While national park rangers are well used to coming across evidence of illegal activity, sometimes the brazenness of the activities they discover are breathtaking.
In the Curtis Island National Park on Curtis Island in Queensland’s Gladstone region, for example, the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI) recently found a fairly elaborate hut that had been built in a remote area of the park.
Regional Director Great Barrier Reef and Marine Parks Region, Tina Alderson, said it was illegal to build any structure in a protected area and rangers will have the hut removed.
“Building an illegal structure in a protected area essentially excludes others from the area and causes damage to the environment,” Ms Alderson said. “This hut was also used as a base for other illegal activities.”
Home sweet home! But not for much longer! PIC: DETSI
She said people who want to build a hut for their own personal use for activities such as fishing, hunting and vehicle-based activities can do so on private land … but not in a national park.
“Multiple fines and warnings have been issued for illegal activity within the protected areas of Curtis Island, and 18 offenders have been identified,” she said. “QPWS is serious about compliance and anyone who builds an illegal structure in a protected area will be caught.”
So far, DETSI has issued 22 penalty infringement notices totaling $7606, which includes two people receiving fines of more than $1000 each for their role in the offending.”
The illegal activities include:
Curtis Island National Park, which is located 40 kilometres southeast of Rockhampton, is known for its coastal heaths, littoral rainforest, and sand dunes.
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Two teenage boys hacking into a brand new picnic table & chairs with an axe while their parents looked on, sitting around a campfire.
Did you STOP them??!!
Would you confront teenagers wielding an axe?
not me know wayRead the parents would be the same attitude as the teenagers?
Shows you how the parents bought up their children, and how their parents bought them as well.
Perhaps they need to fine the companies ripping our forests apart for the waste of time turbines! Nothing wrong with that hut!
Yep good looking hut ..just the fun police don’t like it..
Yep it’s a fine looking hut but it’s still an illegal structure in a national park and I’m glad the fun police pulled it down.