Too precious to clear
One of Earth's last great savannas is here
29 July 2025
When most people picture the Northern Territory, they think of red desert, dust storms and rugged outback. The word “savanna” rarely enters the frame.
Yet the NT is home to one of the most remarkable tropical savanna regions on Earth – a globally significant landscape of grassy woodlands, ancient rock escarpments, and seasonal floodplains alive with colour, song, and movement. It is also one of the last of its kind.
And right now, it is in danger.
Not just a patch of grass, a living system
Savannas are not halfway-there forests or barren bush. They are dynamic, fire-shaped ecosystems that rely on extremes – seasonal floods and searing droughts, richness and scarcity – to survive. In northern Australia, tropical savannas cover more than 1.3 million square kilometres across the top of the continent, with the Northern Territory alone home to over 540,000 square kilometres.
Between 2018 and 2021, there was an almost 300% jump in land approved for clearing.
These landscapes are astonishingly biodiverse. They shelter species found nowhere else on Earth, from the striking Gouldian Finch, with its vibrant plumage, to the elusive Northern Quoll, the Black-footed Tree-rat, and the culturally significant Orange Leaf-nosed Bat. Even the rivers running through them are home to globally rare species like the Speartooth Shark and Largetooth Sawfish, both depending on the NT’s intact floodplains and free-flowing rivers to breed and survive.
In Africa and South America, most savannas have been heavily cleared, logged or farmed into decline. But here in the NT, vast areas of savanna Country remain largely unmodified, still supporting the ecological processes that have shaped them for millennia.
Yet these ancient landscapes are being rapidly and carelessly unravelled.
“When you knock down those trees, you knock down my family."
On Wagiman Country, on the banks of the Daly River tropical savanna has already been bulldozed. More clearing is on the horizon.
A new report by ECNT found that between 2000 and 2020, over 45,000 hectares of savanna were cleared across the Territory. While NT Government approvals between 2003 and 2023 indicate that four times this figure (a total of 210,000 hectares) was approved for clearing. That means swathes of habitat to threatened species like the Gouldian Finch, Northern Quoll and Mertens’ Water Monitor remains in jeopardy, before even considering the latest round of permits granted.
The Daly Basin is Senior Wagiman Traditional Owner Jabul Huddlestone’s home. The report also highlighted that in this region, each new land-clearing approval overlaps with habitat for an average of 12 nationally-listed threatened species. These zones include cultural and ecological keystone species, the very building blocks of ancient living systems.
“My life is in this tree. This tree is my nanna’s tree, my grandfather’s tree, my mum and my dad. When you knock down those trees, you knock down my family.”
— Senior Wagiman Traditional Owner Jabul Huddlestone
More than beautiful; essential
These landscapes do more than inspire awe. They store carbon. They keep rivers clean. They support fisheries, tourism and livelihoods. They are home to powerful cultural traditions that connect people to Country.
A 2023 study estimated that the ecosystem services provided by NT savannas are worth approximately AUD $10.05 billion per year, with climate regulation (including carbon sequestration) a key part of that value.
Strategic early dry-season fire management (as opposed to uncontrolled late dry-season fires) has been proven to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly.
These savanna burning projects now cover approximately 25% of the eligible tropical savanna region in northern Australia, contributing not only to emissions reduction, but also biodiversity protection and employment for Indigenous ranger groups.
Then there are northern Australia’s rivers. Fed by the wet season and protected by relatively undisturbed landscapes, they are among the last globally significant free-flowing rivers on Earth. Their floodplains, wetlands and mangrove fringes are nurseries for barramundi, turtles, crocodiles and river sharks found almost nowhere else.
The health of these rivers depends on the health of the savannas that surround them. And right now, both are under siege, from clearing, cattle, invasive weeds and increasingly intense fires, made worse by the spread of grasses like Gamba and Buffel.
What our savannas need
The destruction of these savannas is not inevitable. It is a choice for Australian’s and the leaders that represent us.
- We need stronger laws. The NT has some of the weakest environmental protections in the country. Land clearing can be approved with little to no biodiversity assessment. Threatened species are routinely ignored.
- We need to centre First Nations knowledge and land management. Across the Top End, Indigenous ranger groups are already delivering nationally significant emissions reductions and biodiversity benefits through strategic fire programs. With proper support, they can lead the way in protecting and restoring savanna.
- And we need to stop the worst damage before it starts – including halting land clearing approvals in high-biodiversity regions. This also means carefully scrutinising the expansion of industrial cotton and gas developments that treat this living landscape as empty space.
A national icon in waiting
We revere the Daintree/Julaymba. We defend the Tarkine/takayna. We speak with pride about the Great Barrier Reef. It’s time to recognise the Northern Territory’s tropical savannas as a living national treasure, and treat them with the respect they deserve.
They are not blank land. They are not “undeveloped”. They are vital, interconnected, extraordinary ecosystems, and they are speaking to us now, through local people like Jabul Huddleston, if we are willing to listen.
There is still time. But the window is closing.
Learn more
Read the full State and Future of the Northern Territory’s Savannas report
