Arafura Swamp Indigenous Protected Area (IPA)

The centrepiece of ASRAC’s 1.4 million-hectare IPA is a vast, pristine wetland. Known to Traditional Owners as Gurruwiling, the Arafura Swamp sits within a basin covering nearly 1000 square kilometres. Tall tropical forests, savanna woodlands and weathered sandstone plateau provide an elaborate mosaic across the surrounding catchment. Spring-feed waterways arising in the uplands feed into the swamp and in turn the sinuous Goyder River draining into Castlereagh Bay.

The greater Arafura Swamp catchment and region has some of the NT’s richest and most extensive rainforests, supports an abundance of threatened, rare, or little-known wildlife, and includes the major biogeographic corridor of the Mitchell and Parsons Ranges. Most of the catchment is listed on the Register of the National Estate while the central swamp is listed as a Wetland of National Importance. Twenty-seven nationally listed Threatened Species are known or predicted to occur in the proposed IPA including the Eastern Curlew, Northern Quoll, Northern Hopping-mouse, Gouldian Finch, and Masked Owl.

The entire Arafura Swamp and catchment share an unbroken history of Aboriginal ownership and management. Traditional connections to country remain largely intact and many landowners still reside on outstations, living from and protecting their ancestral estates. Beyond conservation, the Arafura Swamp IPA will deliver social and cultural benefits to remote Indigenous Australians including employment as land and sea rangers, support for language and cultural activities, protection of significant sites, and the preservation of traditional ecological knowledge.

The Arafura Swamp IPA was approved on the 7th of August 2025 and now we move to the exciting phase of actioning our new ASRAC IPA Plan of management, developed over years of consultation with the area’s Traditional Owners. To celebrate we plan to dedicate our IPA on 22 October 2025.

ASRAC’s collaboration with Bush Heritage Australia on Healthy Country planning has been foundational to the success of the IPA. With support from Tamarind Planning, the ASRAC Healthy Country Plan 2025-2035 has been adapted to meet IPA requirements, while the integrated Intercultural Monitoring, Evaluation, and Planning (IMEP) project provides a framework for adaptive management and accountability.

Twenty-seven nationally listed Threatened Species are known or predicted to occur within the proposed IPA including the pictured Gouldian Finch.