{"id":584151,"date":"2026-04-04T03:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584151\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T03:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:09:16","slug":"local-governments-support-move-to-add-world-famous-bibbulmun-track-to-heritage-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/584151\/","title":{"rendered":"Local governments support move to add world-famous Bibbulmun Track to heritage list"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bibbulmun Track could be declared a heritage-listed site as local governments situated along the trail move to support investigations into the potential listing by the state’s peak heritage body.<\/p>\n

Late last year, the WA Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage received a nomination to add the world-famous trail to the State Register of Heritage Places.<\/p>\n

The gruelling hiking track, which runs 1,000 kilometres through bushland between the Perth Hills and Albany, attracts more than 80,000 hikers a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Albany<\/p>\n

The 1,000-kilometre track meanders through the Albany Wind Farm before terminating in central Albany. (ABC Radio Perth: Gian De Poloni)<\/p>\n

Culturally significant site<\/p>\n

The Bibbulmun Track winds through 18 local government areas, including the Shire of Manjimup, where the trail intersects with the towns of Pemberton, Northcliffe and Walpole.<\/p>\n

Shire president Donelle Buegge said the track was an integral part of South West towns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Bibbulmun Track is an important place that runs through our shire, runs through River Road, One Tree Bridge, Beelup Falls,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s sometimes that rite of passage that people love to walk the [Bibbulmun] track, crazy as they are.<\/p>\n

“Both socially and culturally speaking, for locals, there’s a lot of visitors that come to the Bib.”<\/p>\n

More than 50 campsites are situated along the trail, many of them managed by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservations and Attractions (DBCA).<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Donelle Buegge says the Manjimup council supports the investigation into listing the track. (ABC South West WA: Jon Daly)<\/p>\n

Ms Buegge said fire mitigation at campsites would remain a priority.<\/p>\n

“We work in collaboration with DBCA on certain parts of it \u2026 but it is probably that maintenance that we’re really concerned about with the fire mitigation,” she said.<\/p>\n

“DBCA manages a lot of those campsites that have the fire pits and the campsites within it, so I think that would have to be taken into account as well.”<\/p>\n

Protection against mining<\/p>\n

In February last year, Australian-owned miner South32 received federal approval for its proposed extension to its existing Worsley site.<\/p>\n

The approval means the bauxite miner will expand into an area that intersects with the Bibbulmun Track.<\/p>\n

South32 have promised a 100-metre minimum buffer between the track and mining activity.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk\u00a0near Walpole in WA’s South West is suspended 40 metres above the ground. (Supplied: Department of Parks and Wildlife)<\/p>\n

A professor of conservation and restoration sciences, Kingsley Dixon, used to reside in Waroona, 111 kilometres south of Perth, with a section of the track running through his former property.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said the heritage listing would hopefully protect the track from the future impacts of mining.<\/p>\n

“We have rampant mining along a substantial part of the northern part of the trail and proposed mining for all sorts of so-called critical minerals,” he said.<\/p>\n

Home to oldest plants on Earth<\/p>\n

Professor Dixon said the Bibbulmun Track walked hikers through history.<\/p>\n

“When you step on this land, you’re walking amongst the oldest plant biodiversity known \u2026 which was shared with the oldest, and still is, continuous civilisation on the planet,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It traverses the world’s most unique and most biodiverse temperate great forests, some of the few remaining on the planet.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Professor Kingsley Dixon with an Albany pitcher plant. (Supplied: Kingley Dixon)<\/p>\n

Professor Dixon said the track was brimming with flora species that deserved the protection a listing would give them.<\/p>\n

“We have more plants that eat insects than almost any other place on the planet,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The Albany pitcher plant, a remarkable species, that we suspect survived all the time from Gondwana, so, 65 million years ago.”<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage said the invitation to relevant local governments for information was an early first step.<\/p>\n

“The Heritage Council has identified a number of priority places for assessment in the coming years, and the full assessment for the Bibbulmun Track is yet to be scheduled,” they said.<\/p>\n

“The final decision \u2026 will be informed by both stakeholder and broader community consultation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bibbulmun Track could be declared a heritage-listed site as local governments situated along the trail move to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,286041,286038,286037,286045,286039,44,286042,286043,41844,286040,45,286044],"class_list":["post-584151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bauxite-mine-bibbulman","tag-bibbulman-track","tag-bibbulman-track-heritage-listing","tag-how-long-is-the-bibbulman-track","tag-mining-bibbulman-track","tag-news","tag-pitcher-plant-rare","tag-rare-plants-bibbulman","tag-south-west-news","tag-south32-bibbulman","tag-wa-news","tag-where-is-the-bibbulman-track"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}