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Wilderness zoning planned for Nullarbor

Nullarbor Plain wilderness zone plan

Plan to make the Nullarbor Plain a 900,000-hectare nature reserve

It is planned that the Nullarbor Plain will become a protected wilderness area.

The South Australian Government has released a plan to protect 900,000 hectares in the far west of SA.

Environment Minister Jay Weatherill says it would be the state's biggest nature reserve.

"There's no infrastructure or development that's inconsistent with the wilderness values, so roads, car parks, houses, hotels, shops and mining, so we'll still be able to continue the low-impact visitor-type experience so that people can come into the area, but it's really those things which enable us to protect the wilderness experience," he said.

He says the zoning would preserve the area for tourism and the plan is now out for public consultation.

"This forms part of a series of parks and reserves that stretch all the way from the Western Australia border through, across the west coast of South Australia," he said.

"The effect of that is to provide a landscape-scale style of protection, ensuring that the plants and animals can move across that landscape in a way that ensures that they're protected."

The plan has been welcomed by the Wilderness Society's Peter Owen who says the Nullarbor is a truly spectacular and valuable landscape.

"Wedge-tailed eagles and huge wombat nests and we looked over the cliffs and there was probably a pod of 500 dolphins just swarming there as the eagles circled above us," he said.

"You know, this is real wilderness. It's a spectacular area, you know, obviously it's adjacent to the Great Australian Bight Marine Park.

"This is where the southern right whales move through. Dingoes moving across the landscape. It is an icon."

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