Australian Marine Parks

We manage Australian Marine Parks in partnership with Traditional Owners, marine park users and stakeholders, as well as with other government agencies.

The Our Marine Parks Grants Program supports marine park users and industries to engage in the management of Australian Marine Parks.

Visit the Our Marine Parks Grants page for information about this program.

Through the Ocean Discovery and Restoration Program, Parks Australia is seeking to co-contribute with partners to deliver discovery and restoration projects important to science, industry, park managers and the community, to improve understanding and sustainable management of our Australian Marine Parks.

We invite organisations interested in helping to sustainably manage Australia’s oceans to consider partnering with us. Visit the Oceans Discovery and Restoration page for information about this program.

Parks Australia has established advisory committees for the Coral Sea Marine Park and the North, North-west, South-west, South-east, and Temperate East Marine Parks Networks.

The committees support the Director of National Parks to manage Australian Marine Parks across the 6 regions by:

• Helping develop, deliver, monitor and evaluate marine park network implementation plans, including assisting prioritisation of management actions and development of performance measures.
• Providing advice to identify and address key and emerging priorities, including engagement of First Nations in the management of Sea Country within marine parks; climate related impacts; factors arising from Australia’s energy transition; and ecosystem resilience and recovery.
• Providing information on First Nations, stakeholder, partner and park user views, knowledge and needs.
• Contributing to the review and evaluation of existing statutory management plans to inform the preparation of the next cycle of management plans.

Read the Committees’ Terms of Reference or download the document.

Parks Australia is building on existing partnerships, including with:

• the Australian Fisheries Management Authority
• the Australian Maritime Safety Authority
• the Department of Defence
• Geosciences Australia
• the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
• Australian Border Force
• the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority.

We also work with research institutions and fisheries and marine park agencies, ensuring we consistently manage marine parks around Australia.

We acknowledge the national and international rights and cultural interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and the deep understanding and experience that they can contribute to the management of Australian Marine Parks.

We also acknowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been sustainably using and managing their sea country, including areas now in marine parks, since time immemorial.

We are committed to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to manage sea country within marine parks and will achieve this through the Indigenous engagement program.

This includes building partnerships with Traditional Owners and Indigenous people with responsibilities for sea country.

To inform our approach to managing marine parks, we have worked with representatives from land councils, native title representative bodies and Indigenous ranger groups to develop a set of collaborative management principles to support Indigenous involvement in the management of Australian Marine Parks.