NEW national park declarations made by the Palaszczuk government this week have drawn a lukewarm response from some landholders.
National Parks and Great Barrier Reef Minister Dr Steven Miles announced an extension of Currawinya National Park south-west of Cunnamulla and Blackbraes National Park, 170 kilometres north of Hughenden. New declarations were also made for the Maroochy River and Mt Blandy regional parks.
Mr Miles said these were the first batch of declarations since the previous Bligh government and meant that 5.1 per cent of the state was now under national park.
Acting AgForce CEO Lauren Hewitt said landholders were supportive of protecting areas but had concerns about the management of National Parks.
She said AgForce had spoken to Mr Miles about the need to avoid setting land acquisition targets based on dollars or hectares.
"As any good landholder will tell Minister Miles, he needs to focus on providing appropriate ongoing management to these areas post-acquisition to deliver on conservation values and ensure that surrounding landholders aren't left to deal with pest, weed and fire issues which can arise from poorly funded and remotely managed parks," she said.
"We hope this logic is reflected in next month's state budget."
Carol and Lindsay Godfrey live on Tinnenburra, 100km south-west of Cunnamulla and adjoin the Binya National Park.
Mrs Godfrey said the park was managed remotely and feral animals were allowed to breed unchecked.
"From a management point of view they do the odd baiting but they won't allow roo shooters on there," she said.
"They are a law unto themselves when it comes to fire management.
"They just shut all the waters down and cleared off the fences but there's still a big feral pig population because it's a flood plain."
Mrs Godfrey said she'd prefer to see the state government "manage what they have properly" before declaring any new national parks.
"This is not good news - they can't manage what they have got now," she said.
In response to questions from Queensland Country Life, a spokesperson for Dr Miles' office said the government had previously committed $2.78m in extra funding to help manage the new areas.
The spokesperson said the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) had already begun a carefully-planned and staged approach to the new areas of Currawinya National Park.
"QPWS has an ongoing program of feral animal removal at Currawinya National Park," he said.
"The existing Currawinya program involves aerial and ground baiting, trapping, exclusion fencing, mustering and culling.
"As an example, in a three-day aerial shoot in May 2014, 783 feral goats and 280 feral pigs were removed from the park.
"Goat control includes mustering across the general area of the park, and ground and aerial culling in sensitive areas where mustering is not possible or practical."