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Speaker 1: Now popular top end waterhole Berry Springs. It's reopen for

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Speaker 1: swimming just in time for peak visitor season. It is

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Speaker 1: the closest swimming hole to Darwin City in it attracts

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Speaker 1: about one hundred and eighty six thousand visitors a year.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line to tell us more

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Speaker 1: is indeed well the Director of Northern Australian Parks, Dean McAdam.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you. Dean Cody, good morning and Dean

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Speaker 1: tell us what work went into reopening Berry Springs.

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Speaker 2: There's a significant series of events that have to happen

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Speaker 2: for very Springs st oven. Firstly, the water has to

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Speaker 2: drop to a safe flowing level. We then initiate water

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Speaker 2: quality tests to make sure there's no ecoli in the water.

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Speaker 2: We have to do visibility tests, so we've put a

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Speaker 2: second disk in the water and you have to be

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Speaker 2: able to see that. I can white disk at a

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Speaker 2: five meter level so we can cease at the bottom

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Speaker 2: of the pools. We've put a crocodile deterrent vents up

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Speaker 2: and then to cap it off, we do five nights

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Speaker 2: of spotlight survey of the waterway to make sure there's

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Speaker 2: no crocodiles in there. And then when all that's being

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Speaker 2: kicked off, we can open up.

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Speaker 1: Well, good to hear that all of that has happened.

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Speaker 1: Did any crocodiles have to be removed? No? Oh good,

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Speaker 1: Well that makes everyone feel a little bit safer as well.

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Speaker 1: But I know you guys do a heap of work there.

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Speaker 1: Tell us. So I understand a crocodile de tourrent fence

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Speaker 1: had to be installed as well. How does that work?

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Speaker 2: It's a fence that's some large panels downstream from Berry

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Speaker 2: Springs and an old weir. So to install that we

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Speaker 2: do one night, a night of survey before we install it,

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Speaker 2: just to make sure there's nothing hanging around. And then

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Speaker 2: a team of half a dozen rangers get these large

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Speaker 2: aluminium panels and fix them to the existing causeway. And

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Speaker 2: it just is a deterrent fence. It doesn't mean that

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Speaker 2: crocodiles can't walk like you and I do and get

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Speaker 2: into the waterways, but it did can prevent much larger

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Speaker 2: animals coming up straight.

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Speaker 1: Yeah right, Well, that again, that is good to good

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Speaker 1: to hear. And I know that there's pretty regular checking

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Speaker 1: out there anyway, isn't there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So additional to that, the ranges do a weekly

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Speaker 2: check when it's open, so weekly spotlight checks to make

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Speaker 2: sure that there's nothing sneaking in there.

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Speaker 1: Now I understand that in addition to all of that work,

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Speaker 1: there's also been a d fair be installed out there

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Speaker 1: at Berry Springs.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got some revamped signs, safety signs, so some

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Speaker 2: more colorful, and we've put an AD in in response

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Speaker 2: to you know, the number of visitors we get there.

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Speaker 2: In medical advisors that an ad can be a life saver,

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Speaker 2: so we've put a new AD in.

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Speaker 1: And then I know that there's you know, obviously Berry

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Speaker 1: Springs is nice and close to home for all of us.

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Speaker 1: It is one of the closest spots to go for

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Speaker 1: a swim. But what other water holes and camping grounds

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Speaker 1: have recently reopened?

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Speaker 2: In the last couple of weeks, we reopened Central Valley,

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Speaker 2: so that's you know, that's been going for three or

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Speaker 2: four weeks and as well received by the public. It's

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Speaker 2: booked out online most of the weekends and all of

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Speaker 2: the school holidays. Eil isn't Florence. We only shut in

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Speaker 2: really rare circumstances. They've been open all year. The Upper

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Speaker 2: Cascades is open. We're working currently on the tabletop track

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Speaker 2: and one guy fall, So watch this space in the

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Speaker 2: next week they're likely to open if we move a

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Speaker 2: bit further south towards you know, Catherine region, these falls

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Speaker 2: is likely Lellen is it likely to open in the

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Speaker 2: next week or two and parts of Nitmelock will be

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Speaker 2: opening up as well. So Raja spent a lot of

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Speaker 2: time this time of the year getting things ready for Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, and I understand that there was defense personnel from

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Speaker 1: Tyndall also recently working within t parks to try and

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Speaker 1: help reopen some of the walking paths there at Nitmler.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so there was a whole range of them that

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Speaker 2: helped with the jet Buller trail. So they walk along

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Speaker 2: the trail and you know, put up markers clear the

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Speaker 2: trail so people can clearly see the trail. You know,

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Speaker 2: it's quite a significant effort. That's the Jet Buller trail.

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Speaker 2: There's Larapina trail, the same thing ranges do in Central Australia.

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Speaker 2: There's a tabletop track that's been done up here, so

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Speaker 2: it is a significant body of work. The ranges are

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Speaker 2: also of course doing things like control burning so that

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Speaker 2: we can protect the assets and protect people who are

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Speaker 2: visiting these areas. You know, we don't want people camping

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Speaker 2: at Central Valley and be threatened by fire, so we

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Speaker 2: do a lot of mitigation burns early on in the

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Speaker 2: year so that we can protect them when they're there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, which is fair enough. I mean that work has

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Speaker 1: to happen so that, you know, so that you can

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Speaker 1: keep these areas nice and safe and enjoyable. You know,

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Speaker 1: there are some of our best and most popular tourism locations,

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Speaker 1: aren't they.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they certainly are very you know, we opened it

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Speaker 2: on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. There was two thousand visitors over

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Speaker 2: the weekend, so eight hundred on Saturday, twelve hundred on Sunday.

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Speaker 2: You know, we're talking in the vicinity of seven eight

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Speaker 2: hundred cars, so car parks are full. Yeah, people were

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Speaker 2: very busy using the facilities.

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Speaker 1: Well, which is wonderful news. I mean, what are like,

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Speaker 1: what are our most popular locations? Obviously Berry Springs is

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Speaker 1: a popular one because it's sort of so so close

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Speaker 1: to town, right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, Berry Springs one hundred and eighty thousand. Perhaps

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Speaker 2: they get you know a year. It's close to town,

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Speaker 2: it's it's well loved by the rural people. You move

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Speaker 2: towards Litchfield. Litchfield had I think in the city of

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Speaker 2: turn and fifty thousand last year met My look is

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Speaker 2: the same in Central in Savannah there's two hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty thousand people. So up north, all these places are

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Speaker 2: places where people love to go out and camp and

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Speaker 2: swim and you know, so ranges. You know, we don't

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Speaker 2: have a lot of ranges. We've got Litchfield, for instance,

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Speaker 2: has twelve rangers that do all that work out there.

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Speaker 2: So it's a significant effort by the ranger to get

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Speaker 2: things open as quickly as we possibly can for the

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Speaker 2: enjoyment of everybody.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, good on them now, just having a look at

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Speaker 1: and I know you touched on this before, Jack Buller Trail.

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Speaker 1: How are the bookings they're looking? Is it fully booked

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Speaker 1: at the Mink?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it books out. It books out within an hour

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Speaker 2: of opening, so you have to you have to pretty

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Speaker 2: much wait for cancelations and stuff. It's very popular.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'd never get booked in mate. I'm just not

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Speaker 1: somebody who books into things early or or is that

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Speaker 1: that organized?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to be organized. You have to be

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Speaker 2: organized nowadays to make sure that you've got a good

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Speaker 2: camp site.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, oh well, doing good to catch up with you

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Speaker 1: this morning, the Director of Northern Australia Parks. We always

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time. Thank you very much for having a

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Speaker 1: chat with me this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Codie anytime.

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Speaker 1: Thank you,