Lorella Springs asked for a tourism permit and got one covering 60,000 hectares. A court says no one can explain how, and has thrown it out

The Federal Court has declared invalid the tourism permit the Northern Territory’s Pastoral Land Board granted to Lorella Springs Wilderness Park, and ordered the board to decide the application again according to law.

Justice Natalie Charlesworth handed down the judgment on Friday in a case brought by the Northern Land Council for the Burdal Riley, Murrungun Wunubari and Mambali Walangara native title holders. They challenged the permit, granted in March 2025, and a water licence for the station.

What did the court find?

The judge found the board exceeded its jurisdiction when it approved a permit over about 60,000 hectares, an area far larger than the one applied for. “The circumstances in which that came about are not at all clear,” she said.

She also found there had been no comprehensive assessment of the environmental impact across the whole area, and that the board had failed in its obligation to give native title holders procedural fairness. The permit was set aside largely on those grounds.

What did the native title holders lose?

More than they won, on paper. They argued the activities at Lorella Springs were not “farm tourism”, the kind of tourism the Native Title Act lets pastoral leaseholders run without a separate agreement. The judge disagreed, finding the activities all fell within that phrase. It was the first time a court had considered that section of the Act.

She accepted evidence of the hurt and distress native title holders felt about tourists possibly reaching sacred sites, but found the law looks at what the board actually authorised, not at feared unauthorised visits. She also upheld the water licence for Rosie Creek, finding no evidence the extraction would affect native title holders’ ability to take water.

That matters beyond this station. Pastoral leases cover much of the Northern Territory, and the ruling suggests leaseholders can run tourism of this kind, provided the permit is granted properly.

What is Lorella Springs?

The station covers about 400,000 hectares, around 2.5 times the size of London, on the edge of Limmen National Park, roughly 1,000 kilometres from Darwin. Owned by Rhett and Marie Walker, it ran accommodation, a bar, fishing, swimming and helicopter tours, and drew about 10,000 visitors a year at its peak.

In January 2023 the owners closed it to most tourists, saying the bureaucracy had become too much. Only a small number of guided tours have run since.

What are they saying?

Northern Land Council chair Matthew Ryan called the result a hard-fought win. “Protecting sacred sites is protecting culture,” he said.

Native title holder Rex Isaac said: “My father fought for this place before me.”

An NT government spokesperson said the government would take time to carefully consider the decision, and did not answer questions about whether the park would reopen.