The last example of landcover change associated with Conservation landuse is also from the inland. The Bungle Bungle (Purnululu) National Park in Western Australia is a more recently reserved Park than Uluru, and as at Uluru, Aboriginal Australians are involved in the management of its landcover.
The Bungle Bungle National Park was declared to conserve an area of unique and visually outstanding landforms that had great significance to Aboriginal Australians, as well as to conserve the singularly interesting local flora and fauna. The Bungle Bungles were excised from Pastoral landuse that surrounds them still. The landforms of the Bungle Bungle Ranges are extraordinary in their shape and colour but this is not at all captured by the vertical view of Landsat. In vertical view, the Bungle Bungle Ranges are the least interesting landform in the scene. The convoluted landscapes of its surrounds are far more appealing.
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The landcover change that can be detected over this 16 year period can be readily interpreted as the consequence of fire. Fire footprints of many ages are visible in all three images. Around the ranges themselves, there is an apron of landcover loss from burning. This apron is probably a spinifex grassland landcover that both burns and regenerates readily. Close examination shows the cover changes stopping at drainage lines; a sure sign of fire. Along the upper reaches of most drainage lines there are (creamy white) areas of soil erosion that have changed very little. These areas are the cumulative consequence of a century of Pastoral landuse. Cattle, and particularly feral donkeys, would have converged on the Bungle Bungles for forage and for water. With time and good management, these signs of a past landuse will disappear.
