Wilderness Protection Area in Yellabinna
— October, 2005

North of Ceduna, S.A., is the Yellabinna Regional Reserve and the Yumbarra and Pureba Conservation Parks. They include vast mallee forests, sand dunes and rock holes. This land is home to many rare and endangered species of plants and animals. It is also sacred to the Kokatha Mula living culture. The land is medicine, food, school and church. This region also carries the dreaming of the seven sisters.

This land is over 4,000,000 ha, and is the largest area of intact, pristine mallee vegetation in the world. It is an ecological link from the Northern mulga woodlands to the Western and Eastern mallee and down to the Southern ocean, a central crossroad of the diversity in this country.

On Sunday the 23rd of October, 2005, S.A. Premier Mike Rann announced 500,000 ha of the Yellabinna region as a wilderness area, making it “off limits to mining and exploration.” This is 1/8 protected, with the rest of the region threatened by the pressure of exploration for mineral and heavy metal mining.

While there is no mine yet established in this immediate region, exploration projects have been granted all over the land, threatening the health of the environment and destroying Kokatha Mula culture and people. Pressure is being put on the Government to protect the entire region — over 4,000,000 ha. It should be recognised and respected as Kokatha Mula land — for people and life, not industry and death. Support the protection of these entire lands, and fight to stop the destruction of this country. Keep Kokatha Mula land and culture alive.

No exploration, No mining — Yellabinna, Yumbarra, Pureba.