Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002:front:0:p161
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00002
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 460996–464238

levels; and

    * preserve fragile items of material culture not commonly found within other archaeological sites.

Natural criteria

Criterion (vii) Contains superlative natural phenomena

Kakadu National Park has features of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance and contains superlative natural phenomena. The World Heritage values include:

    * the expansive and varied natural landscapes which include coastal areas, lowlands, wetlands, floodplains, plateau complexes, escarpments and outliers;

    * the exceptional natural beauty of viewfields;

    * the relatively undisturbed nature of the landscape;

    * the unusual mix and diversity of habitats found in close proximity; and

    * the large scale of undisturbed landscape.

Criterion (ix) Outstanding examples of ongoing evolution

Kakadu National Park is an outstanding example representing significant ongoing geological processes, particularly associated with the effects of sea-level change in northern Australia, biological evolution and people's interaction with their natural environment. The World Heritage values include:

    * the coastal riverine and estuarine flood plains of the South Alligator, West Alligator, East Alligator, and Wildman rivers, which include freshwater flood plains with tidal river channels;

    * the relatively undisturbed nature of the river systems and their associated catchments;

    * the mangrove swamps, including remnants of more extensive swamps which formed between 6,500 and 7,000 years ago on the coastal fringe and plains;

    * the spatial zonation of the coastal and floodplain vegetation which exemplifies a vegetation succession linked to processes of sea-level change and sedimentation and extends from lower intertidal mangroves to estuarine mangroves to floodplain vegetation;

    * the range of the environmental gradients and contiguous, diverse landscapes, extending from the sandstone plateaus and escarpments through lowland areas and wetlands to the coast, which have contributed to the evolution of high levels of endemism and species diversity;

    * the scale and integrity of the landscapes and environments with extensive and relatively unmodified vegetation cover and largely intact faunal composition which are important in relation to ongoing evolutionary processes in an intact landscape;

    * the high spatial heterogeneity of habitats;

    * the high diversity and abundance of plant and animal species, many of which are adapted to low-nutrient conditions (including more than 1,600 plant species, over one-quarter of Australia's known terrestrial mammal, about one-third of the total bird fauna and freshwater fish species, about 15 per cent of Australia reptile and amphibian species and a high diversity of insect species);

    * the Aboriginal archaeological remains and rock art which represent an outstanding example of people's interaction with the natural environment and bear remarkable and valuable witness to past environments in northern Australia and to the interaction of people with these environments;

    * the ongoing, active management of the landscapes by Aboriginal people through the use of fire, including fire-assisted hunting and the creation of