One of Kakadu National Park's most famous locations is set to reopen to visitors next year, after a landmark legal decision imposed the largest ever fine for a breach of the Northern Territory's sacred site laws. Traditional owners say the sentencing of Parks Australia is a major step towards repairing the relationship that underpins the management of the UNESCO-listed reserve.
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00:00Traditional owners have been fighting for this moment for five years.
00:06The defendant is convicted of the charge. I impose a fine of $200,000.
00:11Judge Elizabeth Morris imposing the biggest fine ever delivered for the violation of an NT sacred site,
00:17after Parks Australia pleaded guilty to building a walking track too close to a sacred men's rock art site.
00:24It is important that the penalty reflects the significance of the offending.
00:29At an extraordinary on-country hearing, the court heard traditional owners explain how the incident in 2019 affected them.
00:36There have been personal consequences, cultural consequences and community consequences.
00:42The judge said parks should be held to a higher standard as the public national institution that's supposed to protect the environment.
00:49This significant fine is the first time a Commonwealth agency has been punished under the NT sacred site laws,
00:55and it will set a precedent, especially for how parks carries out its work in the NT's two federally run parks, Kakadu and Uluru.
01:04It sends a clear message to government, statutory corporations, but also, as the judge said,
01:12anyone proposing to do work in the Northern Territory, that this is a strong law.
01:18It's a good day for family to come back and make plans to work together with parks.
01:26Traditional owners also giving the clearest indication yet of when the famous falls will reopen to tourists.
01:33Visitors will be back here next year.
01:35The director of parks, who was not in charge at the time the track was constructed, says the agency accepts the decision.
01:42I feel a sense of relief with the proceedings today, and I really appreciate the patience of Darwin people and the distress that this has caused them.
01:55That's healing, part of our healing, because it reconnects to the land.
02:02A legal saga finally put to rest in a sacred place.