Why even have a dispute over such a small figure? Today they’re releasing weevils bred to attack aggressive weeds that are choking the park’s waterways. By all means, I think we should start looking ahead, start sorting this place out, but we will close it to make our point. Royalty payments that have flowed from the controversial Ranger uranium mine are ending. From the outside, it all looks like it's pretty hunky dory but beneath it all is a, a large dysfunction. PAUL ARNOLD, CEO, ENERGY RESOURCES AUSTRALIA: We're now embarking upon a project, um, that is significant, but is about legacy. Since November 1962, the OECD’s experts and leading guests offer insights on the questions facing our member countries with concise and authoritative analysis, and provide our audiences with an excellent opportunity to understand policy debates and consider solutions. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: What is a rulebook? The unhappiness is come at a point that if we don't sit at the table very soon that things will be taken into our own hands. FOOTBALL MATCH MC: Okay it’s the second quarter, Jabiru bombers. In the letter, the rangers said that due to staff cuts there were no rangers available to fight a 2019 fire that caused more than $1 million in damages to houses and equipment. PROFESSOR KINGSLEY DIXON, ECOLOGICAL REHABILITATION EXPERT, CURTIN UNIVERSITY: Kakadu is one of those extraordinary places on the earth, and it is globally unique. Glen Hingley says Kakadu deserves better. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: The Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority is now prosecuting Parks Australia in court for illegal works on a sacred site. Breaking News Stories and Latest NT News Headlines from Darwin Northern Territory and Australia including Latest Sports News and Business News, Entertainment and Local Darwin News at NT News We weren't here. But their relationship has been fractured, and traditional owners say joint management is in dire shape. But the wind. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: The fight over the walking track fuelled a growing rift between traditional owners and Parks Australia in Kakadu. PETER CHRISTOPHERSEN, KAKADU LAND MANAGER: Certainly there is a mistrust between, you know, countrymen that live here and the Park themselves. Even some experts are telling us that the park has been deteriorating probably a number of years now. PROFESSOR KINGSLEY DIXON, ECOLOGICAL REHABILITATION EXPERT, CURTIN UNIVERSITY: I think the threats to the status of, of this as an icon global park, potentially affecting its World Heritage status, is the fact that if we continue to alter landscapes and not manage it, we may find ourselves with a weed infested and pest-ridden park. For tourism operators it is an iconic symbol of what Australia has to offer. Read More Local News and Cairns Updates at Cairns Post On Monday Four Corners investigates accusations of mismanagement and neglect which have fuelled a bitter dispute between the park’s traditional owners and the authority that runs the park. It’s one of the major inland tourist destinations here in the Top End. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: Traditional owners were given land rights in return for their support for the Ranger mine, and Kakadu National Park was born. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: ERA is in a dispute with the Commonwealth government over whether it should continue to contribute $2.5 million a year for five years to the Supervising Scientist Branch, which conducts independent monitoring of the mine. They forgot about the traditional owner, they forgot about the board. There's no management in this place, it's gone downhill. ... 'Hasn't peaked yet': Worst still to come in India's Covid crisis. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: The federal government has committed to spend $181 million over ten years to help upgrade tourist attractions, infrastructure and roads in Kakadu. GLEN HINGLEY, GENERAL MANAGER, TOURISM TOP END: We had a number of fantastic boutique and tour operators who already had forward bookings throughout 2020 and beyond that included these parts of the park that were without any consultation, without any understanding, just announced as closed. From regional towns to capital city Darwin, news.com.au has you covered for national news. S2N Test Feed. Embrace your spirit of adventure and join Heather Ewart and friends as they discover the amazing people living life just off the back roads of Australia. A new shortage is looming and Australia is underprepared. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: The original plan was to bulldoze it but a local Indigenous corporation wants to transform the town into a tourism hub to help replace the $8.5 million in annual royalties from the mine. That's where the management is doing their own, making their own decisions without talking to traditional owners and basically sitting around the table like we're supposed to do as a joint managed park and talking about it, but it's not happening at all. They told the park that they're not allowed to touch that, to put any tracks in that area. MANDY MUIR: Well, there has been talks about that, but who would ever want to see that happening? MAI KATONA, TRADITIONAL OWNER & KAKADU BOARD MEMBER: It’s an absolute mess. Welcome to Brockman Oval for this historic match. Kakadu National Park is supposed to be a jewel in Australia’s tourism crown. And the natural infinity pools above Gunlom Falls — another top tourist site — have been closed for nearly 18 months. "But part of it was the uncertainty and the irregularity that would happen for tour operators around access announcements and closures of certain parts of the park.". On the form, travellers must declare if they have been in a COVID hotspot, where they have been in the past 28 days and their personal contact details. "Management is making their own decisions without talking to traditional owners.". It's not in anyone's best interests for that to happen. I'm optimistic that we'll be able to conclude this review. In July last year, a group of Aboriginal park rangers outlined their concerns with Parks Australia in a letter that detailed problems with site closures, maintenance, staff cuts, lack of jobs for local Indigenous people and a series of uncontrolled fires in the park. STEVE SMITH: So a rulebook defines the rules and responsibilities of the Aboriginal corporations. It says Kakadu is deteriorating and under “very high threat” from feral animals, weeds and “high threat” from fires. Until we basically have a better agreement with what's going on here. With international borders still closed, tourism operators are now banking on a domestic boom, but they say action is needed to make Kakadu a destination worth visiting. Kakadu — billed as a jewel in Australia's tourism crown — is falling into disrepair, and traditional owners say the federal body that runs the park is to blame. MANDY MUIR, SENIOR CULTURAL TOUR GUIDE: Firstly, it’s our home. Tourists came from all over the world to swim in natural infinity pools at the top of these cliffs. That has the endorsement of the supervising scientists and other, uh, stakeholders and supported by our own scientific analysis. BOB: They swim, but when they get hungry, they bite people! In a briefing note sent to Environment Minister Sussan Ley, a top bureaucrat found "a relationship breakdown on many levels" and "widespread feelings of despair" in Kakadu. People from here should be engaged to look after their own country, and they're not. It's end. It's an iconic destination of Australia and surely it deserves better. Kakadu Board chair Maria Lee says Parks Australia executives have stopped listening to Aboriginal people – called Bininj in northern Kakadu. Veteran tour operator Sab Lord says visitors have been disappointed at how little they can see in the park. Local Murrumburr woman and senior cultural tour guide, Mandy Muir, says Kakadu is in crisis. MAY NANGO, TRADITIONAL OWNER (speaking in Kunwinjku): They should look after the land. It was created in 1979 as part of a highly controversial deal to allow uranium mining in the region. "It seems like it's being run from far and beyond, meaning Canberra. A lot more effort needs to be put into the health of our people. This was a major deal in Australian history. Kakadu is home to about 300 Aboriginal people from about 19 clans that share custodianship of particular parts of the park. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. Now the streets are emptying by the week. A new walking track to the top has been closed for over a year, incredibly because it was built too close to part of a sacred site. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: But there’s scepticism from some who live here about the grand vision for a tourist town. Operationally, this is a place that needs to be funded for future generations, not just the folk whose land it is and whose families and future families are on there. Kakadu deserves more.” Tourism industry representative. We need people on the ground, at the grassroots level, dealing, talking with our people.". ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: As part of cleaning up the mine site, contaminated buildings and equipment will be buried in one of the mine’s enormous pits. They really didn't want this work to be done. MAY NANGO, TRADITIONAL OWNER: This is a fish we have always eaten, it has a name. $80bn unforeseen economic crisis set to hit Economy If you thought the Suez blockage was bad for world trade, you ain’t seen nothing yet. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: The wet season finally arrives in Kakadu in a fittingly spectacular style. Kakadu is one of the great natural wonders of the world. Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: It’s got so bad some traditional owners are now threatening to close Kakadu. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: Kakadu is World Heritage listed for both environmental and cultural reasons: People have lived in the park continuously for more than 40,000 years. The OECD Observer online archive takes you on a journey through half a century of public policy and world progress. Things have got to change. I couldn't imagine living life anywhere else, without crocodiles, without snakes. And I will shut down Ubirr. It said Kakadu was deteriorating and under "very high threat" from feral animals and weeds, and "high threat" from fires. LETTER (READ ALOUD): “Management’s ‘holier than thou’ attitude and decision not to consult Rangers with Indigenous traditional knowledge and cultural authority, traditional owners and BoM is no longer acceptable.”. She's worried about the long-term impacts from the uranium mine. The cash injection is sorely needed to help repair some of the damage from years of underfunding. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: Tonight on Four Corners we investigate how mismanagement and neglect has led to a bitter fallout among those who live and work in Kakadu... leaving one of Australia’s most important places in turmoil and disrepair. JONATHAN NADJI, TRADITIONAL OWNER & KAKADU BOARD MEMBER: It's about time we started making an impact by basically shutting down the park. JONATHAN NADJI, TRADITIONAL OWNER & KAKADU BOARD MEMBER: Before, when we used to have a new Park manager or new staff, the first thing they used to do was they used to go and visit the traditional owners first. BOBBY NUNGGUMAJBARR, CHAIR, ABORIGINAL AREAS PROTECTION AUTHORITY: It's really, really, really painful to the traditional owner and the custodians. JONATHAN NADJI: I was actually in the fire. Your information is handled in accordance with the ABC Privacy Collection Statement. PROFESSOR KINGSLEY DIXON, ECOLOGICAL REHABILITATION EXPERT, CURTIN UNIVERSITY: I think the threats to the status of this as an icon global park, potentially affecting its World Heritage status, is the fact that if we continue to alter landscapes and not manage it, we may find ourselves with a weed-infested and pest-ridden park. Each month its population of 1,000 shrinks further as miners and their families leave for good. And for that reason it is rarely used. Key locations are in a state of disrepair, others are inaccessible and local community members are furious. ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: Parks Australia said it’s trying to increase local Aboriginal employment through a talent management program, hiring a Darwin-based training officer, and reviving its Junior Ranger program. The popular Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre at Yellow Water was closed for refurbishment for a year. Rain fills the billabongs and floods the creeks, freeing Kakadu's crocodiles to spread across the park.