List of World Heritage Sites in Australia facts for kids
World Heritage Sites are special places around the world. They are chosen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. These sites are important for their unique culture or amazing natural heritage. UNESCO started this idea in 1972.
Australia agreed to protect these sites on August 22, 1974. Today, Australia has 20 World Heritage Sites. There are also six more sites that might be added in the future.
The first Australian sites added to the list were the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park, and Willandra Lakes Region. This happened in 1981. The newest site is the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, added in 2019. Out of the 20 sites, four are cultural, 12 are natural, and four are mixed. Mixed sites are important for both their culture and nature.
Australia's World Heritage Sites
UNESCO uses ten rules to pick World Heritage Sites. Each site must meet at least one rule. Rules one to six are for cultural sites. Rules seven to ten are for natural sites.
| Site | Image | Location (state or territory) | Year listed | UNESCO data | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kakadu National Park | Northern Territory | 1981 | 147quater; i, vi, vii, ix, x (mixed) | Aboriginal Australians have lived in Kakadu for over 50,000 years. Ancient rock carvings and cave paintings show how hunter-gatherers lived. These traditions still exist today. The art shows people and animals, even some that are now extinct. The park has many different environments, like forests, wetlands, and coasts. It is home to many birds, reptiles, and fish. Jim Jim Falls is shown here. | |
| Great Barrier Reef | Queensland | 1981 | 154; vii, viii, ix, x (natural) | The Great Barrier Reef stretches for about 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) along the Queensland coast. It is the world's largest coral reef system. It has about 2,500 separate reefs and hundreds of islands. The reef is full of sea life, with 400 types of coral, 1,500 kinds of fish, and 4,000 types of molluscs. It is also home to the endangered dugong and green sea turtle. | |
| Willandra Lakes Region | New South Wales | 1981 | 167; iii, viii (mixed) | These lakes existed long ago and dried up about 18,500 years ago. The area has been mostly untouched since then. Scientists have found signs of human life here, including a very old cremation from about 40,000 years ago. They also found early stone tools and fossils of giant marsupials. The lake sediments show how the climate changed over the last 100,000 years. The dried-up bed of Lake Mungo is pictured. | |
| Tasmanian Wilderness | Tasmania | 1982 | 181quin; iii, iv, vi, vii, viii, ix, x (mixed) | This large area covers a big part of Tasmania. Its landscape was shaped by ice ages. Today, it has temperate rainforests and many karst landforms (like caves). Heavy rain creates wild rivers, gorges, and waterfalls. Aboriginal Australians lived here at least 40,000 years ago. They were the southernmost group of people during the last ice age. | |
| Lord Howe Island Group | New South Wales | 1982 | 186; vii, x (natural) | This group of volcanic islands is about 570 kilometres (354 miles) off the mainland. It has many unique plants and animals, like the Lord Howe woodhen. The Lord Howe Island phasmid, a giant stick insect, was thought to be extinct. But it was found again in 2001 on Ball's Pyramid (pictured). The islands are important nesting spots for sea birds. The waters around the island have coral reefs where tropical and cooler-water species meet. | |
| Gondwana Rainforests of Australia | New South Wales, Queensland | 1986 | 368bis; viii, ix, x (natural) | This site includes 41 protected areas, mostly along the Great Escarpment. Geologically, it shows how new continents formed after the supercontinent Gondwana broke apart. Its subtropical rainforests have ancient plant species, like ferns from the Carboniferous period. The rainforests are spread out, which helps new animal and plant species to develop. Lamington National Park is pictured. | |
| Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park | Northern Territory | 1987 | 447rev; v, vi, vii, viii (mixed) | This cultural landscape is dominated by the huge sandstone rocks of Uluru (pictured in front) and Kata Tjuta (pictured in the background). These formations are very important spiritually to the Aṉangu people and are part of their tjukurpa beliefs. Both rocks are also famous for their beauty. Geologically, they show slow processes like honeycomb weathering. | |
| Wet Tropics of Queensland | Queensland | 1987 | 486; vii, viii, ix, x (natural) | This site covers about 450 kilometres (280 miles) of tropical rainforest along the Great Dividing Range. These forests have existed since the time of Gondwana. They have an amazing amount of different plants and animals. Over 500 species are found nowhere else. It has the most "primitive" plant types in the world, like ancient ferns and cycads. Even though it's a small area, it has 30% of Australia's marsupial species and 40% of its bird species. Daintree National Park is pictured. | |
| Shark Bay, Western Australia | Western Australia | 1991 | 578; vii, viii, ix, x (natural) | Shark Bay has the largest and richest area of seagrass meadows in the world. These meadows are home to endangered dugongs. The very salty Hamelin Pool (pictured) has the world's most diverse living stromatolites. These are like ancient microbial communities. On land, the area is where dry desert plants meet plants from cooler areas. It is home to threatened animals like the boodie and rufous hare-wallaby. | |
| K’gari (Fraser Island) | Queensland | 1992 | 630; vii, viii, ix (natural) | At 122 kilometres (76 miles) long, Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island. It has many freshwater lakes and dunes that are up to 240 metres (787 feet) high. It is the only place in the world where tall rainforests grow directly on sand. The way its unique soils (called podzols) form, sometimes 25 metres (82 feet) thick, is also special. | |
| Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh / Naracoorte) | South Australia, Queensland | 1994 | 698; viii, ix (natural) | These two sites have some of the best fossil collections. They show how unique mammals in Australia evolved. This happened because Australia was isolated for 35 million years. The older site, Riversleigh, has fossils from 30 to 10 million years ago. It shows how the environment changed from wet tropical forests to dry woodlands. The Naracoorte site has fossils of giant animals from the ice age, like Thylacoleo (pictured) and the thylacine, which became extinct in the 20th century. | |
| Heard and McDonald Islands | Heard Island and McDonald Islands | 1997 | 577rev; viii, ix (natural) | These two islands are the only active volcanoes in the subantarctic region. They are important for studying glaciers and how landforms are created, especially from deep inside the Earth. Heard Island is mostly covered by glaciers (satellite image pictured). Because they are so far away, their natural environment is undisturbed. There has been no major human impact or introduced species. | |
| Macquarie Island | Tasmania | 1997 | 629rev; vii, viii (natural) | This island is about halfway between Australia and Antarctica. It is the only place on Earth where rocks from the Earth's mantle are rising above sea level. This allows scientists to study deep layers of the Earth's crust. The island is a key breeding ground for king penguins, royal penguins (pictured), four types of albatross, and elephant seals. | |
| Greater Blue Mountains Area | New South Wales | 2000 | 917; ix, x (natural) | This sandstone plateau is covered by Eucalyptus forests. It shows how these trees have adapted to different environments, from wet forests to dry grasslands. The area has a large part of Australia's plant and animal diversity. It also has the only places where the ancient Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii and Wollemia nobilis trees still grow. The Three Sisters rock formation is pictured. | |
| Purnululu National Park | Western Australia | 2003 | 1094; viii, ix (natural) | This remote national park is managed as a wilderness. It includes the Bungle Bungle Range (pictured), a plateau that has been heavily shaped by erosion. This has created a dramatic landscape of cone-shaped sandstone towers. It is one of the largest networks of sandstone karst formations in the world. It is important for understanding how rocks weather and how cone karst forms. The plateau rises 250 metres (820 feet) above the surrounding grasslands. | |
| Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens | Victoria | 2004 | 1131bis; ii (cultural) | The Royal Exhibition Building (pictured) and its gardens were built for the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880. They show the importance of international exhibitions in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These events displayed new technologies and developments from many countries. The building was designed by Joseph Reed. It also hosted the 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition. These were the two biggest international events in colonial Australia. | |
| Sydney Opera House | New South Wales | 2007 | 166rev; i (cultural) | The Opera House is located on a point of land in Sydney Harbour. It is a masterpiece of 20th-century architecture. Designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon and opened in 1973, the building is famous for its unique design and the advanced technology used to build it. It has three groups of interlocking shell structures, covering two performance halls and a restaurant. | |
| Australian Convict Sites | New South Wales, Norfolk Island, Tasmania, Western Australia | 2010 | 1306; iv, vi (cultural) | In the 18th and 19th centuries, the British Empire sent about 166,000 men, women, and children to penal colonies in Australia. These convicts were punished and also forced to work. They helped build Australia's early towns and roads. They also became a big part of Australia's European population. At the same time, this pushed the Aboriginal people further inland. Eleven convict sites across Australia are listed, including the Fremantle Prison in Perth (pictured). | |
| Ningaloo Coast | Western Australia | 2011 | 1369; vii, x (natural) | The coastal waters here have one of the longest coral reefs that is very close to the shore. Besides over 300 types of corals, there are many fish, molluscs, and crustaceans. Every year, hundreds of whale sharks (one is pictured) gather here to feed. The land part of the site has limestone karst features, especially caves. These caves are home to many different underground animal species. | |
| Budj Bim Cultural Landscape | Victoria | 2019 | 1577; iii, v (cultural) | The cultural landscape at the Budj Bim volcano has been shaped by the Gunditjmara people for over 6,000 years. Lava flows from an eruption created the basis for one of the oldest examples of aquaculture in the world. People built dams and channels to guide water from the lakes. This helped them trap and harvest short-finned eels (called kooyang) that swim through the river system each year. |
Future World Heritage Sites: Tentative List
Countries can also suggest sites they think should become World Heritage Sites. This is called a "tentative list." A site must be on this list before it can be officially nominated. Australia has six sites on its tentative list.
* Transnational site
| Site | Image | Location (state or territory) | Year listed | UNESCO criteria | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Sandy World Heritage Area | Queensland | 2010 | vii, viii, ix (natural) | This site is a proposed addition to the K’gari or Fraser Island (pictured) World Heritage Site. It would include areas on the mainland. The area has many sandy dunes that have formed over 700,000 years. It is rich in different plants and animals. The vegetation includes tropical rainforests, mangroves, and dry shrublands. There are more than 350 species of birds. | |
| The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area | New South Wales, Queensland | 2010 | viii, ix, x (natural) | This is a proposed addition to the existing Gondwana Rainforest World Heritage Site. It includes more protected areas with temperate rainforests. The suggested additions include parts of the Dorrigo National Park (pictured) and sites along the Manning River and in the Tweed Range. | |
| Murujuga Cultural Landscape | Western Australia | 2020 | i, iii (cultural) | The cultural landscape in the Pilbara region has been lived in for about 50,000 years. Over thousands of years, Aboriginal communities created one of the largest collections of petroglyphs (rock carvings) in the world. There are over one million images. They show human figures, animals, and sea creatures. Some even show animals that are now extinct. | |
| Flinders Ranges | South Australia | 2021 | viii (natural) | This site has seven areas that show how animal life developed very early on Earth. The fossils and rocks here cover 350 million years. They show events like worldwide ice ages (the "Snowball Earth"). They also show the rise of barrier reefs made by tiny living things. The Ediacaran period (635-542 million years ago) is also shown, with the earliest known complex multicellular organisms. The site also covers the Cambrian explosion, when animal life quickly became very diverse. | |
| Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct | New South Wales | 2023 | iv, v (cultural) | This site shows how ideas about women being placed in institutions changed over time. The Parramatta Female Factory was built in 1821. It might have been the first women's prison in the world. It housed convicts sent to Australia. It also had the only women's hospital in the country at the time. After convicts stopped being sent in 1840, the factory closed and became a mental hospital. Other buildings here include the Female Orphan School (pictured) and the Norma Parker Centre, which was the first low-security women's prison in New South Wales. | |
| Workers’ Assembly Halls (Australia)* | New South Wales, Victoria | 2023 | iii, iv, vi (cultural) | This nomination includes buildings in Australia, Argentina, and Denmark. They are related to the international democratic labour movement and how workers organized themselves from 1850 onwards. These buildings were made for meetings and had rooms for assemblies, political events, offices, kitchens, and printing presses. Two buildings in Australia are nominated. The Victorian Trades Hall (pictured) in Melbourne was first built in 1859 and has been rebuilt and expanded many times. The Broken Hill Trades Hall was finished in 1905. |
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See also
In Spanish: Anexo:Patrimonio de la Humanidad en Australia para niños
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List of World Heritage Sites in Australia Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.