Royal National Park - cabins conservation management plan

There are around 200 cabins in Royal National Park located at South Era, Burning Palms, Little Garie and Bulgo. The cabins are generally simple structures built in the absence of planning controls, major infrastructure and services. They are currently occupied (for short-term recreational use) under licence agreements.

Cabin users feel a strong attachment to the cabins and the cabin communities, and there is considerable stakeholder interest in the future use and management of the cabin areas. There are also significant environmental and public health and safety concerns relating to the cabin sites and surrounds. The NPWS needs to develop policies that will deal with all aspects of cabin management, while giving full consideration to cultural heritage, social, safety and environmental issues.

The brief for this Conservation Management Plan required that it provide NPWS with guidelines for future policy formulation for the cabins areas. Accordingly, it does not contain the conservation policies that are a typical feature of other such plans. The emphasis of this document is on the built and landscape issues relating to the cabins areas, and as such it addresses some but not all of the policies specified by the plan of management.

A draft of this conservation management plan was on public exhibition through January and February 2002. Submissions were received from members of the public, and will be considered in the finalisation of the plan.

Important note

This document was commissioned by the Department of Environment and Climate Change to guide the management of cultural heritage in the Royal National Park cabins areas. The Department acknowledges that there are differences of opinion between the Department and groups representing the cabin communities with regard to:

• The historical analysis as set out in this document
• The evolution of the cabin communities
• The preservation of the communities into the future.

This document is available in two versions. If you have a broadband connection, you may wish to download the complete 2.1MB file:

• Royal National Park coastal cabin areas - conservation management plan (PDF - 2.1MB)

If you have a dial-up connection, you can download sections of the plan below:

• Royal National Park coastal cabin areas - conservation management plan

   

  • Parts A through B (PDF - 1.7MB)

     

    • Introduction
    • Understanding the resource
  • Parts C through G (PDF - 560KB)

     

    • Significance
    • Conservation and Heritage Management Framework
    • Conservation Guidelines
    • Plan of Works
    • Appendices

Page last updated: 26 February 2011