Rinyirru (Lakefield)

Rinyirru National Park, known for decades as Lakefield, was declared in 1979 on the Cape York Peninsula, in the far north of Queensland, and is one of the largest parks in the state. It protects the lower basin of the Normanby, Kennedy, Bizant and Morehead rivers, which flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria forming a wetland system of international importance.

The park lives to the rhythm of the monsoon. During the wet season, between December and April, the rains make the rivers overflow and flood enormous plains, leaving the park practically cut off by road. When the water recedes, permanent lagoons remain, the billabongs, which concentrate an extraordinary density of wildlife: saltwater and freshwater crocodiles, waterbirds in their thousands, brolgas, jabirus, ducks and herons. The vegetation alternates between eucalypt savannah, grassland, mangroves at the river mouths and gallery forest.

The name Rinyirru comes from the language of the traditional owners of the territory. Since the early 2000s the park has been managed under the Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land designation, a regime of indigenous ownership and joint management with the Queensland government, similar in its logic to that of Nitmiluk. Aboriginal groups take part in the management, the fieldwork and the cultural interpretation, and the park preserves archaeological sites, rock art and ceremonial places.