Act referrals at the public portal (DAWE 2022). Refer also to the KPA Marine Notices for the latest information (kimberleyports.wa.gov.au/port-operations/local-marine-notices) (KPA 2025). See also Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP (DBCA 2018) and KPA Environmental Management Plan 2023 (KPA 2023).
[IMG] Figure 3.17 Car parks, boat ramps and a private road onto the jetty at Entrance Point provide direct pedestrian and vehicle access to the ITZ
Map 3.9 Entrance Point Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
The Reddell Beach Zone covers four kilometres of coastline. It commences at the beginning of the continuous sandy beach at the southeastern end of Reddell Point Beach, heads northwest to Reddell Point, then continues northwest along a sandy beach to a small unnamed rocky headland, then reverts again to sandy beach before terminating at the limit of beach access where the water meets the base of the rocky headland at the boundary with the Gantheaume Point Zone.
The zone is predominantly long, white sandy beaches of unconsolidated, calcareous quartz beach sand (Cable Beach Sand) with Broome Sandstone forming small rocky headlands and exposures containing a high abundance and diversity of dinosaur tracks and track-bearing surfaces. Red desert pindan cliffs of Mowanjum Sand and white and red coastal dune sands (Church Hill Sand + Shoonta Hill Sand) sit above the ITZ, overlying an unnamed Pliocene–Quaternary conglomerate and the much older and thicker Broome Sandstone. Above the ITZ between the main foredune complex and Kavite Road and the industrial precinct at Entrance Point, small patches of endangered monsoon vine thicket persist in the more protected swales formed by the Holocene dunes. (In other parts of the Kimberley, similar patches of dry rainforest are gazetted as West Kimberley NHVs because of the evolutionary refugial role they play in supporting high invertebrate richness and endemism.) Further north around Reddell Point, a sequence of yellow to brown creamy-coloured, mottled muddy sands, muds and gravels interbedded with boulder deposits of dark-grey ironstone and iron-impregnated sandstone form the low cliffs above the ITZ, and distinctive eroded pillars on the beaches (Salisbury & Romilio 2019). The low cliffs and eroded pillars around Reddell Point are formed by a distinctive set of Quaternary consolidated muds, sandy muds and ironstone conglomerates atop the eroded remnants of the upper parts of the Broome Sandstone. Where the cliffs meet the beach, the sands within the conglomerate have eroded and the cliffs have collapsed, leaving boulders of resilient black ironstone and ferruginised sandstone clasts strewn over upper parts of the beach, particularly at the southern end (Salisbury & Romilio 2019).
Map 3.10 Reddell Beach Zone: Location
Map 3.11 Reddell Beach Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
[IMG] Figure 3.18: Aerial view of Reddell Beach showing Kavite Road and a car park access point to an area of Broome Sandstone in the foreground
There are extensive exposures of in situ Broome Sandstone within the Reddell Beach Zone, as well as many large dislocated blocks of Broome Sandstone scattered over the beach. Over 2,500 dinosaur tracks have been recorded here, the majority of tracks and trackways attributable to sauropods, although close to 150 tracks and trackways attributed to theropods and assigned to Megalosauropus broomensis have also been recorded. Most of the tracks are natural moulds (impressions with negative relief), but some isolated natural casts (where infilling material has created a positive impression) are found here as well (Colbert & Merrilees 1967; McCrea et al 2011; Salisbury et al 2017; Salisbury & Romilio 2019; Bennett 2022, 2024. See also the glossary at the end of this document). Some of the track-bearing surfaces are heavily trampled over a large area (200–300 square metres), and the concentration of tracks is so high that individual trackways are often difficult to discern (Salisbury & Romilio 2019). Of historical significance, this area includes the first sauropod tracks discovered in Australia by the late Paul Foulkes back in the late 1980s (Salisbury & Romilio 2019). Some of the Megalosauropus broomensis trackways on Reddell Beach are the best examples in the Broome Sandstone and are currently being researched as part of a UQ study focussed on this particular track type (Salisbury & Romilio 2019). This zone has been categorised as outstanding due to its historical significance combined with the high concentration and diversity of tracks.
Universal access to all areas of Reddell Beach from regularly spaced car parks along Kavite Road leaves a short walk to the beach, thus generating relatively high pedestrian traffic due to the ease of access. Recently completed improvements to the Kavite Road car parking facilities to accommodate additional vehicle types, and the beach’s use as a wedding location continue to make this fragile Cretaceous landscape increasingly vulnerable to pedestrian traffic (Figure 3.22) The Lurujarri Heritage Trail follows the beach and there are small settlements on the clifftop near 281 Kavite Road (locally known as the Bishop’s House) and the Sisters of St John of God residences at Lots 203 and 219 Kavite Road.
[IMG] Figure 3.19 Citizen scientist Dianne Bennett indicates the approximate height of a sauropod’s hip deduced from the size of this track in the southern Reddell Beach area
[IMG] Figure 3.20 Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury with multiple sauropod trackways at Reddell Beach (Photo: Steve Salisbury)
The picturesque nature of the place makes it popular for fishing, walking and dog walking; it attracts beachgoers, photographers and is a popular location for weddings and other events including rave parties. The car parks here are favourite locations for illegal camping. Many tourists look for dinosaur tracks but don’t have much idea of what to look for or how they should behave to protect and preserve the landscape. (For example, using hard objects to scrape sand and crustaceans out of tracks has already damaged a significant trackway.) The posting of GPS locations for rare and scientifically important theropod tracks on shared media sites and tourism information apps like WikiCamps and Tripadvisor is resulting in those tracks experiencing increasing tourism and apparent damage. Other tracks at Reddell Beach have had small pieces broken off them. Increasing illegal camping and recreational activities (such as slacklining between culturally significant stone pillars) is also a problem.
[IMG] Figure 3.21 A theropod (Megalosauropus broomensis) natural cast in the southern Reddell Beach area (Photo: Dianne Bennett)
[IMG] Figure 3.22 Parts of Reddell Beach that preserve numerous palaeontological and geological features have become a popular location for weddings (Photo: Julia Rau)
Palaentological surveys by McCrea et al (2011) and Salisbury and Romilio (2019) cover sections of the Reddell Beach Zone. Colbert and Merrilees (1967), Lambert and Elix (2004) and Salisbury et al (2017) give additional historical context. See also Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP (DBCA 2018), KPA Environmental Management Plan 2023 (KPA 2023) and Control of Vehicles (Off-road Areas) Act 1978 (CV Act) administered by the SOB (Appendix D).
The Gantheaume Point Zone covers 2.1 kilometres of coastline. It commences in the southeast at the limit of sandy Reddell Beach where the rocky headland meets the sea, continues northwest, turning north to southeast to the beginning of a shallow rocky bay (informally known as Gantheaume Bay), then northeast across Gantheaume Bay to the small rocky outcrop (known as Red Point) and terminating at the commencement of continuous sandy beach at the southern end of Cable Beach (also known as Gantheaume Point Beach).
[IMG] Figure 3.23 Gantheaume Point showing the northern Reddell Beach area in the foreground
Map 3.12 Gantheaume Point Zone: Location
The zone is made up of predominantly rocky headland and an extensive reef system of Broome Sandstone and the rocky inlet of Gantheaume Bay.
The Gantheaume Point Zone has extensive exposures of Broome Sandstone that form high cliffs at the point itself, as well as large in situ surface exposures seaward. The cliff line extends for around three metres above the astronomical high tide mark, creating a total stratigraphic thickness of around 11 metres. There are massive blocks of dislocated Broome Sandstone in the area around the base of the cliffs. The more landward parts of Red Point include a thin veneer of Pliocene–Quaternary aged conglomerate and eroded black ironstone clasts, similar to those that occur in the Reddell Beach Zone.
The Gantheaume Point Zone contains the type sequence for the Broome Sandstone (Reeves 1951; Brunnschweiler 1957; Forman & Wales 1981), and is also the topotype locality for Megalosauropus broomensis (Colbert & Merrilees 1967). The platform that included the topotype tracks was destroyed during storm action during the early 1990s, with new tracks being exposed as a result (Salisbury et al 2017). Over 500 tracks have been recorded here, 65% sauropods, and 35% Megalosauropus broomensis theropods (Bennett 2022, 2024). All these tracks occur in the lower five metres of the exposed section of Broome Sandstone (Romilio et al 2017). As a result, many of the theropod tracks are covered with encrusting macrofauna common in intertidal areas. Several sauropod tracks and a few sauropod trackways have been recorded to the north of the point toward Cable Beach. Most prints are natural moulds, but many are eroded and visible only as transmitted tracks. Gantheaume Point is one of many sites where plant macrofossils are found in the Broome Sandstone. The plant fossils are relatively abundant with 30 different species documented. (McLoughlin 1996). Due to the scientific and historical importance of tracks in the northern half of this zone, it is classified as containing outstanding geological and palaeontological features.
[IMG] Figure 3.24 The northern half of Gantheaume Point Zone is classified as having outstanding geological and palaeontological features relevant to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing due to the scientific and historical importance of the tracks there (Photo: Alamy Australia Pty Ltd)
Map 3.13 Gantheaume Point Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
[IMG] Figure 3.25 Gantheaume Point is one of many sites where plant macrofossils are found in the Broome Sandstone (Photo: Dianne Bennett)
Access to the rocky headland around Gantheaume Point is moderately difficult with the Gantheaume Point car park about 150 to 250 metres away, and a necessary climb down the rocks. Access to Gantheaume Bay and the Red Point area is relatively easy with a shorter walk from the car park of some 100 metres and gently sloping access to the southwestern end of the bay. There is also pedestrian access to the Red Point and Gantheaume Bay area from the Cable Beach/Gantheaume Point Beach access track opposite the Broome Turf Club car park.
The zone is vulnerable to pedestrian traffic from the Gantheaume Point car park and illegal vehicular traffic from the short Cable Beach/Gantheaume Point Beach access track off Gantheaume Point Road. There is potential for vehicle and pedestrian traffic, as well as illegal camping to increase as a result of upgrades to Kavite Road and Gantheaume Point Road, upgrades to the Gantheaume Point car parking facilities and visitor information area, and car park upgrades along Kavite Road.
Romilio et al (2017) describes surveying techniques that use a combination of high-resolution aerial photography, airborne and handheld high-resolution lidar imaging and handheld photography to enable the rapid collection of large amounts of digital data across a range of spatial scales. The use of such remote sensing technologies is an important means of digitally conserving dinosaur tracks and of documenting intermittently exposed sites with the potential to monitor changing states over time.
[IMG] Figure 3.26 Aerial view of Cable Beach South showing beach parking area adjacent to an area with outstanding geological and palaeontological features relevant to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing
The same techniques were used by Salisbury et al (2017) and Salisbury and Romilio (2019) to digitally document other sections of coastline and their associated geological and palaeontological features. UQ Dinosaur Lab used the same methods to document and map geological and palaeontological features for this management plan. McCrea et al (2011) also cover the Gantheaume Point zone and further historical documentation includes White’s (1959) study of the palaeoflora and documentation of Megalosauropus broomensis ‘emu-like’ tracks in Glauert (1952); McWhae et al (1958); and Colbert and Merrilees (1967). For a detailed account of community and research activities related to the dinosaur tracks at Gantheaume Point, see Salisbury et al (2017).
See also KPA Environmental Management Plan 2023 and CV Act administered by the SOB (Appendix D).
The Cable Beach South Zone extends along 5.2 kilometres of coastline, commencing in the south at the limit of the rocky Red Point headland at the beginning of a continuous stretch of sandy beach. It then heads generally north-northeast, terminating at the south boundary of the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone where the Minyirr Buru Conservation Park boundary transects the ITZ.
Map 3.14 Cable Beach South Zone: Location
Cable Beach South consists of a continuous stretch of sandy beach exposed to the Indian Ocean. There are Flatback Turtle nesting sites along the beach.
The southern end of the Cable Beach Zone includes the northern end of the reef system of Broome Sandstone that extends around Gantheaume Point. This area contains sauropod and theropod tracks and trackways and is classified as outstanding. Although most of this part of the Red Rock headland includes patches of Broome Sandstone, overlying it are loose blocks of black ironstone clasts. North of the point, the beach extends for approximately five kilometres to the start of the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone. There are only small, scattered outcrops of Broome Sandstone in this part of the zone and the potential for further exposures is likely to be small unless a cyclone event or similar exposes new bedding planes (McCrea et al 2011). As with other sandy beaches around Broome, the beach sand along Cable Beach is likely to be only 1–2 metres thick, with a basement of Broome Sandstone (Semeniuk 2008; Salisbury & Romilio 2019). Commencing at the southern end of Cable Beach and extending north into the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone there are extensive exposures of Holocene Horsewater Soak Calcarenite. These occur as a sheet to discontinuous ribbon close to the current astronomical high tide mark, extending landward into the base of the Holocene dune system of the Shoonta Hill Sand which overlies them.
There is vehicle access to the beach from the access track off Gantheaume Point Road opposite the Broome Turf Club. Vehicle traffic is currently restricted to the northeast of the ramp and within 500 metres of the ramp only; however, this is frequently ignored by cars parking south of the access track towards Red Point (Figures 3.27 and 3.28). Pedestrian access via Minyirr Park walk trails through the sand dunes to the beach is mainly located in line with the central Cable Beach residential area, but also in the north of the zone just south of the boundary to the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone. Direct vehicle access to the Cable Beach South Zone is also possible, though currently prohibited, from the Cable Beach Foreshore Reserve Beach Access Ramp. Pedestrian access to the Cable Beach South Zone is also possible by walking south along the beach from the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone.
[IMG] Figure 3.27 Current restrictions state there is no parking south of the access track from Gantheaume Point Road, however cars frequently park towards Red Point, an area preserving outstanding geological and palaeontological features relevant to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing
Map 3.15 Cable Beach South Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
[IMG] Figure 3.28 The existing signage at Cable Beach South Zone access ramp does not clearly indicate the location of the SOB Off Road Prohibited Vehicle Area
The zone is vulnerable to concentrations of vehicle and pedestrian traffic in the north and south, with only limited pedestrian access to the central area of the beach via the Minyirr Park walk trails through the sand dunes. From either end of the beach pedestrians and vehicles can also access the more vulnerable Cretaceous heritage of the adjoining Gantheaume Point and Cable Beach Foreshore Zones by walking along the beach. Racehorse training is allowed between April and August in an Approved Horse Exercise Area which extends for two kilometres northeast of the vehicle beach access point. Yacht and boat hire companies also operate from this southwestern end of Cable Beach.
The Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP (DBCA 2018) describes and manages the reserve area adjacent to Cable Beach South Zone. See also KPA Environmental Management Plan and CV Act.
[IMG] Figure 3.29 Aerial view of the Cable Beach Foreshore area
The Cable Beach Foreshore Zone extends 1.3 kilometres, commencing in the south at the northern ITZ boundary of Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park (YMBCP) (Reserve 51106) and extends northwards ending at the point where YMBCP (Reserve 50994) transects the intertidal area. This zone coincides with the Cable Beach tourism precinct.
This zone is a predominantly sandy beach with a centrally located Broome Sandstone exposure and small rocky headland of Pliocene–Quaternary conglomerate topped by Mowanjum Sand and Holocene aeolian dune sand (Church Hill Sand + Shoonta Hill Sand) adjacent to the beach vehicle ramp. There are Flatback Turtle nesting sites along the beach.
The Cable Beach Foreshore Zone has extensive outcrops of Broome Sandstone which are periodically exposed during low tides. Sand loads in this area are variable, and the amount of Broome Sandstone that is exposed changes from month to month, year to year depending on wave and storm activity. In addition to the platforms in the low tide zone, there are also small, irregular outcrops of Broome Sandstone higher up on the beach. Around 750 tracks have been recorded in this zone, half of which are attributable to sauropods and half to Megalosauropus broomensis (Bennett 2022, 2024), including several well-preserved trackways. All tracks are preserved as natural moulds, and fossil burrows are also evident at the northern end of the zone which is classified as containing outstanding geological and palaeontological features relevant to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing.
Map 3.16 Cable Beach Foreshore Zone: Location
Map 3.17 Cable Beach Foreshore Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
[IMG] Figure 3.30 Ripples preserved in Broome Sandstone in the Cable Beach Foreshore area
There is a high level of pedestrian and vehicle traffic via the beach access ramp and pedestrian access via multiple other access points. Coastal erosion management projects and redevelopments of the tourism precinct also intersect with the ITZ here.
Both the irregular sandstone exposures at low tide and permanently exposed higher sandstone outcrops are extremely vulnerable to increasing developmental pressure associated with upgrades currently underway to the Cable Beach tourism precinct, increasing pedestrian traffic and tourism activity on the beach, coastal erosion management proposals and other upgrades to local facilities. Recreational activities in the zone include car access to the beach, camel rides, jet ski tours, Broome Surf Life Saving Club activities, beach polo, volleyball, and large events including the Shinju Long Table, and beach weddings (Figures 3.31 and 3.32).
[IMG] Figure 3.31 Camel chain entering the Cable Beach Foreshore area
[IMG] Figure 3.32 Vehicles access the Cable Beach Foreshore Broome Sandstone exposures daily
The Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP (DBCA 2018) provides the framework for joint management of the entire intertidal section of the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone; however, the SOB controls access to the beach via the access ramp. Other relevant information documents include the Cable Beach Foreshore Master Plan (SOB 2017) and Cable Beach Foreshore Redevelopment (SOB 2022) with subsequent updates found at cablebeachredevelopment.com.au. See also the Cable Beach Coastal Protection Options and Geotechnical Investigations Report (SOB 2019a); Cable Beach Broome – Review of Additional Coastal Adaption Concepts Report (SOB 2021); Broome Townsite Coastal Hazard Risk Management and Adaptation Plan (Baird 2017); and KPA Environmental Management Plan 2023 (KPA 2023); and CV Act.
The Waterbank Zone commences at the northern extent of the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone and coincides with the boundary between the Yawuru Minyirr Buru and Guniyan Binba Conservation Parks. The zone extends generally north for 29.1 kilometres, terminating at a northern extent coincident with the Rubibi (Yawuru) Community Native Title claim northern boundary that transects the Willie Creek estuary.
This is a mainly sandy beach bordered by dunes from the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone in the south to Cape Latreille, where the estuary inlet associated with this landform at Coconut Wells forms a break in the bordering dune system. The zone continues north from Cape Latreille to the southern banks of the Willie Creek estuary along a highly changeable shoreline, where the beach is subject to continuous sand erosion and backed by vegetated sand ridges rather than dunes. This zone includes an area of the Willie Creek estuary east of the Willie Creek mouth and to the north of Waterbank Station located near the southern shoreline of the creek. The barred embayments of Willie Creek and Coconut Wells are dominant features of the zone’s geomorphology. At Coconut Wells the barriers of sand and limestone have forced a linear lagoon parallel to the shore (Semeniuk 2008; DBCA 2020: 23; Figure 3.36). Fauna associated with the shelly white sand beaches of this zone include various crabs, bivalves and other invertebrates that live on the intertidal flats, and marine turtles (including the threatened Flatback Turtle and Green Turtle) which traverse the ITZ to nest in the dunes (Figure 3.35). The beaches and lagoon are habitat for migratory bird species, while the Willie Creek wetland system of intertidal sand and mudflats, mangroves and salt flats is important habitat for diverse marine and terrestrial fauna (including saltwater crocodiles), and is a source of nutrients to the surrounding waters (GBCP JMP 2020: 24–29) (Figure 3.34).
Map 3.18 Waterbank Zone (South): Location
Map 3.19 Waterbank Zone (North): Location
[IMG] Figure 3.33 Aerial view of Waterbank Zone showing the Lombadina Conglomerate/Cape Boileau Calcarenite reef system
North of the boundary with the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone, exposures of Broome Sandstone begin to thin, replaced by a complex sequence of Quaternary coastal sediments associated with the estuaries of Coconut Wells and Willie Creek. A large offshore reef system formed from a pavement of Cape Boileau Calcarenite, the Lombadina Conglomerate stretches almost unbroken along this stretch of coast. It is exposed during low tides. Combined with the beach sand, this stretch of beach forms the type area for the Cable Beach Sand (Semeniuk 2008). Scattered exposures of Broome Sandstone occur within and adjacent to the Waterbank Zone at Coconut Wells and within the Willie Creek estuary (GBCP JMP 2020: 10).
The southern extent of the ITZ north of the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone is dominated by beach sand. Towards the astronomical high-tide mark boulders and lithified Horsewater Soak Calcarenite occur, large sections of which contain invertebrate trace fossils. The low dunes and foredune complex are predominantly formed by the Holocene Shoonta Hill Sand. Each of the embayments around Coconut Wells and Willie Creek is barred by extensive dunes of Shoonta Hill Sands, along with ridges of the Horsewater Soak Calcarenite. At Willie Creek, the tidal flats west of the estuary mouth are formed by the Port Smith Sand. Along the shores of the inner estuary, between the red Mowanjum Sand and the tidal flat of Sandfire Calcilutite is a ribbon of muddy sand. Landward exposures are dominated by calcarenites of the Horsewater Soak Calcarenite (Semeniuk 2008).
[IMG] Figure 3.34 The Willie Creek wetland system of intertidal sand and mudflats, mangroves and salt flats is important habitat for diverse marine and terrestrial fauna
At Coconut Wells there are small but important outcrops of Broome Sandstone along the eastern edge of the lagoon within the supratidal zone. This is in the splash zone on the landward margin of the ITZ, which is affected by the highest tidal surges. The exposed Broome Sandstone outcrops at these locations, although outside the DCNHMP management area, may contain ichnofossils and have significant Aboriginal cultural heritage values, as well as additional scientific (palaeontological) values (refer also Chapter 4.3.2). The broader location also contains exposures of the overlying Sandfire Calcilutite and Horsewater Soak Calcarenite, the former containing many invertebrate body fossils and the latter containing invertebrate trace and body fossils. Although not listed in the NHVs, these fossils are considered to be scientifically significant.
There is limited formal pedestrian and vehicle access along this zone, but a rural living subdivision bordering the tidal inlet at Coconut Wells enables direct access to the ITZ.
Vulnerable to vehicle traffic in the forms of 4WD, quad bikes or trikes, and motorcycles, Waterbank Zone is subject to ‘tidal tourism’, illegal camping and party behaviour consistent with it being situated remotely, the enforcement of regulations is infrequent.
Guniyan Binba Conservation Park JMP (DBCA 2020) and associated references and CV Act.
Map 3.20 Waterbank (South) Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Map 3.21 Waterbank (North) Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
[IMG] Figure 3.35 Flatback Turtle nesting site near Coconut Wells
[IMG] Figure 3.36 Tidal lagoon at Coconut Wells
The dinosaur tracks and associated ichnofossils, plant macrofossils and depositional environments of the Broome Sandstone exposures along 200 kilometres of the Dampier Coast (between Crab Creek in the south and Cape Leveque in the north) are significant because of the diversity of dinosaurian track types, the exceptional size of the sauropod prints, the unique census of Australian dinosaur populations that they provide, and for the integrated story they tell of the ecology of this area during the Lower Cretaceous Period of the Mesozoic Era, between 140 and 127 million years ago (Salisbury et al 2017; Romilio 2020).
The diversity of non-avian dinosaurian track types seen on this stretch of coastline, along with many of the area’s individual track and trackways sites have been demonstrated to be unparalleled in Australia, and even globally; however, the full extent and nature of that diversity is the subject of ongoing research. While Salisbury et al (2017) focusses on the ichnofauna of the James Price Point/Walmadany area, much of the discussion relates to the Broome Sandstone exposures in general, providing the most up-to-date basis for a summary analysis of comparative sites in Australia and elsewhere in the world. The results of the study indicate that intertidal exposures of Broome Sandstone in the James Price Point/Walmadany area contain at least 11 and possibly as many as 21 different types of dinosaurian tracks, six of which do not occur anywhere else in the world (Salisbury et al 2017; Romilio 2020).
Within Australia, the next most diverse assemblage of dinosaurian tracks (also referred to as ichnofossils) is found in the Lower Jurassic Razorback Beds at Mount Morgan in the Fitzroy region of Queensland, and in the Middle Jurassic Walloon Coal Measures at Balgowan, Darling Downs, Queensland. Both of these units are currently thought to contain seven to eight dinosaurian ichnotaxa/track morphotypes, some of which are shared with the Broome Sandstone. The Mount Morgan track sites (which occur in man-made caverns, excavated to extract material for making bricks) were a tourist attraction for a number of years, but have been closed for over a decade due to rock-fall risk (Salisbury et al 2017). Early Jurassic dinosaur track sites are exclusive to Queensland and include Carnarvon Gorge and Biloela, where purportedly hundreds of tracks have been uncovered by open-cut coal mining and then dumped. There has been little scientific access to these sites and no specimens have been recorded or preserved (Romilio 2020).
Other Australian track sites have a much lower diversity of track types: the Upper Triassic Ipswich Coal Measures have one theropod and one non-sauropod sauropodmorph that represent Australia’s only dinosaur fossils from the Triassic, while the Lower Cretaceous Eumeralla Formation of the Otway Group in southern Victoria has produced one possible ornithopod track and two types of theropod track. Lark Quarry, central-western Queensland, in the Upper Cretaceous portion of the Winton Formation, has two types of ornithopod track (Romilio & Salisbury 2011, 2014; Romilio et al 2013; Salisbury et al 2017; Romilio et al 2021).
A global comparison of the ichnodiversity of track sites in Salisbury et al, (2017) thus concludes that the Broome Sandstone of the Dampier Peninsula contains the highest diversity of dinosaurian ichnotaxa anywhere in the world. After the Broome Sandstone, the next most diverse non-avian dinosaur ichnofaunas likely come from the Middle Jurassic Saltwick and Scalby formations of the Cleveland Basin, UK, and the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) Blackhawk Formation, Utah, USA. The Saltwick and Scalby formations have a combined total of 17–18 types of dinosaurian track, only some of which have been named. These represent a minimum of three types of theropod track, two types of sauropod track, at least three types of ornithopod track, and one type of thyreophoran track (Romano & Whyte 2003; Whyte et al 2007) spread across approximately 10 million years of deposition. The Blackhawk Formation is estimated to contain 14 different non-avian dinosaur track types, pertaining to theropods, ornithopods and a thyreophoran (Parker & Rowley 1989 in Salisbury et al 2017).
[IMG] Figure 3.37 Goolarabooloo Law Boss Richard Hunter (left) with Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury (centre) and members of UQ Dinosaur Lab team (Photo: Damian Kelly)
Most other well-known formations and/or track-bearing areas contain no more than ten or so non-avian dinosaur track types. These include the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) Gething Formation of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin, Canada (eight types of non-avian dinosaurian tracks); the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian–Albian), Jindong Formation of the Gyeongsang Basin, Korea (six types of non-avian dinosaurian tracks); the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Morrison Formation of the San Juan Basin, USA (nine types of non-avian dinosaurian tracks); the Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Vega, Terenes, and Lastres formations of the Gijón-Villaviciosa Basin, Spain (nine types of non-avian dinosaurian tracks); the Upper Jurassic (Tithonian–Kimmeridgian) Lourinhã Formation of the Lusitanian Basin, Portugal (up to seven different types of non-avian dinosaurian tracks); the Lower Cretaceous (pre-Aptian) Sousa Formation of the Rio do Peixe (Sousa) Basin, Brazil (six to eight types of non-avian dinosaurian tracks); and the Lower or Middle Jurassic Botucatu Formation of the Sao Bento Group, Brazil (eight or nine types of non-avian dinosaurian tracks).
Salisbury et al (2017) conclude that the high abundance of sauropod, large ornithopod (Walmadan-yichnus), and thyreophoran (in particular Garbina) tracks at certain track sites is also unique globally for the Lower Cretaceous and provides enormous potential for future paleoecological and behavioural studies (Figure 3.37).
Located in the far northwest of Australia’s tropical north, the West Kimberley National Heritage Place covers some 19,200,000 hectares. The National Heritage listing of this vast cultural landscape recognises natural, historic and Indigenous values that are of outstanding heritage value to the nation, including values related to continuing Aboriginal occupation and custodianship over the course of more than 40,000 years. The listing also recognises the history of non-Indigenous exploration and settlement, including pastoralism and pearling. Along with these cultural values, the region’s natural and aesthetic values are also recognised as landscapes of relatively undisturbed beauty and biological richness containing important geological and fossil evidence of Australia’s evolutionary history.
The complete gazettal notice for the National Heritage listing of the West Kimberley Item 106063 can be found on the Australian Heritage Database (AHD) record: environment.gov.au and at Appendix A.
The Dampier Coast occupies a relatively small portion of the West Kimberley National Heritage area; the scope of the DCNHMP is limited to the ITZ between Crab Creek and Willie Creek. Extracted summaries from the AHD record of the National Heritage criteria, themes, values and statements of significance that relate to the Dampier Coast are given below, along with additional commentary relating to the intersection of those themes and values with the defined DCNHMP management area and NHL gazetted area.
[IMG] Figure 4.1 Monsoon vine thickets are an NHV of the northern Kimberley coast (Photo: Environs Kimberley)
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in the course, or pattern of Australia’s natural and cultural history.
Theme: Ecology, biogeography and evolution
Value: Vine thickets
Many of the small immobile invertebrate species endemic to the Kimberley have only been recorded in its rainforest patches (vine thickets), including 90 per cent of the earthworms and 48 per cent of the land snails (Kenneally & McKenzie 1991). Survey and taxonomic work by Solem (1979, 1981, 1984, 1985 in AHC 2011a) and more recent research (Graham 2001; Köhler 2010) have helped highlight the national importance of the Kimberley Plateau and surrounding islands for land snail richness and endemism.
Statement of national significance: Vine thickets of the northern Kimberley coast and islands and the Kimberley Plateau, and the Devonian reefs of the west Kimberley, are of outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for their evolutionary refugial role that has resulted in high invertebrate richness and endemism (Commonwealth of Australia 2011).
Commentary: Small patches of monsoon vine thicket (dry rainforest) also occur along the Dampier Peninsula coast amongst Holocene sand dune systems (Kenneally & McKenzie 1991). These coastal thickets, while simpler in structure and possessing fewer plant species than the thickets of the northern Kimberley Coast and Plateau, offer important dry season refuge and food resources for birds such as the Rose-Crowned Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus regina) and Great Bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus nuchalis) (Black et al 2010 in AHC 2011a).
[IMG] Figure 4.2 Healthy monsoon vine thicket and leaf litter (Photo: Louise Beames Environs Kimberley)
Dampier Peninsula vine thicket patches contain many fewer species of plants than vine thickets further north, and also fewer bird species (Johnstone & Burbidge 1991). However, the Rose-Crowned Fruit-Dove, which is confined to vine thickets, is more common here than in other parts of the Kimberley. Restricted or locally endemic Camaenid snails are found frequently in Kimberley vine thicket surveys, including the more geographically isolated Dampier Peninsula dune thickets, as far south as Broome (AHC 2011a).
The patches of endangered monsoon vine thicket that persist in Holocene dune locations within and adjacent to the ITZ of the DCNHMP management area (see Chapter 3.2.5) are not for the most part contained within the NHL boundary, nor are they considered to be an attribute of NHV as described in the NHL gazettal notice, which refers only to locations further north. However, ‘Monsoon vine thickets on coastal sand dunes of the Dampier Peninsula’ within and adjacent to the management area are separately protected under the EPBC Act as threatened ecological communities (see Chapter 4.3 and Figure 4.2).
Theme: Wealth of land and sea
Value: Aboriginal trade in pearl shell
Kimberley pearl shell (Pinctada maxima) has associations with water, rain-making, ancestral Creator Beings, stories and songs. The significance of the modified pearl shell changes as it is traded from its source, where it was created by powerful Dreamtime Beings. Highly valued by Aboriginal people as the ‘emblem of life’ with potent correlations with water, and the power to regenerate, renew, and transform; modified Kimberley pearl is the most widely distributed commodity in Aboriginal Australia, covering two-thirds of the Australian continent.
Statement of national significance: Pearl shell beds at a number of identified sites from Bidyadanga to Cape Londonderry, where in Aboriginal law and culture, the shell is believed to have been created by Dreamtime Beings and is collected by Traditional Owners, have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) as the source of the item most widely distributed by Aboriginal people in the course of Australia’s cultural history (Commonwealth of Australia 2011).
Commentary: While the coastline described in the NHL gazettal notice intersects with the DCNHMP management area, pearl-shell bed sites have not been identified to date. However, the Yawuru CMP lists pearl-shell collection as an important cultural value for the Roebuck Bay area (refer Chapter 4.3.2; Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 178).
[IMG] Figure 4.3 Aboriginal trade in pearl shell is identified as an NHV of the West Kimberley cultural landscape (Photo: Western Australian shell pendant from the Australian National Maritime Museum Collection 00045196)
Theme: Contact, change and continuity
Value: European explorers
In the sixteenth century long, dangerous and difficult voyages across uncharted oceans began to shape ‘new worlds’ on the maps of European navigators. In the pursuit of knowledge and wealth beyond the borders of Europe, early expeditions by the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French and British began to reveal the outline of the Australian continent.
Statement of national significance: The Kimberley coast is recognised for its association with early European exploration of the continent. The William Dampier (Cygnet) (1688) landing place, around Pender Bay, Karrakatta Bay, King Sound, the Buccaneer Archipelago and nearby coast, has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for its association with William Dampier and the influence of his published observations. The environment observed by Dampier is substantially unmodified since his 1688 landing and can be seen today (Commonwealth of Australia 2011).
Commentary: While the Dampier Peninsula, Dampier Creek and Roebuck Bay are associated by name with William Dampier, the NHV described above is linked to the explorer’s first 1688 voyage on the Cygnet. His 1699 voyage on the HMS Roebuck landed at Shark Bay and followed the coast north to Lagrange Bay (just south of what is now called Roebuck Bay) before heading out to sea. The DCNHMP management area is therefore considered to have associative value, but not considered to contain physical attributes of National Heritage significance under this theme as described in the NHL gazettal notice.
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural and cultural history.
Theme: Ecology, biogeography and evolution
Value: Dampier Coast
The early [sic: Lower] Cretaceous Broome Sandstone of the Dampier Coast contains the only sauropod prints found in Australia – these are common in the discontinuous outcrops that stretch for up to 200 kilometres along the west coast of the Dampier Peninsula (Molnar 1991; Thulborn et al 1994; Long 1998). With some hind foot tracks as long as 1.75 metres, the Dampier Coast tracks may be the world’s largest sauropod prints. The world’s smallest sauropod tracks have also been found here, indicating a broader population sample than that of any other known sauropod track site. It preserves rare examples of the coexistence of sauropod and ornithopods. The Dampier Coast is the only site with extensive evidence of western Australian dinosaurs and the large number of tracks provides an otherwise unobtainable census of dinosaur populations and communities.
Statement of national significance: The Dampier Coast dinosaur tracks have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (b) as the best and most extensive evidence of dinosaurs from the western half of the continent, some of which are unknown from body fossils; for the diversity and exceptional sizes of the sauropod prints; and the unique census of the dinosaur community that they provide (Commonwealth of Australia 2011).
Commentary: The citation of heritage value under Criterion (b) extracted above is considered to be out of date. However, the Statement of national significance under this criterion still stands. Sauropod tracks are now known from the Winton Formation of Central West Queensland (Poropat et al 2021) and the claim regarding the world’s smallest sauropod tracks remains unconfirmed. Management, protection, research and education around, and promotion of, the extraordinary diversity of dinosaur tracks along the Dampier Coast, both within the gazetted NHL area and the wider project management area is considered to be the prime focus of the DCNHMP.
Value: The Dampier Coast’s human footprint sites
Rare in Australia, fossil human tracks are important for both scientific and symbolic reasons. There are three occurrences of fossil human tracks documented in the literature. The Dampier Coast site is the only example yet found in Western Australia. Less clearly documented accounts of human tracks at other locations along the coast also appear in the literature (Mayor & Sarjeant 2001; Long 2002). The Pleistocene and Holocene human record which the Dampier Coast tracks help to elaborate is very patchy. Documenting track sites through human history can begin to reveal population data across a continent and through time, to supplement other kinds of archaeological and historical evidence. Tracks have the potential to reveal data which is hidden from those who only study body fossils: about gait, anatomy, stature, size, population and speed. In other words, they evoke ‘the living behaviour of our ancestors’ (Kim et al 2008; Webb et al 2006).
Statement of national significance: The fossil human footprint sites of the Dampier Coast have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (b) as one of only three documented human track sites in Australia and the only documented evidence of human tracks from the west coast of Australia (Commonwealth of Australia 2011).
Commentary: Fossil human footprints in Holocene deposits are present within the DCNHMP management area (Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury, UQ Dinosaur Lab), and this discovery is the subject of a confidential report commissioned by the Department of Transport (DOT) and GMIC (Archae-aus 2023).
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of: (i) a class of Australia’s natural and cultural places; or (ii) a class of Australia’s natural and cultural environments.
Theme: Ecology, biogeography and evolution
Value: Dampier Coast Cretaceous landscape
The ichnofossils (trace fossils including dinosaur tracks) preserved in the Broome Sandstone exposed in the intertidal zone of the Dampier Coast (from Roebuck Bay to Cape Leveque) represent up to 15 different types of dinosaur (Thulborn et al 1994; Tyler 2000; Long 1998, 2004). The Cretaceous landscapes that occurred here were buried intact and reveal original topography, with soils, leaf-litter and even fossils of plants in their growth positions (roots can be seen descending into the substrate). In places, dinosaur tracks meander around these plants so that one may walk across these ancient landscapes following their paths through clumps of vegetation (Thulborn pers. comm. 2009).
The plant and sedimentological evidence allows reconstruction of the environments in which dinosaurs lived and fed, providing a fuller palaeoecological picture of a suite of Cretaceous coastal environments. The Broome Sandstone coastal exposures of dinosaur tracks and associated fossils therefore tell an integrated story of the animals, plants and physical environment of this area during the Early Cretaceous period, approximately 132 million years ago.
Statement of national significance: The dinosaur tracks and associated ichnofossils, plant macrofossils and Cretaceous depositional environments of the Broome Sandstone exposed in the intertidal zone of the Dampier Coast have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (d) for preserving snapshots of the ecology of the Mesozoic (Commonwealth of Australia 2011).
Commentary: The value citation under Criterion (d) above is considered to be out of date. However, the Statement of national significance under this criterion still stands. Salisbury et al (2017) and Salisbury and Romilio (2019) document at least 11 and possibly as many as 21 different dinosaurian tracks, six of which do not occur anywhere else in the world.
Value: Roebuck Bay migratory hub
Sixty-four waterbird species have been recorded at Roebuck Bay, 34 of which have been listed under international treaties (JAMBA, CAMBA and ROKAMBA). Roebuck Bay has the highest number of species of international importance visiting its shores of any site in Australia, including Pied Oystercatcher (Haematopus longirostris), Mongolian Plover (Charadrius mongolus) and the Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres). Australian National Heritage Assessment Tool (ANHAT) analysis returned the second highest score for Charadiiformes (waders) richness at Roebuck Bay (61 species). Along with international visitors, Roebuck Bay also returned nationally high endemism scores for a collection of bird groups, including Passeriformes (perching birds), Meliphagidae (honeyeaters), Pittidae (pittas) and to a lesser extent Sylviidae (old world warblers). The endemism significance can in some cases be explained by a number of bird species, such as the Common Redshank (Tringa totanus) and the Asian Dowitcher (Limnodromus semipalmatus), that within Australia almost exclusively visit the Canning coast area, before returning to other countries within their flyway zone.
[IMG] Figure 4.4 Management, protection, research, education and promotion of the extraordinary diversity of dinosaur tracks along the Dampier Coast is considered to be the prime focus of the DCNHMP (Source: DCMG)
[IMG] Figure 4.4a Eroded sauropod track at Entrance Point. The ‘true track’ – the surface on which the sauropod walked – has weathered away
[IMG] Figure 4.5 Artist’s rendition of the species diversity of the Dampier Peninsula’s Dinosaur Coast in the Lower Cretaceous period (Source: DCMG)
Statement of national significance: Roebuck Bay has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (d) due to the place’s importance as a class of avian habitat (a migratory hub or staging post), and for the regular presence of migratory, protected or endangered avifauna (Commonwealth of Australia 2011).
Commentary: While the Roebuck Bay migratory bird hub is considered to be an important NHV that intersects with DCNHMP Roebuck Bay Zone, this NHV is already well-recognised and managed under several international treaties including the Ramsar Convention. The Yawuru Nagulagun/Roebuck Bay Marine Park JMP (DPW 2016b) and Ecological Description for Roebuck Bay (Bennelongia 2009) are viewed as the primary management documents for this value. However, management strategies for the Ramsar Site are likely to intersect with strategies to protect and manage access to the Broome Sandstone Lower Cretaceous heritage.
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.
[IMG] Figure 4.6 The migratory bird hub at Roebuck Bay is a recognised NHV and is also a Ramsar Site (Photo: Stephanie Cartledge)
Theme: Wealth of Land and Sea
Value: European pearling
Memories and stories of pearling along the pearling coast in the Kimberley region have a special iconic association with the Australian community. Today the Australian community continues to be drawn to the region in search of the iconic association with pearling and the attraction of the pearls themselves. This is enlivened by the place’s outback location, remoteness of the area and beauty of the coast. A demonstration of this community connection is the high visitation to the area, where a diverse cultural heritage is celebrated in the annual Shinju Matsuri Festival.
Statement of national significance: The pearling coast within the West Kimberley place has outstanding (intangible) heritage value to the nation under criterion (g) as a place which has a special association with the Australian community for evoking memories of pearling. These memories are enlivened by the place’s remoteness and beauty at the gateway to the Kimberley’s outback (Commonwealth of Australia 2011).
Commentary: Given its proximity to the pearling port of Broome, the DCNHMP management area is considered to have intangible associative values with the theme of European pearling. The Shinju Matsuri festival is expanding to include celebration of Broome’s ancient Cretaceous heritage while the Broome Museum includes a permanent dinosaur display alongside its pearling history exhibits. Morgan’s Camp, in the Chinatown Conservation Area was an historic pearling camp on Dampier Creek which included Aboriginal residents (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 170).
[IMG] Figure 4.7 The Sailmaker’s Shed in the Broome Museum houses an exhibition of pearl lugger sailmaking
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia’s natural or cultural history
Theme: Contact, Change and continuity
Value: Association with European explorers
Statement of national significance: The William Dampier (Cygnet) 1688 landing place has outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (h) for its special association with the life and work of William Dampier (Commonwealth of Australia 2011).
Commentary: While the Dampier Peninsula, Dampier Creek and Roebuck Bay are associated by name with William Dampier, the described NHVs are mostly linked to the explorer’s first 1688 voyage on the Cygnet. As his 1699 voyage on the HMS Roebuck landed at Shark Bay and followed the coast north to Lagrange Bay (just south of what is now called Roebuck Bay) before heading out to sea, the DCNHMP management area is considered to hold associative value with the theme of exploration but is not considered to contain physical attributes of National Heritage significance as described in the NHL gazettal notice.
The EPBC Act is the key national legal framework for protecting and managing unique plants, animals, habitats and places including national and world heritage sites, marine areas, some wetlands as well as listed threatened and migratory species. These are all defined as ‘matters of national environmental significance’ under the Act.
Apart from the NHVs associated with the ITZ described in Chapter 4.2, and summary comparative analysis of dinosaur tracks and other ichnofossils in Chapter 3.3, documented heritage and conservation values of national and international significance are largely connected to the Roebuck Bay Ramsar Site, which occurs across marine and terrestrial reserves, and which is regarded as having one of the most biologically diverse and productive intertidal flats in the world (Bennelongia 2009). The formal Ramsar criteria and associated values managed and protected under the EPBC Act are:
Criterion 1: Wetland values. The site is a superb example of a tropical marine embayment within the Northwest (IMCRA) bioregion. It is one of only a dozen intertidal flats worldwide where benthic food sources are found in sufficient densities that they regularly support internationally significant numbers of waders.
Criterion 2: Threatened species/communities. Loggerhead Turtles (Caretta caretta, nationally endangered) and Green Turtles (Chelonia mydas, nationally vulnerable) regularly use the site as a seasonal feeding area and as a transit area on migration. Flatback Turtles (Natator depressus, nationally vulnerable) regularly nest in small numbers around Cape Villaret during the summer months. Sawfish (Pristis clavate, nationally endangered) regularly use the tidal creeks and mangrove areas for breeding and refuge.
Criterion 3: Regional biodiversity. The site supports a significant component of the region’s (Northwest IMCRA bioregion) intertidal and shallow marine biodiversity in terms of the marine mammals (dugong, turtles and dolphin), marine invertebrate infauna, and avian fauna across the site. The total density of macrobenthic animals (1,287 individuals/m²) is high by global standards for a tropical mudflat and species richness is very high (estimated to be between 300–500 species).
Criterion 4: Key habitat in life cycle. The site is one of the most important migration stopover areas for shorebirds in Australia and globally. It is the arrival and departure point for large proportions of the Australian populations of several shorebird species, notably Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica) and Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris). The site provides essential energy replenishment for many migrating species, some of which fly non-stop between continental East Asia and Australia.
Criterion 5: Supports >20,000 waterbirds. The site regularly supports over 100,000 waterbirds. The highest number of shorebirds counted at the site was 170,915 in October 1983 and allowing for turnover, the total number of shorebirds using the site may exceed 300,000 annually. It is the fourth most important site for waders in Australia in terms of absolute numbers and the most important in terms of the number of species it supports in internationally significant numbers (see Criterion 6).
Criterion 6: The site regularly supports 1% of the population of at least 22 wader species (20 migratory and 2 resident species).
Criterion 8: The site is important as a nursery and/or breeding and/or feeding ground for at least five species of fish and for mud crabs and prawns. The site’s mangal system is particularly important as a nursery area for marine fishes and prawns (Bennelongia 2009).
Monsoon vine thickets on coastal sand dunes of the Dampier Peninsula are protected under the EPBC Act as threatened ecological communities present within and adjacent to the DCNHMP management area.
The Willie Creek Wetland Complex, partly within the DCNHMP Waterbank Zone, is recognised as a nationally important wetland providing a unique, permanent freshwater swamp and important wader habitat with unusual vegetation in its vicinity (DBCA 2020).
The DCNHMP ITZ in its entirety provides habitat for 34 listed threatened species and 66 listed migratory species. A summary of items protected under the EPBC Act within the DCNHMP management area is provided in Table 4.1.
Table 4.1 Summary table of EPBC Act Protected Matters for the DCNHMP management area
Matter of national environmental significance | Relevance to management area |
World Heritage Properties | None |
National Heritage Places | The West Kimberley |
Wetlands of International Importance (Ramsar Sites) | Roebuck Bay |
Threatened species |
|
Migratory species |
|
Habitat critical to survival | Flatback Turtle nesting known to occur |
Biologically important areas | Several species of dolphins (9), dugongs (2), sawfish (5) and whale (2) known to breed, calve, forage and/or migrate |
EPBC Act referrals (current or recent) |
|
The Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database (AUCHD) contains historical and environmental information about shipwrecks, sunken aircraft and other types of underwater heritage site and serves as the register of protected underwater cultural heritage for the federal Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018 (UCH Act). Roebuck Bay’s globally significant Flying Boat Wreckage Site (also known as the Catalina Wrecks) is located in the ITZ management area of this management plan and protected under national, state and local frameworks. Visible only at extreme low tides, the wrecks are located on the mudflats about one kilometre out from Town Beach.
[IMG] Figure 4.8 Roebuck Bay’s Flying Boat Wreckage Site (Source: Visit Broome)
The DCNHMP recognises that the Lower Cretaceous ichnofossils and fauna fossils of the Broome Sandstone have high Aboriginal cultural significance, even though these values were not recognised in the West Kimberley National Heritage listing (and it is recommended in Chapter 4.4.1 below that these values should be added). Nevertheless, the National Heritage management principles (Schedule 5B, EPBC Act) specify that:
5. The management of National Heritage Places should make timely and appropriate provision for community involvement, especially by people who:
(a) have a particular interest in, or association with, the place; and
(b) may be affected by the management of the place.
6. Indigenous people are the primary source of information on the value of their heritage and the active participation of Indigenous people in identification, assessment and management is integral to the effective protection of Indigenous heritage values.
Those principles require that a national heritage management plan engages with and respects Indigenous cultural values, including situations where those values may be multifaceted and layered across the Aboriginal community.
Article 13 of the Burra Charter (AICOMOS 2013a) specifically acknowledges that co-existing cultural values may apply to a specific situation:
Co-existence of cultural values should always be recognised, respected and encouraged. This is especially important in cases where they conflict.
(Explanatory Note: For some places, conflicting cultural values may affect policy development and management decisions. In Article 13, the term cultural values refers to those beliefs which are important to a cultural group, including but not limited to political, religious, spiritual and moral beliefs. This is broader than values associated with cultural significance.) (AICOMOS 2013a: Article 13).
AICOMOS has produced a Code on the Ethics of Co-existence in Conserving Significant Places that provides a series of ethical principles and practice guidelines for situations with multiple or conflicting sets of cultural values (AICOMOS 1998). The articles of this code emphasise the importance of a fully inclusive approach, including:
These principles are developed further in the AICOMOS Burra Charter Practice Notes (AICOMOS 2013b, 2013c, 2017).
Consistent with these principles and respecting the multifaceted Aboriginal cultural traditions involving Lower Cretaceous ichnofossils that coincide in the Broome area, the processes involved in the implementation and continued evolution of the DCNHMP should engage with both Yawuru (RNTBC) and Goolarabooloo in relation to these cultural values. These organisations carry cultural responsibilities for areas associated with what they respectfully refer to as the Northern and Southern traditions and associated songlines (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 30–31).
The Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (AH Act) has been updated in 2024. The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Inquiry System (ACHIS) maintained by the Western Australian DPLH provides information on Aboriginal heritage places in Western Australia that have been lodged or assessed under the AH Act. This publicly available register is a cumulative listing of significant Aboriginal heritage sites that have been reported to date, but is not a comprehensive list of all significant cultural heritage places. In many circumstances Aboriginal people and their representative organisations have been reluctant to record significant cultural heritage places and related confidential cultural knowledge on a Government-maintained register.
DPLH now has three separate Aboriginal cultural heritage site register categories:
Existing ACHIS site records that intersect the DCNHMP management area include 38 Register sites, 10 Lodged sites and 4 Historic sites. The intersecting site records from the public ACHIS online are shown in Map 4.1 and are listed in Table 4.2.
Table 4.2 Summary table of DPLH ACHIS sites in the DCNHMP management area
Place ID | Name | Status | Type |
432 | RED POINT | Lodged | Creation / Dreaming Narrative |
433 | GANTHEAUME PT. 3 | Lodged | Creation / Dreaming Narrative |
12410 | LINTAPITJIN/LOT 2065PORT DR | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Midden |
12416 | GANTHEAUME PT: DOG DREAMING | Lodged | Creation / Dreaming Narrative |
12590 | RED BANK. | Register | Camp; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Fish Trap; Midden |
12591 | BROOME OLD JETTY. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Midden; Water Source |
12698 | KUMBILLEBILLEKAN. | Lodged | Burial; Camp |
12793 | UNDANDA. | Register | Camp; Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Grinding Areas / Groves; Midden |
12832 | MILIBUNYARI. | Lodged | Camp |
12839 | BILLINGURRU. | Register | Camp; Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative |
12840 | YARRARRA. | Lodged | Camp; Creation / Dreaming Narrative |
12841 | MARNALAKUN. | Lodged | Burial; Camp |
12872 | GANTHEAUME POINT 2. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Camp; Midden |
12873 | ENTRANCE POINT/YINARA. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Midden |
12874 | ROEBUCK BAY MIDDEN | Lodged | Artefacts / Scatter; Midden |
12886 | ILLANGARAMI | Historic | Creation / Dreaming Narrative |
12887 | BALLIWANDUNA | Lodged | Creation / Dreaming Narrative |
12888 | BALJARKURUKUN. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Midden; Quarry |
12889 | NUNUKURAKUN | Lodged | Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative |
12906 | WILLIES CREEK COMPLEX. | Register | Burial; Artefacts / Scatter; Camp; Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Hunting Place; Midden; Water Source |
12908 | COCONUT WELL 1. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Midden; Water Source |
12909 | COCONUT WELL ISLAND | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Midden |
12915 | NORTH CABLE BEACH 2 | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Midden |
12916 | NORTH CABLE BEACH 1 | Register | Midden |
12917 | CABLE BEACH 6. | Register | Camp; Meeting Place; Midden; Water Source |
12918 | CABLE BEACH 4. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Camp; Midden; Other; Water Source, |
12919 | CABLE BEACH 2 | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Midden; Other |
12920 | CABLE BEACH 1 | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Midden; Other |
12921 | MINYIRR. | Register | Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Other; Water Source |
12922 | JUNGKURR | Register | Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Other |
12923 | NGAKALYALYA | Register | Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Other |
12924 | GANTHEAUME POINT 1 | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Midden; Other |
13075 | MANGALAGUN + IWALANGANJDANJ. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Midden; Water Source |
13320 | WUNDORDA | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Ritual / Ceremonial; Midden |
13321 | BULGURGUN. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Midden; Water Source |
13351 | NGILIRIRRBANJIN | Register | Ritual / Ceremonial |
13465 | WIRGANJU GROUND | Register |
|
13729 | RESERVE 21801 BROOME | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Traditional Structure; Other |
14240 | FISHERMENS BEND 2 | Register | Burial; Ritual / Ceremonial; Other |
14241 | FISHERMENS BEND 3 | Register | Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Other; Repository / Storage Place |
14242 | FISHERMENS BEND 4 | Register | Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Other |
14243 | FISHERMENS BEND 5 | Register | Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Other |
14291 | FISHERMENS BEND 1. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Camp; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Midden; Other; Water Source |
14557 | CABLE BEACH 5. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Camp; Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Hunting Place; Midden; Other |
14558 | BROOME JETTY | Historic |
|
14560 | TITIRRKUN/KENNEDY HILL. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Grinding areas / Grooves; Hunting Place; Midden; Other; Water Source |
14561 | SACRED STORES/ BROOME | Register | Ritual / Ceremonial; Repository / Storage Place |
14609 | CABLE BEACH 3. | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Camp; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Midden; Other |
19799 | Mungullagun Blackberry Tree Midden | Register | Artefacts / Scatter; Midden |
21408 | Broome Crocodile Farm | Register | Camp; Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative |
30274 | LSC11 | Historic | Burial; Sub surface cultural material; Artefacts / Scatter; Camp; Ritual / Ceremonial; Creation / Dreaming Narrative; Fish Trap; Meeting Place; Midden; Landscape / Seascape Feature; Ochre; Plant Resource; Quarry; Repository / Storage Place; Shell; Water Source |
32839 | Gurrjungu SA-0111 | Historic | Fish Trap |
Map 4.1 DPLH ACHIS sites
[IMG] Figure 4.9 Shell midden in the Church Hill Sand eroding onto the underlying Mowanjum Sand, Broome Sandstone and Cable Beach Sand on the beach near Crab Creek, Roebuck Bay (Photo: Neale Draper)
These recorded Aboriginal heritage sites include archaeological campsites and shell middens, as well as significant cultural (mythological and ceremonial) places for local Aboriginal people. The exact locations of the sites shown in Map 4.1 are obscured by large, ‘dithered’ squares, rectangles or circles, indicating that the precise locations of those sites are culturally confidential. Some of the archaeological sites (shell middens, stone artefacts, etc.) situated in the coastal dunes above the HWM have ‘spilled’ into the upper part of the ITZ as a result of water and wind erosion (Figure 4.9; Clifford & Semeniuk 2019). Some significant cultural sites are located in the coastal sand dunes.
Some cultural sites that Goolarabooloo have reported for protection purposes are rock formations within the ITZ (e.g., Figure 4.10) which include Broome Sandstone with dinosaur tracks and other Lower Cretaceous ichnofossils. Note that historically, Yawuru and the Kimberley Land Council generally have been reluctant to record significant cultural sites on the ACHIS (Table 4.2).
The Federal Court of Australia recognised Aboriginal Native Title in the Broome region through the Rubibi Native Title Determination (Merkel 2006) and in subsequent ILUAs in 2010, which led to the establishment of the Yawuru Conservation Estate parks (DPW 2021). Rubibi Native Title claim applicant and senior Yawuru Law man, Patrick Dodson, later described local cultural values in his foreword to the Yawuru CMP (Yawuru RNTBC 2016):
Our Native Title, whilst found in western law, is grounded in the all-encompassing power and richness of Bugarrigarra and the interdependent elements of our world that flow from that – Community, Country and Law. Bugarrigarra is the core of Yawuru cosmology and our experience of Liyan is essential to our wellbeing in our Country.
Bugarrigarra is the time before time, when the creative forces shaped and gave meaning and form to the landscape, putting the languages to the people within those landscapes and creating the protocol and laws for living within this environment. Bugarrigarra is not an historic event that created our world at the beginning of time. It is not detached from contemporary life. It continues to exist and is the spiritual force that shapes our ongoing cultural values and practice, our relationships with each other and the obligations and responsibilities that we have to each other that form our Community. It requires respect at the interface of change and development.
Within this broad framework that is defined by Yawuru belief in Bugarrigarra are three fundamental components of Yawuru existence that define our Native Title.
The first is Community. Yawuru people relate to each other through our common belief systems, ceremony, language, history and, importantly, through kinship, which culturally and socially determines obligations and responsibilities to all others.
The second is Country. Our connection to Country – how we use and occupy the seas and lands on Yawuru Country – is fundamental to who we are as a people. The protection of our Country is an imperative. This means we have to constantly talk about sustainable development and balance between cultural imperatives and development opportunities. Culture and Heritage are important to Country.
The third is Liyan. This concept relates to Yawuru and other Aboriginal people’s view of their wellbeing: the way we feel about ourselves and our relationship with community and the wider world. In a philosophical sense, it is part of our being and the means through which we experience our being. Liyan is about relationships, family, community and what gives meaning to people’s lives. Yawuru people’s connection to country and joy celebrating in our culture and society is fundamental to having good liyan. When we feel disrespected or abused our liyan is bad, which can be insidious and corrosive for both the individual and the community. When our liyan is good our wellbeing and everything else is in a good space (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: Foreword).
The Yawuru CMP describes Yawuru cultural traditions and values (Yawuru RNTBC 2016), and also acknowledges Goolarabooloo aspects of those multifaceted cultural traditions and values (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 24, and below).
The Yawuru people, as the Native Title Holders of the land and sea in and around Broome, have a responsibility in our Law to protect, promote and sustain the law and culture that has come to us from the Bugarrigarra. This has been the responsibility of the Yawuru for millennia. Only the Yawuru hold these rights and responsibilities on Yawuru land. This is the nature of our Law (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 124).
In Yawuru country, the Bugarrigarra laid down three traditions of law, which hold esoteric knowledge of our country and guide our customary practices. They all relate secret/sacred narratives, sometimes called “songlines”.
The Northern Tradition is associated with the northern parts of the claim area, and is allied with the people who live to its north, particularly the Bardi. The Southern Tradition is associated with areas to the south of the claim and is an important part of the beliefs and practices of our southern neighbours, the Karajarri, as well as inland groups including the Nyikina and Mangala and the more southerly Nyangumarta. These traditions are also understood and practised by groups as far away as Balgo to the east and Yandeyarra to the south, in the Pilbara.
The third tradition arises in Broome itself and travels east toward the desert and Uluru in Central Australia. Knowledge and practices of all traditions is shared with groups outside Yawuru country.
Both the northern and southern traditions are rich in narratives, songs, objects and places that we call our Law, which continues to play a central role in our lives. Practitioners of our Law are known as ‘Law men and women’ or ‘bosses’. They are our senior people with the authority, based on their ritual qualifications, to make decisions for the whole of the Yawuru community. Both Laws are steeped in sacredness, and strict rules govern all religious observances. Senior practitioners of both Laws exercise extreme care in all matters relating to the exercise of their beliefs (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 30–31).
The Yawuru CMP also refers to four key cultural values:
The ITZ of the DCNHMP is part of the Yawuru cultural landscape – the Nagulagun Buru or sea country. Some important Yawuru cultural places along the coastline and their recorded cultural values are summarised below, starting from Wirrjinmir (Willie Creek) to Bilingurr (Station Hill) in the sandhills to the north of the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone. This coastal area corresponds with the Waterbank Zone in the DCNHMP.
This is the northernmost area of Yawuru country, and much of the coastline marks the travels of the creative beings of the Northern Tradition. This area of the Yawuru Conservation Estate carries exclusive Native Title. There are several Law grounds, jila and significant historic living areas on the old Waterbank lease that need to be protected (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 166).
The following cultural values are identified for this section of the coastline:
The historical and ecological values listed for this section of coastline include ‘Fossil remains, including dinosaur footprints, found on the coastal reefs’ (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 166).
The second section of coastline described in the Yawuru CMP is from Walmanyjun (Cable Beach) to Burrgugun (Morgan’s Camp), a significant cultural site, and an historic pearling camp on Dampier Creek in the Chinatown Conservation Area (SOB 2019b: Heritage Place 04851), including Aboriginal residents. This area includes DCNHMP zones Cable Beach Foreshore, Cable Beach South, Gantheaume Point (Minyirr), Reddell Beach, Entrance Point, Town Beach and Dampier Creek.
Our Bugarrigarra sites line the shore and cross the peninsula between Cable Beach and Morgan’s Camp, particularly along the coastal dunes. Ancient middens and hearths can be found along the shore, close to areas where we continue to fish, hunt and have our ‘dinner camps’. From the high dunes of Kennedy Hill and above New Jetty we were able to communicate across the bay with our countrymen travelling from Thangoo using fire signals (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 170).
[The ‘new jetty’ in this instance refers to the Broome Port wharf, not the more recently built new jetty at Town Beach.]
The following cultural values are associated with this area:
East of Dampier Creek, there are significant Yawuru cultural places along the coastline of Roebuck Bay, from Kunin (Fisherman’s Bend) to Crab Creek (Mangalagun) – the DCNHMP Roebuck Bay Zone –and extending east and south from there.
The stretch of country along the foreshore between two tidal creeks, Dampier Creek and Crab Creek, is lined with middens that are testament to the presence of Yawuru people and their ancestors, who have occupied the foreshore of Roebuck Bay for thousands of years. Rich in Bugarrigarra stories, many sites are associated with both Northern and Southern Traditions. There are birthplaces, childhood playgrounds, hunting areas and meeting places near Mangalagun and Nulunggu jila. As Yawuru people moved off Thangoo and Roebuck Plains, Kunin became the major Law ground for Yawuru people (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 176).
The cultural values listed for this area include:
Listed historical values include dinosaur footprint sites; protecting them is one of the listed management actions and aspirations for this area (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 178).
For the dinosaur tracks display in the Western Australian Museum in Perth, Yawuru Law Boss Neil McKenzie made the following comment:
The renowned dinosaur tracks of the intertidal areas of the Broome region are more than a fossil record. These culturally significant tracks stem from Bugarrigarra, the Dreaming – time immemorial. They link our ongoing strength in connection to country with the stories of the formation of our world (McKenzie n.d.).
Yawuru want cultural values added to the NHVs recognised in relation to the dinosaur tracks and other Lower Cretaceous ichnofossils.
The Goolarabooloo Community, represented through GMIC, is based at Millibinyarri (Coconut Well), north of Broome. The community was established by Paddy Roe OAM (deceased) (Roe & Muecke 1983), who also established the Lurujarri Heritage Trail to follow the songline of the Northern Tradition along the coastline of the southern Dampier Peninsula in 1987 (HCWA 1999). The southern section of the Lurujarri Trail extends from Wirrjinymirr (Wirrkinymirri/Willie Creek) to Yinara (southern end of Reddell Beach) in the DCNHMP area.
The Goolarabooloo Law Bosses hold the responsibility for the continuity of the Songline and its capacity to sustain life in its fullest. This includes keeping the coastal land clear of any development that would interfere with their law and culture, or damage their Song Cycle, places and sites.
The body of cultural knowledge that the old people hold and pass on, is preserved and kept alive within the Song Cycle that connects to specific sites (Law Grounds) in a continuous linear system up the coast of the Dampier Peninsula (goolarabooloo.org.au 05.06.2022).
The cultural connections between the Northern Tradition Songline and the fossil sites are summarised by Salisbury et al (2017; see also HCWA 1999: 6). The primary Songline route extends down the coastline of the Dampier Peninsula, and as described above, intersects with other Dreaming tracks.
Three other song cycles emanate from Minyirr Djugun Buru (the greater Broome area): Dabber dabber goon, which travels east, cutting through Uluru (Ayers Rock, Northern Territory) until it reaches the Pacific Ocean; Billingun, which follows the same path as Dabber dabber goon until it reaches Uluru where it splits three ways (see Crane 2013: pl. 27); and Nunnungurugoon, which travels along its own path northeast, through the Kimberley.
Marala, The Emu Man [alternative: Marella] – One of the important Bugarrigarra beings within the Song Cycle is called Marala [Marella] (Mountford 1973; Anonymous 1996; Mayor & Sarjeant 2001) (Fig. 2A). Marala, also referred to as ‘Emu Man,’ was the ‘lawgiver,’ and instilled in country the codes of conduct for behaviour needed to help ensure its well-being, and there are numerous Bugarrigarra stories and parts of stories in which he features. In the process of moving through the Song Cycle from south to north, as well as in and out of the sea, Marala left behind three-toed tracks. He also left behind the grooved impressions of his tail feathers (his ‘ramu’ or ceremonial engravings) when he sat down to rest and create his Law ground. Today, three-toed dinosaur tracks (typically those assigned to Megalosauropus broomensis) and impressions of cycad-like bennettitaleans (Marala’s tail feather impressions and ramu) are seen as testimony to Marala’s journey as narrated in the Song Cycle. A concentration of M. broomensis tracks at a Song Cycle place on Cable Beach is also known as Maralagun [place of Marala]. Marala’s tracks at Minyirr (Gantheaume Point) and Reddell Beach are referred to in a number of Bugarrigarra stories, some of which are publicly known, others of which are known only to a restricted number of people (Salisbury et al 2017: 2).
One particular story concerning Marala and the Nadji Women involves the fossilised theropod tracks at Minyirr (Gantheaume Point) and stone pillars at the southern end of Reddell Beach that overlie the Broome Sandstones (Figure 4.10; see also Salisbury et al 2017: Figure 2).
A Creator spirit called Marala [Marella] – commonly referred to as Emu man – made his appearance at various points along the coast, creating features and aspects of the Law as he went. South of Minyirr (Gantheaume Point) he saw seven Naji women, Yinara and her six daughters, who were spirits from the sea. The girls had been warned by Yinara not to take any notice of anyone on the land, but they disobeyed and watched the emu man. The result was that, as he walked past … Yinara turned herself and her daughters to pillars of stone, which can be seen today, the mother standing taller than her daughters, at what became known as Yinara. Nearby, at Minyirr, Marala’s three-toed footprints can also be seen.
Marala composed a song about this incident which is still sung, and which makes Minyirr an important place in the Law. Minyirr (Gantheaume Point) is also much visited by tourists who come to see the three-toed footprints from Yinara to Minyirr point, which European scientists believe to be those of a dinosaur. In the Aboriginal belief system, Marala, the Law-giving Emu man, is also represented by three stars which rise before the morning star, and his shadow may be seen in the Milky Way, his head laying next to the Southern Cross (HCWA 1999: 5).
[IMG] Figure 4.10 The stone pillars of Yinara (on the left) and her six daughters at Reddell Beach are formed from unnamed Pliocene–Quaternary Conglomerate and eroded Broome Sandstone (Photo: Daniel Roe)
These fossilised theropod tracks and plant fossils have very high cultural significance.
Because of their significance to the Song Cycle, many of the dinosaurian tracks and plant fossils described herein are well known to certain indigenous people of the Dampier Peninsula. Knowledge of the Song Cycle and the dinosaurian tracks and associated fossils is thought to provide insight into Bugarrigarra. As such, much of this knowledge is considered sacred. Although some locations along the Song Cycle where dinosaurian tracks and plant fossils occur are Law grounds, more broadly it is the presence of these trace fossils in the country through which the Song Cycle passes that is the most important thing. The disappearance of some tracks through natural processes is seen as part of ongoing unfolding of Bugarrigarra, as is the appearance of new ones. It is accepted that tracks will come and go as knowledge of them is needed. For these reasons, the removal or desecration of tracks from country for any reason is considered a great offence, in most instances punishable by spearing (J. Roe, quoted in Anonymous [HCWA] 1996). It can also bring illness and misfortune, not only to the perpetrators but also to the Maja under whose custodianship the crime occurred (Salisbury et al 2017: 3, ‘Maja’ are the Law Bosses).
Goolarabooloo custodians identify with the following cultural values for the coastline within the DCNHMP area (Daniel Roe, email 05.08.2022):
At Baljagurrgun there are small outcrops of Broome Sandstone along the eastern edge of the lagoon within the supratidal zone on the landward margin of the ITZ, which is affected by the highest tidal surges. The exposed Broome Sandstone outcrops at this location, while outside of the definition of the DCNHMP management area, have the potential to contain ichnofossils and have significant cultural heritage values. Baljagurrgun (lodged site record DPLH-12888 Baliarkurukun) is an archaeological site with shell midden, artefacts and axe-grinding grooves and grinding patches on the Broome Sandstone. The second outcrop is Nunungurugun (lodged site record DPLH-12889 Nunukurakun), a site particularly associated with the Northern tradition (see Table 4.2). Both sites were recorded with Paddy Roe.
The broader location also has exposures of the overlying Sandfire Calcilutite and Horsewater Soak Calcarenite, the former containing many invertebrate body fossils and the latter containing invertebrate traces and body fossils. Although not listed in the NHVs, these fossils are also scientifically significant.
In addition to sites listed through the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2021 (ACH Act), other cultural heritage places in Western Australia are recorded under several different heritage listings. Some of these give statutory protection and others are simply lists with unofficial or semi-official designations arising from local, community-based or thematic surveys. Some of these listings may also relate to Aboriginal cultural heritage. Statutory listings and their respective legislation located within the DCNHMP management area are summarised in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3 Summary table of cultural heritage listings outside the ACH Act located within the DCNHMP management area
National Heritage Places | Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 |
106063 | The West Kimberley |
WA State Register of Heritage Places | Heritage Act 2018 |
291 | Chinatown Conservation Area |
4553 | Streeter’s Jetty |
4859 | Flying Boat Wreckage Site |
8782 | Male Sheds and Jetty |
Local heritage items | Planning and Development Act 2005; Local Planning Schemes |
291 | Chinatown Conservation Area |
26353 | Dampier Coast – Broome Sandstone Dinosaur Footprints |
4553 | Streeter’s Jetty |
4855 | New Jetty |
4859 | Flying Boat Wreckage Site |
4860 | Old Broome Jetty site, now known as the Groyne Area. |
4861 | Town Beach Site |
26422 | Common Gate |
26423 | Tram Line |
6720 | Port of Broome |
7190 | Buccaneer Rock |
26457 | Lurujarri Heritage Trail |
8782 | Male Sheds and Jetty |
16869 | Roebuck Bay Foreshore |
DEMIRS maintains a geoheritage database for managing, preserving and protecting exceptional geological features. A listed geoheritage site has geological features considered to be unique and of outstanding scientific and educational value within Western Australia. However, Gantheaume Point is listed as Geosite No. 44 and described as being of national significance:
Table 4.4 DEMIRS Geosite No. 44
Tectonic unit | Canning Basin |
GEOLOGY DESCRIPTION | Dinosaur footprints in Broome Sandstone, low-tide exposure; large tridactyl, theropod and sauropod footprints identified; plant macrofossils |
GEOLOGY AGE | Cretaceous |
SIGNIFICANCE DESCRIPTION | National |
GEOHERITAGE SOURCE | Carter, J. D. 1987 Important geological localities beyond the Perth Region. Geological Society of Australia, p. 263 |
In the Broome region, dinosaur tracks and other Cretaceous fossils are recognised in the NHVs as scientifically significant but their cultural heritage significance is not recognised. This is attributed to the very short time span in which these NHVs were added to the West Kimberley NHL nomination, which did not allow for adequate time to properly map the physical extent of the significant ichnofossils or to document their important Aboriginal cultural values.
Yawuru recognise the cultural significance of the dinosaur tracks of the Broome area ITZ (Chapter 4.3.2; Yawuru RNTBC 2016), and consider that (Chapter 4.3.2) cultural values should be a part of the NHVs for the Cretaceous ichnofossils.
The renowned dinosaur tracks of the intertidal areas of the Broome region are more than a fossil record. These culturally significant tracks stem from Bugarrigarra, the Dreaming – time immemorial. They link our ongoing strength in connection to country with the stories of the formation of our world (McKenzie n.d.).
Goolarabooloo consider the Cretaceous ichnofossils to have high cultural significance to Northern Tradition Songline sites (see Chapter 4.3.2 above). Salisbury and Romilio (2019) have summarised this Goolarabooloo cultural significance:
In addition to their scientific value, dinosaurian tracks in the Broome Sandstone also have a unique cultural significance. Three-toed tracks assigned to Megalosauropus broomensis form part of a Song Cycle that extends along the coast and then inland for 450 km, tracing the travels of a Bugarrigarra (Dreamtime) creator being called Marala, the Emu Man (Anonymous 1996; Mayor & Sarjeant 2001; Salisbury et al 2017).
Marala’s tracks at Minyirr (Gantheaume Point) and Reddell Beach are referred to in a number of Bugarrigarra stories that form part of the Northern Tradition of the Song Cycle. The most notable of the publicly known stories involves Marala and some female sea spirits. At Bungurunan, a small beach just to the north of Reddell Point, Marala encountered a group of Ngadjayi – spirit women from the sea who had come out of the water to harden their skin in the sun and delouse each other with jungkur (lice sticks). When Yinara, the most senior woman in the group, sensed that Marala was coming, she told the younger women to turn towards the land and to not look at him. Marala saw the women and walked over to them. Although Yinara positioned herself between Marala and the others, he was still able to get very close. Curious to see him, some of the women turned to watch Marala as he walked past. Yinara was able to drive Marala away, but was angry with the younger women and shamed them for disobeying her. The spirits of Yinara and the other Ngadjayi moved into the sky and can be seen today as the constellation known as Pleiades. Stone pillars representing the Ngadjayi still stand today at the top of the beach at Bungurunan, and the rock platforms nearby preserve three-toed tracks that show where Marala walked (Salisbury et al 2017; Fig. 2) (Salisbury & Romilio 2019: 2).
As well as the three-toed dinosaur tracks (Megalosauropus broomensis), Marala’s [Marella’s] journey is marked by fossil impressions of cycad-like bennettitaleans seen as his tail feather impressions and ramu (ceremonial engravings) (Salisbury et al 2017: 1–2).
These examples demonstrate that there is a strong potential for adding cultural significance as an NHV, or indeed as part of the justification for outstanding universal value for at least some of the Broome Sandstone ichnofossils. To date, this cultural significance has been documented as part of the palaeontological research (Salisbury et al 2017; Salisbury & Romilio 2019; Glauert 1952), in the Yawuru interpretation material accompanying the dinosaur tracks display in the Western Australian Museum (Perth). However, this important set of cultural values has not been the subject of any specific anthropological recording, which would be a valuable next step. Such research also should pay close attention to the cultural sensitivity boundaries related to allowed public information and restricted cultural knowledge concerning the cultural significance of the Cretaceous ichnofossils and the locations at which they occur.
One of the NHVs concerns the Dampier Coast’s human footprint sites. Rare in Australia, fossil human tracks are important for both scientific and cultural reasons. The fossil human footprint sites of the Dampier Coast have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (b) as one of only three documented human track sites in Australia and the only documented evidence of human tracks from the west coast of Australia (Commonwealth of Australia 2011; see Chapter 4.2.2 above).
Previously, the only fossil human footprint sites that were recorded occur near the northern end of the Dampier Peninsula coastline (Welch 1999). It is understood that fossil human footprints in Holocene deposits are present within the DCNHMP management area (Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury, UQ Dinosaur Lab), and this discovery has been further documented in a confidential report commissioned by the DOT and GMIC (Archae-aus 2023). The presence of human footprint fossils adds a significant potential NHV to the Broome area and should inform any update of the NHL boundary. The discovery has important scientific and cultural heritage value.
[IMG] Figure 5.1 Car and trailer tracks going straight over a sauropod track at Roebuck Bay (Photo Damian Kelly)
The Dinosaur Coast ITZ is protected under the EPBC Act; however, the exact extent of the area currently under protection remains unclear due to discrepancies between the written and spatial data of the Commonwealth Gazettal notice for the West Kimberley National Heritage Place (see Chapter 1.3.3). When deciding whether or not a proposed action is likely to have a significant impact on the gazetted NHVs, the precautionary principle is relevant. It is therefore recommended that until the inaccuracies described in Chapter 1.3.3 for the mapped gazettal boundary are corrected, the referral process for assessment of development actions under the EPBC Act needs to follow the gazetted written description of the NHL boundary for this section of the Dampier Coast as being the ITZ bounded by the highest and lowest astronomical tides.
Approval is required under the EPBC Act for any action occurring within, or outside, the existing boundaries of the West Kimberley National Heritage Place that has, will have, or is likely to have a significant impact on its NHVs or any other matters of national environmental significance. (Other relevant matters of national environmental significance are described in Chapter 4.3.) An action is defined broadly as a project, a development, an undertaking, an activity or series of activities, or an alteration of any of these things. An action is likely to have a significant impact on the NHVs of a National Heritage Place if there is a real chance or possibility that it will cause:
In the context of the Dampier Coast ITZ, the person appointed with the responsibility for a proposed action (the proponent) needs to undertake a ‘self-assessment’ and decide whether a proposed action is likely to have a significant adverse impact on the NHVs or any other matters of national environmental significance present in this part of the much larger West Kimberley National Heritage Place. If so, that action must be referred to the federal Minister for the Environment and Water for a decision (see Appendix C). In order to decide whether an action is likely to have a significant impact, the proponent needs to take into account the nature and magnitude of potential impacts and to consider matters such as:
As the gazetted cultural heritage values of the Dampier Coast are essentially associative values related to the coast’s Aboriginal pearl-shell trade and European exploration history and pearling history, the impacts on the gazetted natural values are viewed as more likely to require referrals under the EPBC Act. An action is likely to have a significant impact on the natural heritage values of a National Heritage Place if there is a real chance or possibility that the action will
In the context of the precautionary principle, a lack of scientific certainty about the potential impacts of an action will not itself justify a decision that the action is unlikely to have a significant impact. Additionally, when deciding whether or not a proposed action is likely to have a significant impact on the gazetted NHVs, a proponent should consider only the adverse impacts that the action is likely to have, as beneficial impacts cannot be offset against adverse impacts.
[IMG] Figure 5.2 Students from Wangkatjungka Remote Community School on a field excursion with DCMG volunteers (Photo: DCMG)
The self-assessment process presents a significant risk to the conservation of the Dampier Coast NHVs. There are multiple land managers within and adjacent to the Damper Coast ITZ. The current management arrangements of the public realm and the various components of the Yawuru Conservation Estate are complex. The spatial data sets used to define the current NHL boundary were inadequate (as outlined in Chapters 1.3.3 and 1.3.4) and to understand potential impacts on the listed NHVs requires specialist knowledge.
Protection of the NHVs currently has some existing heritage oversight at a local government level as the boundaries of the Dampier Coast section of the West Kimberley National Heritage Place currently coincide with those of the SOB’s Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places 2019 Place No. 73 ‘Dampier Coast – Broome Sandstone and Dinosaur Footprints the landscape’. The same site is identified as Place No. 26353 for ‘Dampier Coast – Broome Sandstone Dinosaur Footprints’ on the State Register of Heritage Places (see Table 4.3 above). Any development within that boundary requires a planning application to be submitted to the SOB.
Given the Western Australian planning system does not support or accommodate an integrated development assessment process (between local, state and Commonwealth) it is suggested that staff inform proponents of the DCNHMP and the associated spatial data available on Data WA’s Shared Location Information Platform (SLIP). Proponents should be advised to consider their legal obligations in respect of self-assessment and referral under the EPBC Act, where civil and criminal penalties may apply when there are breaches of the legislation. Similarly, a public link or reference to the National Heritage database Place ID No. 106063, to an online version of the DCNHMP, and to the relevant link on the Data WA SLIP could be provided at the SOB’s Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places 2019 Place No. 73 and the State Register of Heritage Places Local Heritage Place No. 26353. Similarly, it is recommended that the DEMIRS Geoheritage database Geosite No. 44 links or references National Heritage database Place ID No. 106063 and the DCNHMP. Annual information sessions for SOB and DPLH development assessment officers on the requirements and obligations under the EPBC Act are recommended, and the use of this DCNHMP and Data WA SLIP cataloguing of areas with geological and palaeontological features relevant to the National Heritage listing would facilitate this. DCMG could develop a slide presentation for agencies to use and could also continue to offer familiarisation excursions to SOB Officers either annually or every two years.
The SOB under the Local Government Property and Public Places Local Law 2016 and Trading, Outdoor Dining and Street Entertainment Local Law 2016 allows, subject to a permit being obtained, events to be held in public places. The SOB has ‘Wedding Locations in Broome’ and ‘Hiring of Public Spaces’ web pages which indicate that gatherings of up to 100 participants will be considered within the ITZ at a number of locations which have been identified as having outstanding geological and palaeontological NHVs. It is important that the SOB updates its advice to ensure that NHVs are protected and that DCMG brief SOB staff on an annual or biennial basis to ensure staff are aware of the NHVs and EPBC Act obligations.
More guidance on referrals and penalties under the EPBC Act can be found at the DCCEEW website: dcceew.gov.au/parks-heritage/heritage/management/national while a flow chart of the referral process is at Appendix C.
Recognition of the Dampier Coast ITZ and defined DCNHMP management area as a place of state significance under the Western Australian State Register of Heritage Places and Heritage Act 2018 and/or as a significant site under the ACH Act should be investigated further, subject to the outcomes of the cultural heritage process referred to in Chapters 1.3.2 and 4.3.2. DCMG nominated the Broome Sandstone and ichnofossils for inclusion in the State Register on 30 August 2019. DPLH determined in October 2019 the nomination warranted assessment, but this has yet to occur.
It should also be noted that at the time of writing the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (EP Act) requires that all planning schemes be assessed by the EPA. These policies are however subject to change and will need to be reviewed and updated whenever the DCNHMP is reviewed and updated.
[IMG] Figure 5.3 SOB Councillors and staff on a familiarisation excursion with DCMG volunteers at Reddell Beach (Photo: Damian Kelly)
In April 2006, the Federal Court of Australia determined the Yawuru community to be the recognised Native Title Holders of specific areas of land and water in and around Broome. As explained in Chapter 1.4.1, Native Title has for the most part been extinguished throughout the DCNHMP management area, apart from in the Waterbank Zone, and a section at the south-eastern end of the Roebuck Bay Zone where it has been determined to be non-exclusive to the Yawuru community (Map 1.3).
Following the Rubibi determination, two ILUAs were signed between the Yawuru RNTBC, the Government of Western Australia and other parties. A suite of four Yawuru Conservation Estate JMPs were prepared in accordance with the ILUAs and associated Joint Management Agreements, and a range of joint management partnerships now oversee implementation of those plans (see Table 5.1).
All four JMPs are guided by the overarching Yawuru CMP (Yawuru RNTBC 2016). The first edition of this foundation document for management of the Yawuru Conservation Estate as a living cultural landscape was published in 2011, around the same time as the West Kimberley National Heritage listing.
The plan offers several objectives and strategies relevant to the protection and management of natural and cultural heritage values in the ITZ, including a proposal to extend the Conservation Estate to include areas of the ITZ currently under the authority of the Port of Broome. This affects areas between the Cable Beach Foreshore and Entrance Point, and between Simpson’s Beach and Dampier Creek.
Additionally, each JMP: (i) describes the legislative and management context of each plan; (ii) summarises the key cultural, ecological and socio-economic values and management issues particular to each component of the Conservation Estate; and (iii) outlines conservation management programs for those identified values.
The marine and terrestrial components of the Conservation Estate that currently intersect or abut the DCNHMP intertidal management zones are summarised in Table 5.1. As mentioned above a small section of Dampier Creek Zone between Streeters Jetty and Town Beach Jetty, along with the entire ITZ from Town Beach Zone to the northern end of the Cable Beach South Zone currently come under the separate jurisdiction of the Port Authorities Act 1999 administered by the KPA.
[IMG] Figure 5.4 Yawuru rangers Jasmyn Cook and Jason Fong observing activities in Roebuck Bay (Photo: Julia Rau)
Table 5.1 Existing conservation management frameworks for areas abutting or intersecting with the DCNHMP management area and areas where the CV Act applies
DCNHMP zone | Existing management frameworks and CV Act | Management partners |
Roebuck Bay | Yawuru Nagulagun/Roebuck Bay Marine Park JMP | Yawuru and DBCA |
Yawuru Birragun Conservation Park JMP | Yawuru and DBCA | |
Dampier Creek | Yawuru Nagulagun/Roebuck Bay Marine Park JMP | Yawuru and DBCA |
Yawuru Birragun Conservation Park JMP | Yawuru and DBCA | |
Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP | Yawuru, SOB and DBCA | |
Town Beach | Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP | Yawuru, SOB and DBCA |
KPA Environmental Management Plan | KPA | |
Entrance Point | Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP | Yawuru, SOB and DBCA |
KPA Environmental Management Plan | KPA | |
Reddell Beach | Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP | Yawuru, SOB and DBCA |
KPA Environmental Management Plan | KPA | |
CV Act applies | SOB | |
Gantheaume Point | Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP | Yawuru, SOB and DBCA |
KPA Environmental Management Plan | KPA | |
CV Act applies | SOB | |
Cable Beach South | Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP | Yawuru, SOB and DBCA |
KPA Environmental Management Plan | KPA | |
CV Act applies | SOB | |
Cable Beach Foreshore | Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park JMP | Yawuru, SOB and DBCA |
SOB Cable Beach Foreshore Master Plan | SOB | |
CV Act applies | SOB | |
Waterbank | Guniyan Binba Conservation Park JMP | Yawuru, SOB and DBCA |
Yawuru Birragun Conservation Park JMP | Yawuru and DBCA |
The Yawuru cultural management framework (Yawuru RNTBC 2016) references many of the NHVs without necessarily identifying them as such. For example, ‘fossil remains, including dinosaur footprints, found on coastal reefs’ are listed as ‘Historical values’ for the northern Wirrjinmur – Bilungurr (Willie Creek to Station Hill area, Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 168) and also as ‘Ecological values’ (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 84). ‘Pearling lay-up camps (Willie Creek)’ are also listed as a Historical value. Similarly, ‘Fossil sites including dinosaur footprints’ are recorded as a Historical value for Minyirr (Gantheaume Point) (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 172, 174). Listed management action/aspiration 4 reads: ‘Rehabilitate trails, re-do signage, develop management plan to protect fossils (dinosaur footprints) in the Minyirr Park area and at Gantheaume Point (Strategies 1.5, 2.1, 3.3, 3.11)’ (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 174).
There are also a number of proposed management actions and aspirations (with an accompanying map) for the Walmanyjun (Cable Beach) to Burrgugan (at Dampier Creek) zone that intersect the DCNHMP management area including:
10 Develop walking trails around the peninsula from Gantheaume Point to the new jetty, and along the beach to Town Beach (Strategy 1.5)
[The ‘new jetty’ here and in 14 below refers to the Broome Port wharf, not the more recently built new jetty at Town Beach.]
11 Protect rocks at Reddell Beach (Strategy 1.5)
12 Extend the Conservation Estate to include the Port of Broome conservation areas set aside to protect cultural and ecological values (Strategy 3.9)
13 Protect the middens and other sites of antiquity within the Port of Broome lands (Strategy 3.6)
14 Protect the reef around the New Jetty and Entrance Point as a major harvest site for marine resources (Strategy 1.5)
15 Protect the fish trap, Black Rocks area and other significant rocks near the jetty (Strategy 1.5)
16 Establish a Yawuru Management Zone 3, protected for Yawuru customary use, between Black Rocks and the Hovercraft base, where cooking will be permitted on the beach (Strategies 1.5, 3.6)
17 In partnership with the Port of Broome, develop Simpson’s Beach access and infrastructure to rehabilitate eroded areas; develop a new access track to Simpson’s Beach; build a new car park and establish a ranger station in one of the old houses (Strategies 3.3, 3.6)
18 Extend the Yawuru Conservation Estate to include the ITZ between Simpson’s Beach and Dampier Creek, to be included in the Yawuru Conservation Estate. This is a significant traditional harvesting area, currently under the authority of the Port of Broome. Negotiate management arrangements with the Shire of Broome, DEC, the Department of Transport and other relevant authorities (Strategy 3.9) (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 175).
The section covering Kunin – Gumaranganyjal (Roebuck Bay) also lists ‘Dinosaur footprint sites’ as a historical value with a management aspiration to ‘7 Negotiate agreement with Hovercraft personnel [sic] for access to and protection of the fossil dinosaur footprints area (Strategy 3.6)’ (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 178–181). Dinosaur tracks are consistently linked to Strategy 1.5: ‘Protect cultural heritage places and ecologically sensitive areas, especially those that are at immediate risk of harm’, under Objective 1: ‘To maintain Yawuru country as a cultural landscape that is respected, protected and connected’ (Yawuru RNTBC 2016: 145).
The West Kimberley National Heritage listing, including the Broome Sandstone ichnofossils and associated Lower Cretaceous heritage are referenced in all four JMPs, and strategies for management of the impacts of human activities on the Broome Sandstone environment are incorporated in the management programs for conservation of geomorphology and geomorphological processes. These include management and monitoring the impacts of:
Geomorphology conservation management strategies also aim to ensure that urban and resource development proposals that have the potential to disturb the geomorphology ‘are appropriately assessed in accordance with the EP Act’. References are also made to ensuring EPBC Act obligations are met, although this does not appear as a specific strategy and nor does it appear in management strategies as prominently as the EP Act obligations and Ramsar Convention obligations. ‘Undertaking research activities to characterise geomorphic features and processes’ is listed as a specific strategy; however, the Yawuru Nagulagun/Roebuck Bay Marine Park JMP (DPW 2016b) notes:
Fossil dinosaur footprints are preserved in the rocks in the intertidal areas of the marine park, however, the significance, condition and locations of these features are not currently well known.
The various JMP management programs also cover general objectives and strategies for (i) collaborative management, (ii) education and interpretation, (iii) public participation, (iv) patrol, enforcement and ranger training, (v) visitor risk, access and infrastructure, and (vi) research and monitoring. These programs could all be fine-tuned for protection, management and interpretation of Broome Sandstone Lower Cretaceous heritage and other relevant West Kimberley NHVs.
[IMG] Figure 5.5 Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury from UQ is assisting DCMG to develop protocols for viewing and monitoring fragile track sites (Photo: Damian Kelly)
While the Broome Sandstone dates back to approximately 130 million years ago, it is still fragile and vulnerable to both natural and human activities and processes. The massive tides of the Kimberley mean that many sandstone exposures and fossils are underwater much of the time, and these environments, when exposed, tend to be the most fragile. At other times and locations the sandstone and fossils are buried or partially hidden by sand which protects them from erosion. The sand moves constantly and the repetitive removal of sand by people to view fossilised tracks can damage them. The resilience of the sandstone also varies enormously, with some tracks and trackways located on solid platforms, and others on platforms that are undermined. Wet season weather events such as storms and cyclones can result in new exposures as well as breakages of known exposures and when platforms start breaking up, they move and shift when people walk or stand on them. Climate change and rising sea levels are also causing changes in tides, erosion and deposition. Rates of coastal erosion for the DCNHMP management area have been modelled in the SOB’s Coastal Vulnerability Study (Cardno 2015). The ‘Shoreline Monitoring’ joint project with NBY monitors the situation.
The West Kimberley cultural landscape was listed as a National Heritage Place in 2011 and a wide range of cultural and natural themes and values are gazetted as nationally significant and worthy of protection under the EPBC Act. The sheer size of the landscape listed, and the diverse values identified can lead to confusion over which values apply in which locations, and what kind of changes or impacts on the landscape might be acceptable. While some of the recognised values may be evident in the landscape, others can be invisible to casual observers or the uninitiated. This can apply not only to cultural values associated with particular landforms or locations, but also to fossils and geological features (such as the Broome Sandstone and its ichnofossils) that appear to be permanent features of the landscape.
Additionally, as detailed in Chapter 5.1.2, the self-assessment process for federal referrals is viewed as presenting a significant risk to the Dampier Coast NHVs, particularly in the context of a general lack of understanding of both the nature and significance of the ichnofossils, and obligations under the EPBC Act. The high turnover of staff in the organisations located in this remote location can also lead to a lack of corporate memory with regard to NHVs and EPBC Act processes.
Adding further to this risk are the current discrepancies between the written description of the NHVs and the mapped NHL boundary that create legal uncertainties for those undertaking developments (see Chapters 1.3.3 and 1.3.4). There is also the need for a shared source of spatial information and data for land managers who need to understand where the Broome Sandstone and associated tracks are located in order to monitor and manage them. Management of the spatial information should be dynamic and able to respond to the changing environment with controlled access and protocols in place for consultation.
[IMG] Figure 5.6 Expanding urban infrastructure and new housing estates are changing the ecology of the ITZ
[IMG] Figure 5.7 Quad bikes are able to access all areas of the ITZ (Photo: Dianne Bennett)
At the 2016 Census the population of the Broome Local Government Area was 16,222 and 16,959 at the 2021 Census. According to Western Australia Tomorrow 2031 forecasts, this could reach 20,650 by 2031 (DPLH 2020). The rapid growth of Broome as a regional centre has led to greater use of, and competition for, resources and space, including a growing demand for recreational use of coastal and marine areas, with an increasing number of vehicles on beaches and an expansion of recreational boating and fishing.
Expanding urban and coastal infrastructure and new housing estates are also changing the ecology of the ITZ and adjacent conservation reserves. Approvals for development projects occur incrementally rather than subject to a strategic overview of managing the impacts on these ecosystems and on the fragile Broome Sandstone environment. The SOB’s Local Planning Strategy 2023, however gives consideration to the impacts of development on coastal landscapes, and this is guided by State Planning Policy. Nevertheless, due to an absence of triggers in the local and state planning systems, the EPBC Act requirements for self-assessment and referral of development proposals that could impact on NHVs and other matters of national environment significance are often overlooked (refer to the summary of specific development proposals in Chapter 5.5).
Disturbance from recreational and commercial activities is increasing with more and more pedestrians, cars, buses, quad bikes, dirt bikes, boats, jet skis, horses and camels accessing the ITZ. The growing popularity and size of events within the ITZ such as dinners, sporting events, festivals and weddings is also putting pressure on the areas where exposures of Broome Sandstone and dinosaur fossils are located.
[IMG] Figure 5.8 Damage caused by scraping track fossils with a sharp instrument (Photo: Dianne Bennett)
Together with population growth, the rapid (approximately 60%) growth of the Broome tourism industry over the past 10 years has meant a heavier use of resources, which has compounded impacts on the culturally and environmentally sensitive ITZ (RDA Kimberley 2019). It is commonly said that the population of Broome swells to twice its size during the tourism season and this is reflected in RDA Kimberley (2019) tourism figures for the past decade. Visitor interest in Broome’s dinosaur fossils is on an exponential trajectory according to online search data from ANW which showed an increase from 100 views of their dinosaur footprints information page in 2017 to 11,700 page views in the 2020/21 financial year (O’Brien 2022). Visiting Reddell Beach is also high on the Tripadvisor list of things to do in Broome.
There is also anecdotal evidence of an increase in the numbers and length of stay of illegal and unsupervised campers, both in the vicinity of Broome and at remote sites along the Dampier Peninsula. This issue has been exacerbated by improvements to access such as the sealing of remote roads and upgrades to car parks and beach access tracks.
[IMG] Figure 5.9 There are safety issues when tourists scramble over the cliffs and rocks around Gantheaume Point searching for dinosaur tracks (Photo: Steve Salisbury)
A few local tourism operators offer itineraries that access track sites however DCMG has not had the capacity to develop protocols for behaviour and operation. The number of people that can be accommodated on site visits is limited where rock platforms are friable, and the DCMG has found leading excursions of more than 20 is difficult to manage. There is also the potential for theft, deliberate defacement and unintentional damage to trackways in remote locations or on public beaches.
As a voluntary organisation, the DCMG is not resourced to continue responding to development and management issues on a case by case basis, and considers that a more strategic management approach in partnership with land managers is needed for all parties to appropriately respond to the challenges and opportunities of the increasing interest in the tracks, and ensure ongoing protection.
Another key issue is the lack of clear management responsibility for the supervision and monitoring of tracks in the ITZ, especially outside business hours. Finally, an ongoing loss of corporate memory due to the high staff turnover of land managers, tourism bodies and other local stakeholders contributes to a lack of knowledge of the NHVs, EPBC Act obligations and DCMG protocols for visitor behaviour.
Public safety issues are emerging as increasing numbers of visitors undertake ‘DIY tracking’. These include friable cliffs, slippery rocks, fast-moving tides and a lack of direction of the public to safe viewing locations.
The 2018 upgrade to the boat ramp near the BBO has resulted in an increasing number of cars and trailers on the beach.
Boulders placed to discourage vehicular access to sensitive areas are regularly removed, posing a risk of damage to NHVs associated with dinosaur tracks in this area which are deemed to be of outstanding heritage value.
The SOB’s Town Beach Geotech Investigations and Coastal Adaptation Options Assessment Report investigates the options for managing the erosion occurring in front of the Roebuck Bay Caravan Park.
Management options and related sand movement could reveal exposures of Broome Sandstone that contain dinosaur tracks.
Explore mechanisms by which the DCNHMP spatial data for areas with geological and palaeontological features relevant to the National Heritage listing can be retained in the SOB mapping system and other similar corporate memory tools.
[IMG] Figure 5.10 Boulders placed to discourage vehicular access to sensitive areas of Roebuck Bay are regularly removed
In 2020 the SOB, in collaboration with the Department of Transport, KPA and other stakeholders decided to relocate a proposed boat launching facility from Reddell Beach to Entrance Point to avoid direct impacts on known cultural heritage sites and dinosaur tracks at Reddell Beach.
The construction of large 12-metre-high groynes will change coastal movements and could still adversely affect the offshore reef that contains an area with outstanding geological and palaeontological features relevant to the National Heritage listing.
The KMSB is constructing new port infrastructure within the Port of Broome that is designed to complement the existing government-owned wharf. This incorporates a 300-metre-long causeway which connects to a 165 x 50 metres floating wharf platform.
In early 2024 KMSB and DCMG agreed to share information so the construction process could avoid known dinosaur tracks. This did not eventuate.
Concept plans for the Reddell Beach area by Yawuru Conservation Estate JMPs to improve visitor access.
These and any future improvements could result in a large increase in the number of visitors or events on the beach that result in damage to friable rock platforms or areas with geological and palaeontological features relevant to the National Heritage listing.
[IMG] Figure 5.11 Improved vehicular access to Reddell Beach could impact on areas with geological and palaeontological features
Replacement of the current visitor information shelter and upgrading of Gantheaume Point visitor access management.
[IMG] Figure 5.12 There is an opportunity to improve the control of pedestrian access to unsafe areas and areas with outstanding geological and palaeontological features at Gantheaume Point
The Broome Turf Club Master Plan being prepared by the SOB is considering whether portions of the current lease area could provide opportunities for diversification of land use.
New land uses could affect multiple access points to areas with outstanding geological and palaeontological features, including the southern end of the Cable Beach South Zone, Gantheaume Point Zone and the northern end of Reddell Beach Zone.
The Cable Beach Foreshore Redevelopment Plan includes the construction of a reprofiled dune, a seawall to manage erosion around the drainage outlet, park improvements, redesign of the car park and interpretive signs and features.
The beach immediately abutting the reprofiled dune toe contains extensive Broome Sandstone platforms that can be exposed under extreme tides or storm events. Consideration should be given to the potential for damage in the final project design and ongoing replenishment plans. There is also an area with outstanding geological and palaeontological features within the abutting ITZ which will require the ongoing prohibition of vehicle access.
[IMG] Figure 5.13 Dinosaur tracks in the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone become vulnerable to large numbers of tourists when exposed through sand movements (Photo: Shayne Thompson)
DCNHMP steering group members and other stakeholders have identified the following potential opportunities in the context of documented strengths, vulnerabilities, issues and threats related to the management of the heritage landscape.
A key aspiration of the DCNHMP is to guide the way in which increasing interest in Broome’s dinosaur tracks can offer opportunities for local enterprise to emerge and flourish. Broome’s pearling history and Japanese Matsuri festival are an established association for most visitors, as is the sunset at Cable Beach. Broome is also viewed as a gateway to the Kimberley as well as a destination in its own right. While there are numerous tropical beach destinations in Australia and nearby Asia, none can boast of 130 million-year-old dinosaur tracks. The tracks are a unique selling point for Broome that could be used to encourage a greater diversity of visitors to linger longer.
[IMG] Figure 5.14 Broome’s dinosaur tracks are a unique selling point that could be used to encourage a greater diversity of visitors to linger longer
As public awareness of the National Heritage listed dinosaur tracks builds, more people will want to come and experience this unique part of Australia. For most people, dinosaurs are typically a museum experience, far away from the often inaccessible sites where bone and track fossils are located. The Dinosaur Coast offers an easily accessible heritage tourism experience in a stunning natural landscape – the landscape itself is the museum.
[IMG] Figure 5.15 Ongoing engagement with the Broome community will be essential to successful implementation of the management plan (Photo: Wade Freeman)
The local community plays a key role in protecting and promoting the NHVs so facilitating their ongoing engagement with the DCNHMP is essential to its successful implementation. Community information sessions were held in October 2022. Advertised through social media platforms and local community networks, three Broome based media outlets also ran news items. To help people easily understand what the DCNHMP proposed, a package of easy-to-read products were created.
The extremely popular Broome Museum Open Day marked the commencement of the Community information sessions with volunteers spending the three hours talking to interested people. This was followed by a presentation at the Broome Public Library, and stalls run by volunteers at Entrance Point, Reddell Beach and Cable Beach over several evenings. A stall in the Broome Boulevard Shopping Centre on a Saturday morning concluded these sessions. Concurrently, an online survey was posted on the DCMG website with 79% of respondents aware that the tracks are National Heritage listed and of these, 68% suggested ‘protection’ as the most important matter needing addressing in the management plan. Overall, the Broome community recognises the importance of the Broome dinosaur tracks, supporting the development of the management plan and DCMG.
The promotion of England’s Jurassic Coast and Korea’s Cretaceous Coast are models of how to use geological and palaeontological features to underpin cultural, scientific and economic enterprise. Korea’s Dinosaur World Expo offers a variety of attractions and educational activities, drawing as many as two million visitors from Korea and overseas every four years. Sideline events include the dinosaur robot Olympics, a national surfing competition, the Goseong Dinosaur Land mountain-climbing festival and an academic symposium where scholars and palaeontologists from Korea, China, Japan, Mongolia, the United States and the Netherlands gather. On the other side of the world the Jurassic Coast is home to a ‘String of Pearls’ network of museums and visitor centres that share resources and host regular expert-guided fossil hunting walks, academic conferences, exhibitions, a fossil festival and digital fossil collections.
[IMG] Figure 5.16 Geological and palaeontological features can underpin cultural, scientific and economic enterprise (Photo: Damian Kelly)
[IMG] Figure 5.17 There are emerging opportunities for geoheritage tourism in Broome’s in situ dinosaur museum (Photo: Kandy Curran)
The recent change of name of local boat tourism operator Broome Hovercraft Eco Adventure Tours to Dinosaur Adventures Broome reflects the emerging opportunities for tourism in Broome’s palaeontological heritage. DCMG has developed an App for self-guided dinosaur tracking, and there is scope for developing self-guided and guided walks between coastal dinosaur track locations, possibly using the model of Broome’s award-winning Jetty to Jetty Trail. It is, however, important to distinguish between track locations that may be suitable for self-guided tourism and those that need informed guidance.
Additionally, proposed upgrades of existing geological and palaeontological interpretation at Gantheaume Point, a Kimberley Centre for Arts and Story and redevelopment of the Cable Beach Foreshore Reserve could all be aligned with objectives for increasing understanding and awareness of the NHVs. Investment in park ranger and Country manager education, tourism operator training and direct cross-cultural engagement programs could complement these ‘bricks and mortar’ initiatives. There is also a need to develop key interpretive messages to guide signage and online interpretation of the NHVs, and to establish and promote protocols for public and tourism operator behaviour.
[IMG] Figure 5.18 Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury explaining the details of a sauropod track to a community field excursion organised by DCMG (Photo: Kandy Curran)
[IMG] Figure 5.19 Dr Anthony Romilio (left) and Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury (right) from UQ Dinosaur Lab documenting a sauropod trackway on the northern shore of Roebuck Bay (Photo: Damian Kelly)
In addition to the opportunities that a cultural centre could provide, there is scope for a palaeontological interpretive centre and/or research laboratory for use by scientists, schools and the community in general. This could be an extension of the Broome Museum or an independent endeavour like the Cygnet Bay Marine Research Station. DCMG is also investigating the feasibility of a citizen-science project that would build the organisation’s connections with dinosaur enthusiasts (both adults and children) and as a first step towards establishing a local scientific base. This would all aim to complement existing school programs and the ongoing role of UQ and other JM Partners in furthering research and monitoring of the Broome Sandstone and associated geological units.
A clear opportunity exists to establish a DCMRG from the existing DCNHMP Steering Group to oversee implementation of the DCNHMP over the next ten years. An early task of the group would be to rectify the anomalies of the current NHL gazetted boundary and to incorporate NHVs management into the existing Yawuru Conservation Estate management plans and programs, and into SOB and state government planning schemes and planning processes. There is also an opportunity to integrate protection of the Broome Sandstone and other NHVs in the area with existing biodiversity protection programs for the ITZ. This would include other matters of national environmental significance such as migratory birds, threatened marine species, mangrove communities and vine thickets.
Establishment of a shared spatial database and online public portal and monitoring system to manage the identified areas with geological and palaeontological features should be a high priority as the JM Partners work towards implementing a multi-faceted approach to visitor management that employs adaptive management principles. This would combine education and enforcement to manage access and protect sensitive areas, and needs to use a live online database that can be updated with new research and management information to facilitate adaptive management responses.
An online monitoring system that employs and trains local people would support the JM Partners’ management and monitoring system by focussing on key sites and collecting data on the condition of the tracks and the number and behaviour of tourists. (Model: BirdLife Australia’s management and monitoring of public behaviour around Hooded Plover nesting sites, which operates in collaboration with local and state government agencies.)
Finally, there is an opportunity to explore the feasibility of World Heritage nomination of the West Kimberley Dinosaur Coast, based on comparisons with other globally significant ichnofossil sites.
[IMG] Figure 6.1 As the sun rises on Reddell Beach a film crew is intent on photographing one theropod track (Photo: Tourism WA)
The EPBC Act Regulations, Schedule 5A (Management plans for National Heritage Places) and Schedule 5B (National Heritage management principles – see Appendix B) prescribe the statutory framework, with the assistance of the Working Together guidelines (DEWHA 2008). The Working Together guidelines are consistent with the management plan development guidelines in the AICOMOS Burra Charter (AICOMOS 2013a) and the Australian Natural Heritage Charter (Cairnes 2002). Those two Charter documents and the AICOMOS Practice Notes that expand the Burra Charter describe detailed conservation management protocols and processes.
The Working Together guidelines describe the following performance objectives for management plans and guidelines towards achieving those objectives:
The aim of a management plan is to:
Occasionally new research may reveal potential new NHVs of a place, in which case the place will require formal re-assessment and revision of the management plan.
A management plan can achieve these aims by:
The identification of best-practice management policies should include the following considerations (DEWHA 2008: 11):
Note that the guidelines (EPBC Act s324X) assume that a single, state-level managing agency would be identified, whereas this plan shares management roles among its stakeholders in state and local government, independent agencies (KPA), Aboriginal Traditional Owners, Cultural Custodians and a community volunteer organisation (DCMG), as identified below in Chapter 7. There are WA state government agencies involved in the development and implementation processes for this plan. The existing DBCA and the DBCA/Yawuru jointly-managed conservation management areas and plans form a very important part of the heritage management framework and future potential (Chapter 5.2). The DOT Maritime section has been consulted because of their management role in relation to current local development proposals such as the Broome Boating Facility (formerly known as Broome Boat Harbour project).
In the present case, the initiative has come from DCMG to seek Commonwealth grant funding to develop a management plan, rather than originating with the state government. Consequently, the tone of the document and the approach to stakeholder management is not prescriptive or state-government funded – it is cooperative among the stakeholders, and aspirational where additional processes would have to be devised and additional resources obtained in order to implement particular recommendations (Chapter 6 below and Chapter 7).
In light of these guidelines, the development of this DCNHMP and the proposed management framework follows the best-practice guidelines referred to in Chapter 1.2.3. On this basis, the DCNHMP incorporates participation by Traditional Owners, Cultural Custodians and other key stakeholders, as described in Chapter 1.2.2.
The practical difficulties posed by incomplete and incorrect gazetted mapping for the extent and locations of the Cretaceous ichnofossils along this coastline are described in Chapters 1.33, 2.3 and 5.4.3 and the zone-by-zone maps in Chapter 3 allow the gazetted NHV areas to be compared with the much greater extent of the significant ichnofossils and Broome Sandstone surface outcrops along the coastline.
The current conditions of the sites relevant to the NHVs is presented in Chapter 2 (the scientific context), the zone descriptions in Chapter 3, and the key issues described in Chapters 5.4 and 5.5. Note that this is the first management plan to provide any specific condition assessment or conservation and management detail with regard to Cretaceous ichnofossils, although dinosaur tracks are referenced as significant in the DBCA/Yawuru and SOB joint conservation management plans. All of those JMP/CMP documents have review requirements that provide the opportunity to update them to align with this DCNHMP.
The implications of other heritage listings that intersect this landscape and their legislative contexts are described in Chapters 4.3 and 5.1. In Chapter 7, Objective 1 deals with education and research, while aspects of stakeholder training are included in the actions recommended for most of the objectives.
The application and effectiveness of current measures to protect and manage Cretaceous ichnofossil locations relevant to these NHVs are described in Chapters 2.2.2, 4.3, 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3. The goal of the DCNHMP is to combine the cooperative and coordinated efforts of the named stakeholders to provide an effective and evolving management framework for the future (Chapters 6 and 7). The core Indigenous stakeholders, the Yawuru and Goolarabooloo, both have been involved in the development of this plan and are members of the recommended DCMRG. This plan stipulates that both Indigenous groups should be engaged concerning all aspects of management for the Cretaceous ichnofossils, to ensure that cultural values are always taken into account.
The DCNHMP does not include a specific treatment of access and security arrangements because the fossil sites are located in the ITZ of public beaches along the coastline and are subject to regular tidal inundation. Security and access concerns about aspects of Aboriginal cultural significance for Traditional Owners and Cultural Custodians focus on preserving culturally confidential information relating to certain places, as well as the physical safety of those places from potentially destructive human activities on the beaches and in the ITZ (Chapters 2.2.2, 4.4.1, and 5.4–5.5). The public has access to these areas. Direct intervention and maintenance are not practical in this situation, but ancillary actions such as traffic control and signage will be recorded by the agencies taking the action and the coordinating DCMRG. Initiatives for monitoring the condition of the ichnofossil exposures are listed in Objective 3 in Chapter 7. Since 2016, DCMG has been using community education to increase awareness and a sense of community ownership to improve protection for the fossil sites.
This plan does not directly deal with sensitive information that requires specific management protocols. The DCNHMP is created as a public document, and does not contain either sensitive cultural information or detailed location information for any specific ichnofossils that might result in damage from unsupervised visitors. The appropriate database record repository for culturally significant places in Western Australia is the ACHIS maintained by DPLH. This plan utilises the public version provided by DPLH online (Chapter 4.3.2). The mapping of the distribution of significant ichnofossil sites and related Broome Sandstone outcrops presented in Chapter 3 has been designed to be useful for planning and general management purposes, but does not pinpoint specific fossil locations that might subsequently be impacted through significant unsupervised visitation. The discovery and recording of dinosaur tracks continues as an intermittent process, supervised and recorded by the scientific experts, UQ Dinosaur Lab. It is expected that if more detailed location information for ichnofossils is shared by UQ with other management stakeholders to improve specific planning and management measures in future, that such information-sharing would occur on a confidential basis limited among stakeholders who need the information and have effective internal measures to keep it secure.
National heritage management plans are required to consider the planning and management of works, development, adaptive reuse and property divestment proposals. The issues of current and future development impacts and determining appropriate processes for identifying and mitigating such impacts are considered in Chapters 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 and 5.5. Community and stakeholder involvement should be assured through establishment of the DCMRG (Chapter 5.6). The DCNHMP should be subject to review within five years (s324W of the EPBC Act), or if the NHVs of the place change, or if major changes are proposed (DEWHA 2008: 12). Finally, for policy implementation:
The management plan should identify who will be responsible for implementing the conservation policies, a timeframe for the policy implementation, and the process involved (DEWHA 2008: 12).
This is the subject of the table of objectives, strategies and associated actions in Chapter 7 (Table 7.1), which also identifies lead and partner agencies for each proposed action, and the associated time frames.
The matters of adaptive reuse and property divestments mostly are not relevant to ichnofossils in intertidal sandstone outcrops along the coast, with one possible exception. A key concept for managing the ichnofossils and sandstone outcrops is the acceptance that nature progressively erodes some fossils and sometimes exposes others in the process. Should a situation arise where the DCMRG and relevant government agencies agree to relocate a fossil under imminent threat of natural destruction at some time in the future, then a relevant policy and procedure would be needed. However, such actions are not contemplated in the scope of this management plan.
New heritage discoveries continue to be made, by periodic scientific fieldwork, exploration and monitoring by volunteers (DCMG) or reported to DCMG by members of the public. These discoveries are received, vetted and recorded, and field-investigated when the opportunity arises by Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury and UQ Dinosaur Lab, who collect the data that will allow for future updates to the DCNHMP mapping. There is no formal register for the ichnofossil sites related to the NHVs. UQ palaeontology researchers catalogue their information, and have provided it in summary form for management purposes in the maps in Chapter 3 of this plan. If that mapping becomes available online, with an interface that allows new information to be submitted for the scientists to consider, and that allows them to post updated information and mapping as it becomes available, that facility would provide a fundamental management and record-keeping tool for the DCMRG and the implementation and evolution of this management plan.
Potential disturbances to these heritage places could be from natural causes or disturbance from vehicles or pedestrians, or vandalism. Human disturbance might be observed by SOB or DBCA/Yawuru rangers, other SOB or KPA employees, Aboriginal Traditional Owners, Cultural Custodians, DCMG volunteers, or the public. If this constitutes criminal damage such activities should be reported to WA Police, who have jurisdiction for such matters.
The context for seeking expert heritage advice is addressed in Chapter 5.1 and in the key role of UQ Dinosaur Lab researchers within the DCMRG and in the identification, recording and management of ichnofossils within the Broome Sandstone. These experts also have a central role in the verification and recording of scientific discoveries.
There is no formal process for monitoring and reporting on the condition of the ichnofossil sites, and no agency or organisation has that role except for the volunteer DCMG. In fact, the condition and appearance of the ichnofossil sites may be subject to significant changes, both progressive and cyclical, because of the dynamic environment in which they are exposed. The exposed Broome Sandstone which contains the ichnofossils is located on public beaches between the high and low water marks and subject to two tides per day and passing storms and cyclones. The rocks and platforms naturally move and erode, sometimes revealing previously unseen tracks. The sand is also constantly moving, changing from day to day and tide to tide.
This plan proposes that a periodically updated online database accessible to stakeholders would at least provide a place to record both new discoveries and changes in the condition of the ichnofossil exposure sites. It may be possible to add a capacity of discovery or monitoring information to be submitted by stakeholders, or even by interested members of the public. This plan recommends that the DCMRG consider the development of training in the recognition and reporting of ichnofossil discoveries or changes in condition for relevant government agency and local government staff and contractors, as well as tourist operators and volunteers.
The DCMRG of stakeholders is intended to meet at least annually (facilitated by DBCA) to progress and monitor the implementation of the DCNHMP, including the review and update of the document every five years. Public information and education about the NHVs constitute a primary means for the DCMRG and its constituent stakeholders to manage and protect the Broome Sandstone ichnofossils. Interested members of the public can download the web-based DCMG Track Guide App or join the DCMG as a volunteer for their educational, recording and management activities.
The financial resources associated with the DCNHMP are the costs of implementing the recommended actions for the objectives stated in Chapter 7, which also identify the lead and partner agencies involved and the proposed timeframes for those actions.
The only other managed Cretaceous dinosaur track sites in Australia are near Winton in western Queensland, in the Winton formation. There are three track sites within the Dinosaur Stampede National Monument at this location: Seymour Quarry, New Quarry, and Lark Quarry. Seymour and New Quarries are small and have been reburied. Lark Quarry has been enclosed in a purpose-built building, although the track surface had been significantly and detrimentally modified prior to and since that time (Romilio et al 2013).
The second Winton Formation along Snake Creek had dinosaur trackways of sauropods, small-bodied ornithopods and small-bodied theropods. The surface has been removed from this site and reconstructed at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum at Winton, within a purpose-built open structure (Poropat et al 2021).
At Winton, problems with access to and preservation of specific sites have thus been resolved by constructing a building over one track site, removing another for display at the local dinosaur museum, and others through reburial. These kinds of solutions only work for relatively compact sites in a stable physical environment. The Broome Sandstone trackways exist within a completely different landscape: in a very dynamic ITZ along the margins of public beaches and a regional port, urban centre and tourist destination. In addition, their cultural heritage values are incompatible with such forms of intervention.
The Dorset and East Devon Coast (also known as the Jurassic Coast) is a World Heritage Site on the southern English coastline, an approximately 153 kilometre stretch of cliffs displaying the geological and palaeontological history of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, with access via ten gateway coastal towns for a multitude of visitors. This example has extra relevance given the prospect of a future World Heritage Nomination for, or including, the Dinosaur Coast of the Dampier Peninsula. Although on a larger scale than the current DCNHMP, the baseline approach taken essentially is the same.
The approach taken for the Jurassic Coast is one that is firmly based in a locally led partnership which coordinates activity, facilitating partners to achieve mutually supportive aims, and providing specialist advice where necessary. The partnership is led by the local authorities, particularly Dorset and Devon county councils, but also comprises local, national and international agencies, as well as technical specialists. Local management means that not only are local issues able to be resolved effectively, but that the voice of the local community can be heard and play a part in the management of the Site (Jurassic Coast World Heritage Team 2009: Executive Summary).
The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site management plan is centred on eight long-term aims, each with a number of targets and indicators for measuring progress. These aims have informed the development of the current management plan.
[IMG] Figure 6.2 Jurassic Coast World Heritage site (Source: Jurassic Coast Trust)
A crucial difference between the Jurassic Coast and the West Kimberley Dinosaur Coast is that the Jurassic Coast fossils include many small items such as ammonites constantly eroding onto the seashore, which are the focus of legal fossil collecting. This represents a very different visitor focus to the ichnofossils in the Broome Sandstone.
The southern coast of the Korean Peninsula has numerous Cretaceous dinosaur track sites (Huh et al 2003), which previously have been nominated for World Heritage listing.
The Cretaceous sites consist of fossil sites including dinosaurs, pterosaurs, birds, invertebrates, and plants, inorganic sedimentary structure sites, unique geological feature sites, and geologically scenic view sites. Dinosaur sites include bone sites, egg sites, and footprint sites. Among them dinosaur footprint sites are the most common. The most Natural Monuments are designated for their unique preservation of dinosaur footprints and they are world-class scale in preservation (Huh 2011).
The Cultural Heritage Administration of the Korean Government designates most important dinosaur track sites as Natural Monuments for conservation and comprehensive survey, as well as long-term monitoring. The Natural Heritage Centre of Korea is dedicated to investigating, studying and educating people on natural heritage as well as to sharing the values and importance of natural heritage with the general public. Since 2007 this work has included data recording of the fossil sites, and educating volunteer locals monitoring the sites (Lim & Kong 2008: 130).
[IMG] Figure 6.3 Dinosaur footprints at Natural Monument 434, South Korea (Source: Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea)
Natural history education about these fossils comes from local museums established near two of the primary palaeontological and geological sites: the Goseong Dinosaur Museum and the Haenam Uhangri Dinosaur Museum. Huh (2011) documents the case for the development of a ‘geopark’ of these fossil sites, to promote geotourism from overseas and domestically. He notes that:
Although protection, development and promotion of these sites for scientific, geotourism and public education purposes has only taken place within the last decade they have already become very heavily used. All four sites are protected as National Monuments and have been developed for public education associated with its adjacent cultural and historical heritages, geographical and scenic sites (Huh 2011).
[IMG] Figure 6.4 Goseong Dinosaur Museum, South Korea (Source: Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea)
The starting point for developing a conservation management policy is to develop a vision and to establish clear objectives, strategies and actions to realise that vision. The vision for this DCNHMP is:
To understand, protect and promote the Dinosaur Coast and create opportunities for the Broome community.
Discussion
The Broome Sandstone and the associated Lower Cretaceous fossils related to the NHVs, as well as Holocene fossils, are not well understood by the growing number of tourists and local residents who interact with the ITZ on foot, or using motor vehicles, boats and jet skis etc. Improved knowledge and awareness is critical for the JM Partners who manage these activities and their potential impacts. Improved understanding and awareness of this National Heritage cultural landscape is a fundamental aspect of addressing each of the key management issues described above in Chapter 5.4.2.
There is an underlying issue also to be considered: that additional research and documentation is required to build a more adequate knowledge base for effective education and management. The gazetted mapping of the location and extent of NHVs for Broome Sandstone and associated fossils currently is manifestly inadequate and the best available mapping of the full extent of the ITZ and exposed Broome Sandstone is approximate due to a large tidal range and variations due to weather events and movement of surface sediments (Chapters 1.3.3 and 5.4.3).
The dynamic nature of this ITZ influences the exposure of, and access to, the dinosaur tracks and related fossils and means that both research and management information need to be updated as the situation changes. Recorded track locations may suffer attrition from weathering and damage by tides, storms and human activities. Such activities also may reveal new sites with significant NHVs. New knowledge is added progressively by ongoing palaeontological research.
[IMG] Figure 6.5 Mapping tracks and trackways with ground and aerial laser scanning and remote sensing technologies (Photo: Damian Kelly)
New coastal development pressures bring new challenges, such as the examples described in Chapter 5.5.
Taking these factors into consideration, the following strategy and actions are identified.
Support education and facilitate research
[IMG] (Photo: DCMG)
[IMG] (Photo: Kandy Curran)
[IMG] (Photo: DCMG)
[IMG] Figures 6.6 to 6.8 Strengthening community and educational links to the dinosaur story through field excursions, museum, library and classroom experiences
Adaptive management involves implementing a management plan, closely monitoring its effects, and then adapting future actions based on observed results. This will be achieved by maintaining the current DCNHMP steering group as the DCMRG that will meet at least on an annual basis over the next ten years to oversee the adaptive implementation of the DCNHMP and to respond to any new or emerging threats to conservation and protection of the NHVs and associated Broome Sandstone ichnofossil sites. Ongoing education and engagement with the broader Broome community as described in Chapter 6.3.1 will be an important part of this process.
Incorporate conservation and management policy for NHVs and areas with relevant geological and palaeontological features into existing management frameworks
[IMG] Figure 6.9 Coastal erosion at Reddell Beach (Photo: DCMG)
The intertidal exposures of the Broome Sandstone and associated Cretaceous and Holocene fossils occur within a highly dynamic intertidal environment (see Chapter 5.4.1). Dinosaur track sites may be exposed most of the time in the upper ITZ, alternatively exposed or buried under a metre of sand after storm tides, or only rarely visible at very lowest tides, if not obscured by shifting mud or sand and encrusting invertebrates. These are baseline conditions that affect the management of heritage values, but they are large-scale natural processes that are beyond human intervention.
Potential impacts from environmental processes that can be managed or avoided are those that result from human intervention on adjacent land or waters that may induce detrimental changes in the environment of the places with NHVs. Such impacts might range from marine services constructions (breakwaters, jetties, boat ramps or sea walls (see Chapter 5.5.6, Cable Beach Foreshore, for an example) that may alter the effects of tides and currents and patterns of sediment distribution on nearby track sites, to foreshore development work impacting cliff zones or foredunes that may alter erosion or sedimentation (see Chapter 6.3.4 below). Chapter 5 gives a description of the management framework opportunities for recognising and assessing such impacts. Recommended actions for incorporating these opportunities into existing management frameworks are listed above in Chapter 6.3.2.
Potential impacts include environmental pressures or hazards that may contribute to change or deterioration of the sites and their landscape setting.
Recognise and manage natural environmental impacts
A key vulnerability of the Dinosaur Coast NHVs in the plan area is their close proximity to Broome, with its expanding urbanisation and infrastructure and growing population. Coastal development projects may involve direct threats to NHVs and other areas with relevant geological and palaeontological features, or indirect impacts through changing local environmental conditions (currents, sedimentation – Chapter 6.3.3) or allowing increased access to pedestrians or vehicles (car parks, boat ramps and vehicle access to beaches, see current examples in Chapter 5.5). Incorporation of NHVs into existing management frameworks around Broome is described in Chapter 5.3.
Broome’s role as a tourism hub is vital to its economy and is concentrated on the dry season, resulting in a large seasonal variation in population. More people mean additional threats to the coastal dinosaur track sites from car, bus, quad bike, dirt bike, boat, jet ski and pedestrians. Because many of these activities involve the beaches and ITZ, increasingly there are conflicting values relating to recreation versus conservation. Activities occurring on public beaches and coastline inherently are more difficult to manage, with users often ignorant of, or indifferent to, the scientific and cultural values of these popular spaces. An increasing number of people using these spaces also exacerbates public safety issues around the locations of tracks and failure to redirect the public from unsafe locations such as Gantheaume Point to safer locations such as Entrance Point and Reddell Beach. Managing these problems also implies a need to increase resources. Proposed actions to address these issues are provided in Chapter 6.3.5.
The immediate proximity of coastal Broome Sandstone outcrops and dinosaur track sites to Broome also offers opportunities for tourism development and branding for Broome to enhance cultural, scientific and economic enterprises. Key opportunities for Broome and the local region are listed in Chapter 5.6 and proposed actions are in Chapter 6.3.6.
Include NHV management in planning and development assessment processes for Broome
Considering Broome’s position as the gateway to the Kimberley region, an increasing number of tourists and growing interest in visiting dinosaur track locations around Broome is a given. This trend puts more pressure on the fragile dinosaur track sites, with a corresponding need for improved management of visitor access, education and interpretation, and safety, as well as tourism business opportunities and conservation management needs such as site monitoring. Without education, visitors are more likely than local residents to cause harm to dinosaur track sites through recreational use of land and water vehicles and pedestrian use of the ITZ. With the growth of all forms of tourism, and the posting of GPS locations for rare and scientifically-important theropod track sites on shared media sites and tourism information apps like WikiCamps means a ‘do nothing’ approach will no longer work. There is also a pattern of increasing illegal camping and unsupervised tourism along the coast (e.g., number and length of stay of young and grey nomads near Broome and at remote sites). Relevant issues are listed above in Chapters 5.4.5 and 5.4.6.
For each dinosaur track location subject to visitor/tourism pressures, there has to be consideration of the capacity of the place to absorb the current and potential number of visitors without adverse effects, and of how to manage those visitors. In areas with visitor impact and/or safety issues and many visitors (Gantheaume Point for example), the main considerations may be how to adapt current access and interpretation arrangements to retain the heritage values, including diversion of visitors to alternative locations if appropriate.
Two strategies are proposed for addressing these issues, each of them a matter of finding a balance for managing competing priorities: visitor management that combines education and enforcement, and managing and enhancing access to national heritage sites and values while protecting sensitive areas from visitor impacts.
Implement a muti-faceted approach to visitor management combining education and enforcement
Manage access while protecting the identified areas with geological and palaeontological features relevant to the National Heritage listing
[IMG] Figure 6.10 The presence of the Broome Sandstone Cretaceous ichnofossils on Broome’s doorstep creates tourism and educational opportunities (Photo: Lily Chin)
[IMG] Figure 6.11 The presence of the Broome Sandstone Cretaceous ichnofossils on Broome’s doorstep creates tourism and educational opportunities (Photo: Damian Kelly)
The presence of the Broome Sandstone/Cretaceous fossils NHVs literally on Broome’s doorstep creates opportunities for combining conservation management with economic and educational advancement (Chapter 5.6). Taking advantage of these opportunities is the purpose of branding Broome as the gateway to the Dinosaur Coast. The cooperative, coordinated presentation of these NHVs for tourism and education is the main focus of these economic opportunities, as well as a critical part of effective management and protection of those values and places.
The recommended actions to implement this objective include promoting the NHVs and the DCNHMP and their objectives to the local business community, and to develop suitable visitor and site management protocols and service-provider training and accreditation prior to tourist promotion. There is potential to add value to existing services and events such as tour itineraries that operate in the vicinity of visitor-capable track sites and in the scope of existing local festivals. Track site tourism would need to coincide with suitable dates and tides, with perhaps the opportunity for a triennial Dinosaur festival to coincide with extreme low tides. Conference fieldtrips and even hosting a major palaeontology conference may offer additional economic and promotional opportunities.
Branding of Broome as the gateway to the Dinosaur Coast
[IMG] Figure 6.12 There is an opportunity to support tourism operators to incorporate appropriately managed track site tourism into itineraries
[IMG] Figure 6.13 The Jetty to Jetty Trail could provide a model for a Dinosaur Coast self-guided walking trail between Gantheaume Point and Entrance Point
Improving the offerings and quality of experiences to visitors involves the identification of those sites that may be safely accessible to visitors and subject to least impact from visitors. Suitable visitor information and site interpretation are related priorities, which should be applied to appropriate self-guided sites through the Dinosaur Coast Track Guide App and signage, and a coastal walking trail. For sites included in guided tours (e.g., recommended by the App), tourism operator education and certification would be an important support both for participating business operators and for site protection and management. There are opportunities at Gantheaume Point for upgrading the aging visitor interpretive presentation, and to combine visitor itineraries to the BBO and dinosaur track sites. A feasibility study should be conducted for World Heritage Listing of the Dinosaur Coast.
Identify and promote which track locations will work safely for self-guided tracking and which need a recommendation to use guided tours
According to the NHL management plan guidelines, the management plan should be subject to review within five years (s324W of the EPBC Act), if the NHVs of the place change, or if major changes are proposed (DEWHA 2008: 12). This can be an opportunity to engage once again with the AICOMOS Burra Charter process, which can be viewed as an adaptive management cycle engaging local communities in all its steps (Figure 6.14).
[IMG] Figure 6.14 The Burra Charter as an adaptive management cycle (Source: Elisa Palazzo and Stephanie Johnston, adapted from the AICOMOS Burra Charter 2013)
The NHL management plan guidelines state that ‘The management plan should identify who will be responsible for implementing the conservation policies, a timeframe for the policy implementation, and the process involved’ (DEWHA 2008: 12). Table 7.1 outlines the lead management agency and partners as well as the proposed implementation time frames over a period of ten years for each of the actions identified to address each objective and strategy listed in Chapter 6.2.
The DCNHMP sets out how the dinosaur tracks and ichnofossils in Broome are to be protected and managed. Some actions are unfunded or are not within current budgets. The DCNHMP implementation plan provides a strong basis for agencies and organisations to seek additional funding.
Table 7.1 DCNHMP implementation plan
Actions | Lead and partners | Timeframe | |
VISION: To understand, protect and promote the Dinosaur Coast and create opportunities for the Broome community | |||
Objective 1: To increase understanding and awareness of the Dinosaur Coast and its NHVs Strategy: Support education and facilitate research | |||
1.1 | Enable access to Data WA’s SLIP data sets for the DCNHMP into JM Partner GIS systems where capacity exists. | DBCA with DCMRG | 2 years |
1.2 | Continue mapping tracks and trackways using multiple methodologies including ground and aerial laser scanning and remote sensing technology. | UQ with GMIC and Yawuru | Ongoing |
1.3 | Establish a regular UQ Dinosaur Lab research residency in Broome supported by corporate and citizen philanthropy (e.g., billeting of research residents by locals). | UQ with DCMRG | Ongoing |
1.4 | Develop a citizen science program to support the mapping, monitoring, interpretation and research programs. | DCMG with UQ | 5 years |
1.5 | Develop a live, shared spatial database and online portal and monitoring system that can be updated with new information to adaptively manage identified features relevant to the National Heritage listing. | UQ with DBCA | 5 years |
1.6 | Involve Yawuru rangers, Country managers and citizen scientists in monitoring changes in condition and changing impacts on ichnofossil sites using an online monitoring system as described in Action 1.5. | DBCA with DCMRG | 2 years |
1.7 | Develop key interpretive messages to guide signage and online interpretation of the NHVs. | DCMRG with JM Partners | 5 years |
1.8 | Establish protocols to discourage the use of commemorative plaques or other methods of identifying or naming specific sites. | DCMRG with JM Partners | 2 years |
1.9 | Develop a ‘myth busters’ section on the DCMG website and future DCNHMP online portal to address the circulation of false or inaccurate information. | DCMRG with DCMG | Ongoing |
1.10 | Establish and promote protocols for public and tourism operator behaviour and disseminate them through the DCMG website, tourism stakeholder websites, tourism apps and future DCNHMP online portal. (Models: DBCA’s ‘Code of Conduct’ approach to turtle watching and BirdLife Australia’s volunteer monitoring of public behaviour around Hooded Plover nesting sites.) | DCMG and DBCA with DCMRG | Ongoing |
1.11 | Continue strengthening community and education links to the dinosaur story and experience through school field excursions, guided museum tours and classroom experiences. | DCMG and DBCA with GMIC and Yawuru | Ongoing |
1.12 | Encourage further independent and institution-based specialist anthropological research and documentation as the next step towards appropriate recognition of the cultural values associated with these ichnofossils. | GMIC and Yawuru with DCMRG | 5 years |
1.13 | SOB to investigate establishing an interpretative centre and palaeontology research facility. | SOB with DCMG with DCMRG | 5 years |
1.14 | Continue to strengthen partnerships and facilitate educational opportunities with the BHS&M, through the Museum Masterplan. | DCMG and SOB with Yawuru and GMIC | Ongoing |
Objective 2: To conserve and protect the NHVs of the Dinosaur Coast with best-practice adaptive management Strategy: Incorporate conservation and management policy for NHVs and areas with relevant geological and palaeontological features into existing management frameworks | |||
2.1 | Maintain the current DCNHMP steering group as an ongoing DCMRG which meets on an annual basis to oversee adaptive implementation of the DCNHMP with DBCA as Chair. | DBCA with DCMRG | Ongoing |
2.2 | Submit a nomination to the AHC for additional areas, derived from updated spatial data that accurately describes the ITZ of the Dinosaur Coast to be added to the West Kimberley National Heritage Place. Corresponding additional values may also be nominated. This nomination to occur with the free, prior and informed consent of Traditional Owners and Cultural Custodians. | DCMG, Yawuru and GMIC with UQ | 5 years |
2.3 | Use DCNHMP spatial data sets on Data WA’s SLIP to integrate palaeontological and geological heritage values management into the Yawuru CMP, Yawuru parks management plans and programs and relevant KPA management plans where appropriate. | JM Partners and KPA | 5 years |
2.4 | Incorporate strategies and actions from the DCNHMP into the Yawuru CMP, Yawuru parks management plans and relevant KPA management plans where appropriate. | JM Partners and KPA | 5 years |
2.5 | Incorporate education on the Dinosaur Coast NHVs and EPBC Act obligations into the induction of new KPA staff. | KPA with UQ and DCMG | 5 years |
2.6 | Identify intersections between the DCNHMP and strategies for the protection of other values (e.g., biodiversity monitoring and protection, visitor access management and coastal development assessment). | DCMRG with DBCA | 5 years |
Objective 3: To monitor and manage the impacts of coastal erosion and other environmental processes Strategy: Recognise and manage natural environmental impacts | |||
3.1 | Increase awareness of environmental impact factors by educating conservation managers and the public. | DCMG with UQ | Ongoing |
3.2 | Establish a baseline for ongoing monitoring of the condition of the fossilised tracks and trackways. | UQ and DBCA with DCMRG | 2 years |
3.3 | Implement a ‘stays on Country’ approach to fossils affected by natural processes to maintain geological and cultural context (see Chapter 6.3.3 Action 3.3 for more detail). | UQ and DBCA with DCMRG | Ongoing |
3.4 | Establish policies for mapping and monitoring new exposures revealed through sea-level rise, tidal processes and coastal erosion. | UQ and DBCA with DCMRG | 2 years |
Objective 4: To manage the impacts of the expansion of Broome and associated coastal development and infrastructure Strategy: Include NHV management in planning and development assessment processes for Broome | |||
4.1 | Incorporate triggers into development assessment and permit assessment processes (for example through links to the Data WA SLIP data sets) so determinations can include advice notes to proponents on their obligations under the EPBC Act. | SOB and KPA | 5 years |
4.2 | Incorporate education on the Dinosaur Coast NHVs and EPBC Act obligations into an annual information session for SOB employees and DPLH state government officers and encourage them to recommend application of the precautionary principle when determining whether to refer the action to the federal minister. | SOB and DCMG with DCMRG | Ongoing |
4.3 | Provide updated boundary and place description so the SOB Municipal Inventory of Heritage Places, Place No. 73 aligns with DCNHMP boundary when the next review occurs. | DCMG with SOB | 5 years |
4.4 | Provide links to the NHL database Item 106063 in the State Register of Heritage Places Local Heritage Place No. 26353, and DEMIRS Geosite No. 44. | DCMG | 5 years |
4.5 | Use the DCNHMP boundary on Data WA’s SLIP as the spatial data for the State Register of Heritage Places Local Heritage Place No. 26353. | DCMG | 2 years |
4.6 | Reassess current geoheritage site boundaries for DEMIRS Geosite No. 44 in the context of the DCNHMP boundary and spatial data on Data WA’s SLIP. | DCMG | 10 years |
4.7 | Assess the potential for Geoheritage Reserve (Class C reserve) status for the DEMIRS Geosite No. 44. | DCMG | 10 years |
4.8 | Update the spatial and scientific details for the State Heritage Listing nomination lodged in 2019. | DCMG | 2 years |
Objective 5: To manage increasing visitor interest in the tracks and an increasing number of visitors Strategy: Implement a multi-faceted approach to visitor management combining education and enforcement | |||
5.1 | Install visual cues at beach access points to inform the public they are entering the West Kimberley National Heritage Area. | DCMRG with JM Partners | Ongoing |
5.2 | Place interpretive signage at strategic locations with QR code links to the Dinosaur Coast Track Guide App. | DCMG with JM Partners | Ongoing |
5.3 | Continue to patrol and enforce vehicle access controls at Cable Beach Foreshore, Cable Beach South and Entrance Point. | SOB | Ongoing |
5.4 | Include Dinosaur Coast NHV education in Yawuru ranger and Country manager training and induction and train NHV-specialised Yawuru ranger(s) to supervise inductions. | DBCA with JM Partners | 2 years |
Strategy: Manage access while protecting the identified areas with geological and palaeontological features relevant to the National Heritage listing | |||
5.5 | Throughout the DCNHMP area continue to manage vehicle access to areas of NHV through education and appropriate traffic management. | SOB with DCMRG | Ongoing |
5.6 | Continue to develop policies and signage to direct vehicles away from NHVs at the Cable Beach Foreshore, Cable Beach South, Entrance Point and Roebuck Bay access points. | DCMRG | 2 years |
5.7 | Continue to monitor public vehicle access to the Cable Beach Foreshore and Cable Beach South as resident and visitor population pressure increases. | SOB | Ongoing |
5.8 | Develop a ‘Dinosaur Track Etiquette’ that explains how events and wedding organisers can ensure the NHVs are protected and make it available through the DCMG website and future DCNHMP portal. | DCMG | 5 years |
5.9 | Provide information sheets to wedding and events vendors as part of the trading in public places permits system that explains the DCNHMP spatial data, where features are located and how to ensure there is no damage. | SOB and KPA with DCMG | 5 years |
5.10 | Use the DCNHMP spatial data to review booking policies for events, tourism and trading in public places. | SOB and KPA with DCMG | Immediate |
5.11 | Use the DCNHMP Data WA SLIP data sets to inform plans being prepared for development adjacent to the intertidal area, e.g., Town Beach, Reddell Beach, Entrance Point, Cable Beach, Gantheaume Point, Roebuck Bay. | SOB, DBCA and KPA | Immediate |
5.12 | Improve mechanisms to limit pedestrian access to unsafe and culturally sensitive areas such as Gantheaume Point. | JM Partners with DCMRG | 2 years |
5.13 | Implement zone by zone actions informed by a future online monitoring program to adaptively manage and protect areas of relevance to the National Heritage listing, and areas of cultural sensitivity and vulnerability. | DCMG and UQ with DCMRG | 5 years |
5.14 | Incorporate DCNHMP’s spatial data sets on Data WA’s SLIP into the Yawuru CMP and Yawuru parks management plans, programs and strategies. | UQ with JM Partners | 5 years |
Objective 6: To create opportunities for the Broome community Strategy: Branding of Broome as the gateway to the Dinosaur Coast | |||
6.1 | Launch the DCNHMP at a community event including BCCI, BVC, ANW, BBO, Environs Kimberley, BHS&M and other community groups. | DCMG with DCMRG | Immediate |
6.2 | In collaboration with ANW, BCCI and BBO recognise the need to establish visitor and site management strategies, accreditation systems and Yawuru ranger and Country manager training before tourism promotion. | DCMRG | 5 years |
6.3 | In collaboration with ANW and BCCI support tourism operators to incorporate appropriately managed dinosaur track site tourism into itineraries. | DCMG | 5 years |
6.4 | In collaboration with ANW, BCCI and BVC promote dinosaur track site tourism as a date- and tide-dependant attraction along with the Flying Boat Wrecks and Staircase to the Moon. | DCMG | Ongoing |
6.5 | In collaboration with ANW, BCCI and BVC enrich tourism experiences and itineraries with geodiversity and geotourism concepts. | DCMG | Ongoing |
6.6 | Continue to incorporate the celebration of Broome’s Dinosaur Coast into existing Broome festivals. | DCMG | Ongoing |
6.7 | Develop a stand-alone triennial Dinosaur Festival timed to coincide with extreme tides. | DCMG | 10 years |
6.8 | Continue hosting conference field trips. | UQ with DCMG | Ongoing |
6.9 | Host a national (or international) palaeontology conference in Broome to coincide with the extreme tides (outside peak tourism season). | UQ with DCMG | 10 years |
Objective 7: Improve the experience of visitors to the Dinosaur Coast Strategy: Identify and promote which track locations will work safely for self-guided tracking and which need a recommendation to use guided tours | |||
7.1 | Upgrade the Dinosaur Coast Track Guide App so that it can be downloaded from standard App stores and provide accurate maps and reference points for suitable locations for DIY tourism. | DCMG | 2 years |
7.2 | Design a ‘point to point’ Dinosaur Coast self-guided or guided walking trail between Gantheaume Point and Entrance Point with marked access points to the beach, warnings of culturally sensitive areas, and a link to the Dinosaur Coast Track Guide App. (Model: Jetty to Jetty Trail.) | DCMRG with DCMG | 5 years |
7.3 | With ANW, BVC, TAFE and BCCI explore options and models for the delivery of a Dinosaur Coast tourism operator education and accreditation scheme. (Models: Cruise Tourism or Marine Tourism accreditation.) | DCMG | 10 years |
7.4 | With BBO develop combined National Heritage listing and Ramsar Site/BBO itineraries for Roebuck Bay. | DCMG | 2 years |
7.5 | Upgrade and simplify visitor interpretive information at Gantheaume Point and integrate it into the conservation park. Remove incorrect concrete dinosaur casts. | JM Partners with DCMRG | 2 years |
7.6 | Undertake a feasibility study for World Heritage listing of the West Kimberley Dinosaur Coast. | DCMRG with DCMG | 5 years |
The DCMG thanks the Australian Government for the Australian Heritage Grants that have supported us so we could prepare and complete this DCNHMP. Thanks also to the Heritage Branch officers of the DCCEEW who have advised us throughout the years.
The DCMG prepared this plan so that all the land managers, landowners and Custodians have a shared vision and commitment to protect the National Heritage-listed Broome Sandstone and ichnofossils and to ensure future generations can ‘walk with dinosaurs’ on some of Australia’s most magnificent beaches.
We would like to thank the community members, volunteers and others who have laid the foundation for this management plan and in recent years helped us sometimes at unusual hours and under harsh conditions.
Prior to the establishment of the DCMG in 2015, a group of people had dedicated many years to working alongside the Goolarabooloo Custodians, locating and recording dinosaur tracks along the coastline of the Dampier Peninsula. Among these individuals were Paul Foulkes (deceased) and Louise Middleton who began their work in 1986, Prof. John Long in 1989, and Tony Thulborn from 1991 to 2012. These dedicated individuals worked closely with Paddy Roe OAM (deceased) from 1940 until 2000, Joseph Roe (deceased) from the 1990s until 2014, and Richard Hunter and Phillip Roe up to the present day. In 2011, Louise Middleton, Nik Wevers and Joseph Roe, in collaboration with Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury from UQ, played a key role in having the dinosaur trackways and ichnofossils included in the West Kimberley National Heritage Place.
Between 2014 and 2015, a diverse group of people, working with Nigel Clarke and Louise Middleton, formed the DCMG and established it as an Incorporated Association and Registered Charity. These people included (in alphabetical order) Dianne Bennett, Kandy Curran, Dave Dureau (deceased), Elsta Foy, Brian Kane, Damian Kelly, Pat Lowe, Rani Middleton (deceased), Bart Pigram, Anne Poelina, Jeff Skinner, Kevin Smith (deceased), Michelle Teoh, Shayne Thomson and Robyn Wells. The DCMG was to be the local voice, using the scientific knowledge of the research team from UQ Dinosaur Lab and Flinders University, to protect and promote the dinosaur tracks of the Dampier Peninsula and educate the community about their scientific and cultural importance (DCMG Mission Statement).
The DCMG committee members are also to be thanked. They have contributed their time and expertise to the organisation over many years. Chairpersons Louise Middleton (2016) and Micklo Corpus (deceased) (2016–2022); Treasurers Kevin Smith (deceased) (2016), Jon Hall (2016–2020), Leong Teoh (2020–2022, 2023–2025) and Francesca Guzzetta (2022–2023); and Secretaries Jan Lewis (2016) and Michelle Teoh (2016–2025). Also the hardworking committee members (in alphabetical order) Dianne Bennett, Lily Chin, John Curran, Troy Marinko, Diana Oliver, Ian Perdrisat, Anne Poelina, Nadia Rebasti, Neil Turner and Nik Wevers.
We would also like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the individuals from the wider ‘dinosaur family’ who have supported and worked with the DCMG over the years:
Dianne Bennett, thank you for your tireless efforts in documenting tracks and ichnofossils throughout the management plan area. These data have contributed to the paleontological information contained in Maps 3.1–3.21. We also acknowledge that you regularly assist Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury when he undertakes research work in Broome.
Pat Lowe, as the DCMG editor since the organisation’s inception, you have ensured our messages are clear and effective for the intended audience. Your attention to detail, and understanding of language conventions, grammar rules and style preferences is greatly appreciated.
Damian Kelly, your ability to produce images that ‘speak’ and your enthusiasm for the dinosaur tracks have been an invaluable contribution to the management plan. We thank you for your unwavering support.
Franky O’Connor, Sherona Biddlecombe and Xavier Dhalluin of the Broome Community Resource Centre, thank you for being the unofficial DCMG ‘office’. Without access to such a one-stop shop for printing, meetings and specialist administration assistance, the management plan would have been that much harder to complete.
Scott Sansoni of Sanz Web Development, we appreciate your graphic design and publishing expertise, which allowed us to complete this work. Sincere and heartfelt thanks.
In 2020, Micklo Corpus, Michelle Teoh and Wade Freeman, with letters of support from Yawuru RNTBC, SOB, DBCA and KPA, applied for an Australian Heritage Grant. Unbeknown to all, this was the start of a five-year journey that included a second successful grant application in 2023.
Throughout the five years a Steering Group made up of representatives of DBCA, GMIC, KPA, SOB, UQ and Yawuru RNTBC have discussed, debated and worked with the DCMG and our consultants to deliver this plan.
Stephanie Johnston & Associates, Neale Draper & Associates and Andrew Maland GIS were the South Australian consultants appointed to prepare the management plan. It was not easy, with COVID interruptions, shifting timelines and many extensions. I thank them for their hard work and their patience. Thanks also to Mark Thomas for the graphics and Paul Wallace for the editing of the September 2022 draft management plan.
UQ Dinosaur Lab provided the crucial geological and palaeontological data that became the basis for Chapters 2 and 3 and Maps 3.2–3.21. Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury also worked with GMIC on cultural heritage advice related to the Northern Tradition of the Song Cycle and collaborated with Neale Draper and GMIC on relevant sections of Chapter 4.
GMIC and their Bosses have had a close working relationship with UQ Dinosaur Lab since 2011 and with DCMG since 2015. Their input has been invaluable and their ongoing support is greatly appreciated. They have provided public cultural heritage information related to the Northern Tradition of the Song Cycle and collaborated with Neale Draper on sections of Chapter 4. Errol Roe and Daniel Roe, GMIC General Manager, attended numerous meetings and contributed to various drafts of the management plan.
Yawuru’s support of our grant applications and involvement in the development of the management plan is greatly valued and appreciated. Yawuru representatives also collaborated with Neale Draper on the Yawuru cultural heritage content in Chapter 4. In the past, members of the Yawuru Community have also worked with UQ Dinosaur Lab and DCMG to document dinosaur tracks throughout the area.
Officers from the Broome office of DBCA have been active participants in Steering Group meetings and one-on-one working sessions, providing valuable advice and input. They have also made sure DCMG is able to contribute to projects that are being planned in the Conservation Estate. Such projects, while abutting the ITZ, need to be carefully considered, designed and constructed so that the NHVs of the Broome Sandstone and ichnofossils are protected.
DCMG has also sought to work collaboratively with SOB officers throughout the project. There have been numerous meetings that focused on the potential implications for Shire operations and the details of projects the Shire is planning adjacent to and within the ITZ. The feedback and in-depth review of the management plan provided by the officers has been appreciated.
KPA representatives have actively participated in multiple meetings and provided valuable input throughout the management plan development process. Their support and willingness to work cooperatively is greatly valued.
Wade Freeman and Ryan Crawford are to be commended for their contribution to the delivery of this management plan. Wade co-wrote the grant application in 2020 and from May to June 2021 took on the role of project manager. Ryan provided valued guidance as a Cultural Advisor from 2021 to 2022.
Sarah Taylor-Fuller played a crucial role as project manager from August 2021 to February 2023. She kept us on schedule and resolved issues. She facilitated discussions and meetings between the consultants, the steering group members and community groups. Sarah was also instrumental in creating community consultation brochures that summarised the management plan, zones and implementation plan. Her geological expertise was a bonus, as she worked alongside Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury and Ms Brooke Holland on geological mapping. As DCMG’s representative she also provided advice to a number of development projects that could affect the NHVs of the Broome Sandstone and ichnofossils.
This has been a long journey and has tested the resilience of the DCMG. We are a small not-for-profit group reliant on volunteers and many people have helped us over many years. If we have inadvertently missed anyone, we offer our apologies, but also our sincere thanks. We are sincerely grateful for your support and your contribution to this first Dinosaur Coast National Heritage Management Plan.
Ketrina Keeley
Committee Member 2019–22
Chairperson 2022–2025
Early Cretaceous: Term used for events that occurred during the time that the rocks were deposited or when the tracks were made by living dinosaurs.
Ichnofossil: A fossil record of biological presence or activity, but not the preserved remains of the plant or animal itself.
Ichnology: The study of fossilised tracks, trails, burrows, borings, or other trace fossils as evidence of the occurrence or behaviour of the organisms that produced them.
Lower Cretaceous: Term used for the geological era when referring to existing rocks and the fossils within them.
Natural cast (in reference to trace fossils): Mineral matter (rock) that has filled a natural mould made by organic activity. Natural casts of dinosaur tracks typically have positive relief, whereas the track itself, being a mould of the activity of the foot/hand of the dinosaur, has negative relief.
Natural mould (in reference to trace fossils): Impression (trace) of organic activity (in most instances herein, the feet and hands of non-avian dinosaurs) preserved in mineral matter (rock).
Stakeholder: Individual or group that has an interest in any decision or activity of an organisation, project or process.
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ACH Act: Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2021 (WA)
AH Act: Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA)
AHC: Australian Heritage Council (formerly Australian Heritage Commission)
AHD: Australian Heritage Database
ACHIS: Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Inquiry System (WA)
ANHAT: Australian National Heritage Assessment Tool
AICOMOS: Australia International Council on Monuments and Sites
ANW: Australia’s North West Tourism
AMB: Australian Maritime Boundary
AUCHD: Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database
BBO: Broome Bird Observatory
BCCI: Broome Chamber of Commerce and Industry
BHS&M: Broome Historical Society and Museum
BVC: Broome Visitor Centre
CAMBA: China Australia Migratory Bird Agreement
CMP: (Yawuru RNTBC) Cultural Management Plan
CV Act: Control of Vehicles (Off-road Areas) Act 1978 (WA)
DAWE: (former) Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment (Cth)
DBCA: Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (WA)
DCCEEW: Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (Cth)
DCMG: Dinosaur Coast Management Group Inc.
DCMRG: Dinosaur Coast Management Reference Group
DCNHMP: Dinosaur Coast National Heritage Management Plan
DEC: (former) Department of Environment and Conservation
DEMIRS: Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (WA)
DEWHA: (former) Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (Cth)
DMIRS: (former) Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (WA)
DOT: Department of Transport (WA)
DPLH: Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (WA)
DPW: (former) Department of Parks and Wildlife (WA)
EPA: Environmental Protection Authority (WA)
EP Act: Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA)
EPBC Act: Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)
GBCP JMP: Guniyan Binba Conservation Park Joint Management Plan
GIS: geographic information system
GMIC: Goolarabooloo Millibinyarri Indigenous Corporation
HAT: Highest Astronomical Tide
HCWA: Heritage Council of Western Australia
HWM: High Water Mark
ICOMOS: International Council on Monuments and Sites
IMCRA: (former) Interim Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia
ILUA: Indigenous Land Use Agreement
ITZ: Intertidal Zone
JAMBA: Japan Australia Migratory Bird Agreement
JM Partner: Joint Management Partner
JMP: Joint Management Plan
KMSB: Kimberley Marine Support Base
KPA: Kimberley Ports Authority
LAT: Lowest Astronomical Tide
LNG: Liquefied Natural Gas
LWM: Low Water Mark
NBY: Nyamba Buru Yawuru
NHL: National Heritage List
NHV: National Heritage value
Ramsar Convention: Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat
ROKAMBA: Republic of Korea Australia Migratory Bird Agreement
SLIP: Shared Location Information Platform
SOB: Shire of Broome
TAFE: Technical and Further Education (WA)
UCH Act: Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018 (Cth)
UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
UQ: The University of Queensland
UQ Dinosaur Lab: School of the Environment (formerly the School of Biological Sciences), The University of Queensland
WA: Western Australia
Yawuru/Yawuru RNTBC: Yawuru Registered Native Title Holders Body Corporate (often referred to as the Yawuru PBC)
YMBCP: Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Park
Map 1.1 West Kimberley National Heritage listing location and boundary
Map 1.2 DCNHMP management area and management zone boundaries
Map 1.3 Rubibi Native Title Determination Status
Map 1.4 Yawuru Conservation Estate
Map 3.1 Overview of management zones and areas that contain geological and palaeontological features that are relevant to the National Heritage listing
Map 3.2 Roebuck Bay Zone: Location
Map 3.3 Roebuck Bay Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Map 3.4 Dampier Creek Zone: Location
Map 3.5 Dampier Creek Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Map 3.6 Town Beach Zone: Location
Map 3.7 Town Beach Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Map 3.8 Entrance Point Zone: Location
Map 3.9 Entrance Point Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Map 3.10 Reddell Beach Zone: Location
Map 3.11 Reddell Beach Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Map 3.12 Gantheaume Point Zone: Location
Map 3.13 Gantheaume Point Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Map 3.14 Cable Beach South Zone: Location
Map 3.15 Cable Beach South Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Map 3.16 Cable Beach Foreshore Zone: Location
Map 3.17 Cable Beach Foreshore Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Map 3.18 Waterbank Zone (South): Location
Map 3.19 Waterbank Zone (North) Location
Map 3.20 Waterbank (South) Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Map 3.21 Waterbank (North) Zone: Geological and palaeontological features
Map 4.1 DPLH ACHIS sites
Figure 2.1 Aerial view of Minyirr – Gantheaume Point
Figure 2.2 Minyirr – Gantheaume Point current interpretation shelter and signage
Figure 2.3 Signage at Minyirr – Gantheaume Point advising that the area is culturally sensitive
Figure 2.4 Minyirr – Gantheaume Point concrete casts of theropod tracks (all impressions of the left foot)
Figure 3.1 Aerial view of Roebuck Bay area
Figure 3.2 Sauropod trackway in the Roebuck Bay area showing tidal mud flats and Broome Sandstone exposures
Figure 3.3 Fossil burrows in Broome Sandstone in the Roebuck Bay area, likely made by small invertebrates such as molluscs or worms
Figure 3.4 Recreational fishing on the Broome Sandstone reef in the Roebuck Bay area
Figure 3.5 Ichnofossil tourism in the Roebuck Bay area
Figure 3.6 Aerial view of Dampier Creek showing mangroves and tidal mudflats
Figure 3.7 Coastal fortification and provision for pedestrian access to the Dampier Creek ITZ between Catalina Place and Town Beach Jetty
Figure 3.8 A tour group examines exposures of Broome Sandstone in the mangroves of Dampier Creek
Figure 3.9 Sauropod trackway in exposures of Broome Sandstone along the Town Beach foreshore
Figure 3.10 Aerial view of the Broome Sandstone and mangrove headland adjacent Town Beach reserve and caravan park, with water treatment facility in the distance
Figure 3.11 Hovercraft and boat launching site at the southern end of Town Beach Zone with Broome Sandstone in the background
Figure 3.12 Aerial view of Entrance Point showing the proximity of geological and palaeontological features to the existing car park and boat ramps
Figure 3.13 View of Entrance Point from the reef showing the proximity of Broome Sandstone exposures to the location of the proposed new boat launching facility
Figure 3.14 Theropod trackway on one of the outer reefs of Broome Sandstone at Entrance Point
Figure 3.15 Ornithopod track (Wintonopous middletonae) in the Broome Sandstone at Entrance Point
Figure 3.16 Large invertebrate burrows (trace fossils assigned to Thalassinoides) in the Broome Sandstone at Entrance Point
Figure 3.17 Car parks, boat ramps and a private road onto to the jetty at Entrance Point provide direct pedestrian and vehicle access to the ITZ
Figure 3.18: Aerial view of Reddell Beach showing Kavite Road and a car park access point to an area of Broome Sandstone in the foreground
Figure 3.19 Citizen scientist Dianne Bennett indicates the approximate height of a sauropod’s hip deduced from the size of this track in the southern Reddell Beach area
Figure 3.20 Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury with multiple sauropod trackways at Reddell Beach
Figure 3.21 A theropod (Megalosauropus broomensis) natural cast in the southern Reddell Beach area
Figure 3.22 Parts of Reddell Beach that preserve numerous palaeontological and geological features have become a popular location for weddings (Photo: Julia Rau)
Figure 3.23 Gantheaume Point showing the northern Reddell Beach area in the foreground
Figure 3.24 The northern half of Gantheaume Point Zone is classified as having outstanding geological and palaeontological features relevant to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing due to the scientific and historical importance of the tracks there
Figure 3.25 Gantheaume Point is one of many sites where plant macrofossils are found in the Broome Sandstone
Figure 3.26 Aerial view of Cable Beach South showing beach parking area adjacent to an area with outstanding geological and palaeontological features relevant to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing
Figure 3.27 Current restrictions state there is no parking south of the access track from Gantheaume Point Road, however cars frequently park towards Red Point, an area preserving outstanding geological and palaeontological features relevant to the West Kimberley National Heritage listing
Figure 3.28 The existing signage at Cable Beach South Zone access ramp does not clearly indicate the location of the SOB Off Road Prohibited Vehicle Area
Figure 3.29 Aerial view of the Cable Beach Foreshore area
Figure 3.30 Ripples preserved in Broome Sandstone in the Cable Beach Foreshore area
Figure 3.31 Camel chain entering the Cable Beach Foreshore area
Figure 3.32 Vehicles access the Cable Beach Foreshore Broome Sandstone exposures daily
Figure 3.33 Aerial view of Waterbank Zone showing the Lombadina Conglomerate/Cape Boileau Calcarenite reef system
Figure 3.34 The Willie Creek wetland system of intertidal sand and mudflats, mangroves and salt flats is important habitat for diverse marine and terrestrial fauna
Figure 3.35 Flatback Turtle nesting site near Coconut Wells
Figure 3.36 Tidal lagoon at Coconut Wells
Figure 3.37 Goolarabooloo Law Boss Richard Hunter (left), Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury (centre) and members of UQ Dinosaur Lab team
Figure 4.1 Monsoon vine thickets are an NHV of the northern Kimberley coast
Figure 4.2 Healthy monsoon vine thicket and leaf litter
Figure 4.3 Aboriginal trade in pearl shell is identified as an NHV of the West Kimberley cultural landscape
Figure 4.4 Management, protection, research, education and promotion of the extraordinary diversity of dinosaur tracks along the Dampier Coast is considered to be the prime focus of the DCNHMP
Figure 4.4a Eroded sauropod track at Entrance Point. The ‘true track’ – the surface on which the sauropod walked – has weathered away
Figure 4.5 Artist’s rendition of the species diversity of the Dampier Peninsula’s Dinosaur Coast in the Lower Cretaceous period
Figure 4.6 The migratory bird hub at Roebuck Bay is a recognised NHV and is also a Ramsar Site
Figure 4.7 The Sailmaker’s Shed in the Broome Museum houses an exhibition of pearl lugger sailmaking
Figure 4.8 Roebuck Bay’s Flying Boat Wreckage Site
Figure 4.9 Shell midden in the Church Hill Sand eroding onto the underlying Mowanjum Sand, Broome Sandstone and Cable Beach Sand on the beach near Crab Creek, Roebuck Bay
Figure 4.10 The stone pillars of Yinara (on the left) and her six daughters at Reddell Beach are formed from unnamed Pliocene–Quaternary Conglomerate and eroded Broome Sandstone
Figure 5.1 Car and trailer tracks going straight over a sauropod track at Roebuck Bay
Figure 5.2 Students from Wangkatjungka Remote Community School on a field excursion with DCMG volunteers
Figure 5.3 SOB Councillors and staff on a familiarisation excursion with DCMG volunteers at Reddell Beach
Figure 5.4 Yawuru rangers Jasmyn Cook and Jason Fong observing activities in Roebuck Bay
Figure 5.5 Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury from UQ is assisting DCMG to develop protocols for viewing and monitoring fragile track sites
Figure 5.6 Expanding urban infrastructure and new housing estates are changing the ecology of the ITZ
Figure 5.7 Quad bikes are able to access all areas of the ITZ
Figure 5.8 Damage caused by scraping track fossils with a sharp instrument
Figure 5.9 There are safety issues when tourists scramble over the cliffs and rocks around Gantheaume Point searching for dinosaur tracks
Figure 5.10 Boulders placed to discourage vehicular access to sensitive areas of Roebuck Bay are regularly removed
Figure 5.11 Improved vehicular access to Reddell Beach could impact on areas with geological and palaeontological features
Figure 5.12 There is an opportunity to improve the control of pedestrian access to unsafe areas and areas with outstanding geological and palaeontological features at Gantheaume Point
Figure 5.13 Dinosaur tracks in the Cable Beach Foreshore Zone become vulnerable to large numbers of tourists when exposed through sand movements
Figure 5.14 Broome’s dinosaur tracks are a unique selling point that could be used to encourage a greater diversity of visitors to linger longer
Figure 5.15 Ongoing engagement with the Broome community will be essential to successful implementation of the management plan
Figure 5.16 Geological and palaeontological features can underpin cultural, scientific and economic enterprise
Figure 5.17 There are emerging opportunities for geoheritage tourism in Broome’s in situ dinosaur museum
Figure 5.18 Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury explaining the details of a sauropod track to a community field excursion organised by DCMG
Figure 5.19 Dr Anthony Romilio (left) and Assoc. Prof. Steven Salisbury (right) from UQ Dinosaur Lab documenting a sauropod trackway on the northern shore of Roebuck Bay
Figure 6.1 As the sun rises on Reddell Beach a film crew is intent on photographing one theropod track
Figure 6.2 Jurassic Coast World Heritage site
Figure 6.3 Dinosaur footprints at Natural Monument 434, South Korea
Figure 6.4 Goseong Dinosaur Museum, South Korea
Figure 6.5 Mapping tracks and trackways with ground and aerial laser scanning and remote sensing technologies
Figures 6.6 to 6.8 Strengthening community and educational links to the dinosaur story through field excursions, museum, library and classroom experiences
Figure 6.9 Coastal erosion at Reddell Beach
Figure 6.10 The presence of the Broome Sandstone Cretaceous ichnofossils on Broome’s doorstep creates tourism and educational opportunities
Figure 6.11 The presence of the Broome Sandstone Cretaceous ichnofossils on Broome’s doorstep creates tourism and educational opportunities
Figure 6.12 There is an opportunity to support tourism operators to incorporate appropriately managed track site tourism into itineraries
Figure 6.13 The Jetty to Jetty Trail could provide a model for a Dinosaur Coast self-guided walking trail between Gantheaume Point and Entrance Point
Figure 6.14 The Burra Charter as an adaptive management cycle
Table 3.1 Summary of geological unit descriptions
Table 4.1 Summary table of EPBC Act Protected Matters for the DCNHMP management area
Table 4.2 Summary table of DPLH ACHIS sites in the DCNHMP management area
Table 4.3 Summary table of cultural heritage listings outside the ACH Act located within the DCNHMP management area
Table 4.4 DEMIRS Geosite No. 44
Table 5.1 Existing conservation management frameworks for areas abutting or intersecting with the DCNHMP management area and areas where the CV Act applies
Table 7.1 DCNHMP implementation plan