Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002:front:0:p108
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 308711–311619

and the Work Health and Safety Act 2011, and this is an important consideration in managing the park.

A range of measures are adopted in the park to reduce risks to visitors, including:

    * maintaining roads, tracks and visitor facilities in a safe condition

    * providing educational materials for visitors on safety risks and safe behaviour

    * controlling feral animals in the vicinity of roads and visitor sites

    * managing estuarine crocodiles in accordance with the park's crocodile management strategy

    * planning and implementing fire management programmes to ensure protection of life, property and park assets

    * closure of sites which are considered to pose an unacceptable risk to human safety (e.g. under extreme weather conditions)

    * providing an emergency communication network in remote areas of the park

    * incident response in conjunction with the police and other emergency services.

All visitor safety incidents are reported, recorded and reviewed regularly. Using this information, the Director has compiled a Risk Watch List for the park that identifies and rates a range of risks, including risks to visitor safety. The Risk Watch List also specifies risk management measures that are carried out as required. The list is reviewed and updated regularly.

Both estuarine and fresh water crocodiles inhabit Kakadu National Park, and incidents resulting from human–crocodile interactions can occur. In such cases the risk of major injury or death is high. Crocodile hunting ceased in the 1970s and the population has been steadily increasing since then towards a normal carrying capacity for the area. Crocodiles are now moving back into waters they once inhabited prior to hunting. Since the late 1990s, crocodiles have been located in plunge pools at the base of the Arnhem Land escarpment each wet season.

Due to the potential interaction of visitors with crocodiles, the risks of swimming in the park are actively communicated through prominent signs near water bodies and warnings in information provided to park visitors. Visitors are encouraged to use the public swimming pool at Jabiru or pools provided at hotels and other commercial accommodation. A crocodile management strategy for the park was developed in 2004 and will be reviewed early in the life of this plan.

While the Director makes every effort to ensure visitor safety, there are occasions when incidents occur in the park that affect life, property and the environment. These include car accidents, slips, falls and injuries in remote areas that require search and rescue operations, bushfires, extreme weather events (flooding and cyclones) and chemical spills.

As noted elsewhere in this plan, the Director has the function under the EPBC Act of administering, managing and controlling the park. This gives the Director responsibility in relation to incidents in the park.

The