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STATE CONSERVATION AREAS (SCAs)

Policy No 24 March 2009

ACCOMMODATION BUILDINGS IN NATIONAL PARKS

INTRODUCTION

This policy covers the existence, provision and use of buildings in national parks for visitor accommodation, including huts, cabins and larger buildings. It replaces relevant parts of Policy 15, which is henceforth retained to cover accommodation in tents, and in caravans and other vehicles.

Part of the internationally accepted concept of a national park is that it is a large area which has not been significantly affected by man. In its purest form it would have no buildings, no roads, no clearings, no human works of any kind.. However, as the globally accepted vision of a national park is a combination of nature conservation and landscape protection on the one hand, and human access and limited low-impact recreation on the other, human usage is a factor which will be catered for and must therefore be suitably managed.

Catering for people in national parks, excepting declared wilderness parks or zones, often requires a building or buildings of some sort. Basically, toilets, picnic tables and seats, and information shelters are usually provided. In the larger or the more popular parks, visitor centres and ablution blocks may be added. Moreover, many national parks inherit buildings at the time of their reservation. Some of these may have value as items of heritage and/or for adaptive re-use as offices, museums, for staff and perhaps researcher accommodation, or for public accommodation.

The long-standing NPA principle, that no fixed "hard-top" sleeping accommodation - buildings - (this excludes caravans etc) should be provided for normal (i.e. non-emergency) public use, has considerable merit, as it accords with the spirit of traditional low-key national park recreation. NPA generally opposes the provision of cabins for accommodation in national parks, but accepts that NPWS may not hold to this view and therefore acknowedges the fact that cabins do exist in a few national parks. Because of this, the policy provides conditions which should be applied to the presence and use of cabins in national parks, while promoting off-park accommodation.

The adaptive re-use of heritage and other existing buildings within national parks for accommodation is part of this policy. Probably less controversial than cabins, it also assists heritage conservation by ensuring that buildings do not deteriorate through disuse and neglect. The provision of new accommodation buildings is opposed (e.g. in Kosciuszko National Park).

It must be stressed at this point that maintaining the integrity of the natural environment should be the primary aim of national park management. The existence, use and management of all buildings in national parks should be in accordance with this principle.

DEFINITIONS

For the purposes of this policy the following definitions apply:

Hut: a small building, originally constructed for some utilitarian purpose such as temporarily housing cattlemen, shepherds, gold miners or construction workers, subsequently often used in national parks by visitors for overnight sleeping, traditionally on a first-come first-served basis. (Examples: Kosciuszko and Barrington National Parks).

Small buildings now occupied by "squatters" still exist in certain national parks. Some of these have been legitimised by Permissive Occupancy or other procedure. Examples are in Royal National Park (Era etc) and (formerly) in Sydney Harbour National Park (Crater Cove). For the purposes of the overall policy on Buildings in National Parks, and in line with NPWS terminology, these will be termed cabins.

Cabin: A cabin, as distinct from a hut, is a small building constructed for holiday and similar purposes (e.g. at Murramarang, New England and Royal National Parks), or (rarely) for permanent or semi-permanent dwelling (e.g. Crater Cove in Sydney Harbour National Park; Era and Burning Palms in Royal National Park).

Heritage building: a building assessed by the NPWS as having significant values in terms of period, history, design, architecture, construction, materials used etc, and therefore worthy of retention, protection, and perhaps restoration.

Emergency hut: a hut whose sole use is to shelter people during emergency conditions; or as a haven or base for rescue in the event of accident or exposure, particularly in emergency conditions, where there is a need for stabilisation, treatment and recovery of victims.

Emergency conditions: weather conditions such as extreme cold and/or wet, flooding, thick snow, or extreme heat and/or dryness, fires and storms, under which lives are threatened.

Precinct or curtilage: the surroundings of a building, either defined by fences or unfenced and possibly of undefined extent.

National park: For the purposes of this policy, "national park" means any reserve under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, except regional parks.

The quality distinguishing regional parks from other reserves under the NP&W Act is that the natural condition has usually been partly or wholly modified. Because of the resulting lower conservation or biodiversity value, it is considered that these reserves are often suitable for supporting types of uses and developments which are incompatible with the other reserves under that Act, e.g. horse riding, restaurants, cabins. (Berowra Valley Regional Park, reserved as such rather than as national park for political reasons, is a notable exception).

Other buildings: permanent structures other than huts and cabins, suitable for accommodation for the public, e.g. homesteads, cottages, former guest houses, shearers' quarters, wool or shearing sheds, horse stables, barns, lighthouses and keepers' residences etc, any of which may, in addition, be designated as heritage buildings.

POLICY

HUTS

1. New huts
No new huts should be built in national parks, except possibly to replace damaged or destroyed non-wilderness huts deemed by NPWS as having significant heritage or emergency value.

2. Existing huts

Existing huts deemed by the NPWS to be of significant heritage value (heritage huts) or emergency value (emergency huts) or both, should generally be retained, and those deemed of insignificant heritage and/or emergency value should generally be removed or phased out.

A number of huts in Kosciuszko National Park have been identified as having historic heritage significance. Many of these huts are located at sites which have Aboriginal heritage significance. These sites have ongoing value to local Aboriginal communities and traditional owners. The huts occur in a natural landscape which is of outstanding and universal value, and which is under severe threat due to the potential impacts of climate change, as well as bushfires and human misuse and vandalism.

3. Damaged or destroyed huts

3.1 In declared wilderness, huts damaged or destroyed by any means - natural such as fire or
wind, or by human misuse or vandalism - should not be repaired or rebuilt.
3.2 Outside wilderness, destroyed huts classed as heritage or emergency should be considered for
reconstruction, restoration, preservation or recording.
3.3 The selected option of 3.2 should be carried out consistent with the Burra Charter.
3.3 A plaque or notice should be placed at the site of a destroyed hut, explaining how the hut was
destroyed and outlining its history and significance.

4. Education
The public should be educated about huts in national parks - their history, significance, present and planned uses (heritage and/or emergency), and their relationship with and impacts on their environment, natural, scenic or cultural.

5. Accommodation
Except under emergency conditions, huts in national parks should not be available for accommodation (See 9. Emergency huts)

6. Management
Management of huts retained in national parks must be consistent with the adopted plan of management, and with any conservation management plan, publicly exhibited before adoption.

7. Natural environment protection

7.1. Conservation management plans must provide for the protection of the natural environment
from impacts arising from the human presence and use of a hut. Protection may need some
"hardening" of the precinct (e.g. of tracks) or of curtilage (e.g. fences), but this should be
kept to an essential minimum.
7.2 If the human presence and/or use of any hut causes an unacceptable environmental impact,
it should not continue to be used in the same way, and may even need to be discontinued.
7.3 Horse camps and the casual yarding of horses near huts should be prohibited.
7.4 Toilets, unobtrusively located away from the hut, should be provided where a hut or precinct
is an established destination for visitors.
7.5 An ecological sustainability statement should accompany the conservation management plan,
seeking to minimise the ecological footprint of any use of the hut and its precinct.

8. Heritage huts

8.1 Huts deemed by NPWS to be worthy of preservation (see definition) should be designated as heritage huts in the plan of management and the conservation management plan, and clearly marked as such on plan maps and in the field.
8.2. Management should be consistent with the provisions of the adopted plan of management, the
conservation management plan, and an ecological sustainability statement.

9. Emergency huts

9.1 Existing huts should be available during emergency conditions only, for overnight accommodation or temporary shelter, by being left unlocked.
9.2 Special emergency huts may, if deemed necessary by NPWS, be built at strategic locations
subject to life-threatening extremes of weather (as defined above), at the discretion of the
NPWS, but not in declared wilderness.
9.3 Emergency huts should be marked clearly as such on plans of management, conservation
management plans, and in the field (on or near the hut and on direction signs).
9.4 A sign should be placed on or near the hut advising the public that the hut is for emergency
accommodation only, and requiring compliance with this restriction.
9.5 Emergency huts should be equipped with basic aids to survival: matches and fuel (in cold
climates); water (particularly in hot, arid country); and perhaps military style survival rations
9.6 Wind and solar power for cooking, drying and lighting in huts should be investigated.
9.7 Travellers should be required to be self-reliant and self-sufficient, and education should be provided by NPWS to help them understand that it may be difficult to find a hut under extreme snow, blizzard or foggy conditions or to reach a hut in extremely hot, dry weather.

Human life, at least in Australian society, is valued to the extent that we generally give it priority over competing considerations (e.g. in bushfire situations as against saving bushland). We can hardly argue against this. In large natural areas there is outstanding potential for loss of human life, but we should not seek to unduly restrict adventure by prohibiting access. A compromise position can be the retention or provision of emergency huts, as lifesaving refuges for travellers suffering from hypothermia or hyperthermia, and both rescued and rescuers in emergency. However, the provision of huts should not apply to declared wilderness, where the concept of self-reliance must be upheld and the attendant risks of access accepted.

CABINS

1. New cabins

1.1 In keeping with the basic NPA principle that "hard-top" or roofed accommodation is incompatible with the spirit of national parks and is therefore better provided off-park (in towns and villages rather than scattered about the countryside), new cabins should not be provided within national parks.

Off-park provision of accommodation near to, and not within, national parks is good regional planning, in that it keeps inappropriate development out of national parks and boosts local economies. However, this should not be part of semi-urban, ad hoc sprawl or ribbon development, hard to police and with the potential to create rural slums.

1.2 Where a decision is in fact made to provide new cabins within a given national park, they should be located close to the boundary, with minimal intrusion into natural scenic views, important wildlife habitats etc.

2. Existing cabins

2.1 Holiday cabins already within national parks should be assessed as to their legal and heritage status, environmental and aesthetic impacts, usefulness for visitor accommodation, social impacts and potential health impacts, as a result of which they should be either removed (immediately or by phasing out) or retained.
2.2 The occupation of cabins which are illegally present in national parks should be phased out over a short period and the cabins removed.
2.3 No compensation , monetary or otherwise, should be paid to owners of illegal cabins removed from national parks.
2.4 Illegal cabins should not be retained by NPWS for the purpose of raising revenue from rent (as in Royal National Park).
2.5 All cabins present in national parks should be managed so as to minimise their environmental and health impacts in regard to proper disposal of sewage, grey water and garbage, either outside the park or treated within the park to the highest possible standard.
2.6 Cabin inhabitants should be required to exercise adequate environmental care and refrain from modifying the environment or interfering with wildlife in any way (including feeding).
2.7 Cabin inhabitants should be required to minimise their social impacts in regard to littering, non-hygienic practices, construction, noise, loud conversation, partying, night lighting etc.

3. OTHER BUILDINGS

3.1 Existing buildings in national parks, either heritage or non-heritage, if deemed suitable by NPWS may be used for accommodation by the visiting public.
3.2 Heritage buildings should not be subjected to fundamental structural or ornamental changes, either external or internal.
3.3 Structural changes should be limited to those necessary for adequate functioning of the building for accommodation, e.g. clean water supply, ablution facilities, hygienic toilets, an environmentally friendly sewage disposal system, non-polluting waste disposal, insect screens, basic kitchen facilities etc.
3.4 Buildings used for accommodation in national parks should be comfortable and convenient, but basic and compatible in style and spirit with the nature of the park and its human history.
3.5 On-ground management of heritage building accommodation should be by specialised NPWS
staff or contractors.
3.6 Managers should be required to give priority to maintenance of the integrity of the natural
environment and its natural functioning, over business or other interests.
3.7 A conservation plan should be prepared for heritage buildings intended for adaptive re-use,
covering the nature and extent of that re-use, the building's heritage values, and any special
management needs.
3.8 Accommodation charges should be guided by, but not necessarily equivalent to, tariffs for comparative accommodation in the region off-park.
3.9 Surrounding national park land should not be alienated or fenced off for the exclusive use of
patrons staying in paid accommodation in-park, but should be accessible to all park visitors.
3.10 Buildings in-park may, where deemed suitable by NPWS, be used for housing park staff or
research workers, while others may be adapted for natural science students and teachers.

Adopted by NPA State Council 7 March 2009

We welcome your comment on our policies.
If you feel that there is a subject concerning national parks, nature conservation or compatible recreation and education that would benefit from a formulated policy please .

Photo by Henry Gold
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