National Parks are the best form of legal protection for nature that we have in Australia. They ensure permanent protection for special places. They clean our air and water, provide crucial habitat for our many unique species, support the physical and mental wellbeing of millions of Victorians, and also provide an immense benefit to the state's economy through tourism.

Currently, nearly 3.5 million hectares are given some level of protection under Victoria’s National Parks Act.

There are also many forests that aren't in National Parks. These places deserve this same level of protection, and a big part of the VFA's work is pushing for the creation of new parks.

Recently, the long-fought campaign for new National Parks in the state's Central West was finally won. The Wombat-Lerderderg National Park has finally been legislated, as well as a swathe of other forms of protection in the surrounding areas. While there is still much work to be done, these Central West Parks are a cause for celebration.

However, the long-awaited Great Forest National Park campaign remains yet to be won. The precious forests of Victoria's Central Highlands, north-east of Melbourne, desperately need formal protection. 

Head to the Great Forest National Park website to learn more and support the campaign.

Photo by Sandy Scheltema.

Opportunity for Other Tenures

Victoria’s forests are managed under a patchwork of different land tenures, including national parks, state parks, conservation reserves, regional parks and state forests. These categories come with different legal purposes, management arrangements and levels of protection.

There is an opportunity to rethink this patchwork and ensure our forests are managed for their ecological, cultural and community values. This means putting Traditional Owners at the centre of decisions about the future of public forests. Victoria already has models for joint and cooperative management of public land, where Traditional Owner knowledge, rights and cultural obligations are embedded in how Country is managed. An example is the World Heritage Listed Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, managed jointly by Gunditjmara and Parks Victoria.

The Strathbogie Ranges provide another important example of what this could look like. In 2022, the Eminent Panel for Community Engagement recommended establishing a Strathbogie Ranges Cultural Reserve, initially through collaborative governance involving Taungurung Land and Waters Council (TLaWC), the existing public land manager (DEECA) and the community. The longer-term proposal was for a new Cultural Reserve category that would enable Traditional Owner-led management of the area. The Panel specifically says the purpose of the proposed Cultural Reserve would be to “maintain, restore and heal Country” and protect Traditional Owner biocultural values, knowledge, rights and interests.

The Victorian Government has since committed to piloting a Cultural Reserve in the Strathbogie Ranges with TLaWC, aimed at facilitating Traditional Owner-led management of public land.

More than four years after the original recommendation, the new Public Lands Act promised by the State Labor Government has not been delivered.  And while this process has dragged on, Victoria has also lost one of its key independent mechanisms for assessing public land. The Victorian Environmental Assessment Council (VEAC), which had played this role for more than 50 years, has now been abolished by the State Labor Government.

VEAC’s report about the Strathbogie Ranges can be accessed here.

Victoria now has an opportunity to move beyond the old tenure system and create forests that are genuinely protected, properly funded and managed with Traditional Owners as decision-makers on Country.

This is also an important part of Victoria’s Treaty process. Decisions about land, water and the management of Country are fundamental to recognising Aboriginal rights and self-determination. The future of Victoria’s public forests should therefore be part of a broader shift towards Traditional Owner decision-making and genuine shared responsibility for Country, rather than simply another government public land management reform.

Questions about National Parks?

Watch our webinar with Matt from the Victorian National Parks Association:

Read the VNPA's FAQ's on National Parks.

Our Context

Victoria’s forests are globally significant, storing carbon, regulating water, and sheltering thousands of species. They also influence bushfire behaviour. Yet these forests are under growing pressure from large-scale fire management, industrial-scale disturbance, and weakened environmental oversight. Putting biodiversity, public health, and long-term forest resilience at risk. 

At the same time, we need to rethink what forest management actually means in this country. The current model continues to be shaped by a colonial mindset, one that separates people from Country, prioritises extraction, and sidelines the knowledge systems that sustained these landscapes for tens of thousands of years. Globally, the strongest biodiversity outcomes are consistently found on lands where Indigenous peoples retain authority and lead land management. Yet in Victoria, Traditional Owners are routinely excluded from land management and decision making, receive little to no resourcing, and are brought in late if at all.

Environmental oversight has collapsed

Environmental protection capacity within government agencies has been significantly reduced, limiting the ability to monitor biodiversity, enforce laws, and assess environmental impacts. Cuts include:

• VEAC dismantled, leaving major public land investigations unfinished
• 33 staff lost from the Office of the Conservation Regulator (OCR), which monitors threatened species
• 300+ DEECA staff cut
• $95M cut to Parks Victoria, which manages more than four million hectares of parks and reserves

Compounding these reductions, under Section 62(2) of the Forest Act 1958, fire prevention or suppression activities may be exempt from environmental protections, allowing habitat destruction to occur without any oversight or regulation.