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Katie Woolf spoke with Kakadu Park Manager Operations Sean Barclay · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you want to know what's happening on the local
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: political landscape, Katie Wolf has it covered on three sixty.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Every one is listening Mixed one oh four point nine.
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  Speaker 1: Now we just heard about some of the wonderful things
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: happening around town when it comes to the school holidays.
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  Speaker 1: But joining us on the line right now is the
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  Speaker 1: Kakadoo Park Manager of Operations, Sean Barklay.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Sean, morning, Katie. How are you
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  Speaker 2: very well?
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  Speaker 1: Sean? What can we expect to be open and closed
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  Speaker 1: at kakado over the school holidays?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the majority of our sites are open, including the
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  Speaker 2: very spectacular gym, Gym Falls, the world renowned art sites
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  Speaker 2: that both Bubia and Nalangi rock as well as they
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  Speaker 2: have a popular Moguk swimming area. Yeah, so the majority
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  Speaker 2: of the place is open and we're really looking forward
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  Speaker 2: to seeing people come out and enjoy the park over
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  Speaker 2: the school holidays.
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  Speaker 1: And I know that well that some of those locations
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  Speaker 1: had been closed, hadn't they But they're obviously back online.
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  Speaker 1: How did they or what work had to happen and
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  Speaker 1: what needed to happen to enable that those places to reopen.
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  Speaker 2: So so every year after the wet season, we have
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  Speaker 2: to go through a bit of a process to fix
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  Speaker 2: the access to sites, to ensure there's no crocodiles area
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  Speaker 2: in the area, and to clean up sort of campgrounds
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  Speaker 2: and those kinds of things. The Uber Rock out side
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  Speaker 2: was closed out of respect from a request from the
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  Speaker 2: traution loaders, and you know, our management partners here, and
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  Speaker 2: they sort of said that they're happy for the site
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  Speaker 2: to be open and they're really pleased to open that
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  Speaker 2: side earlier in the week.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is excellent to hear. And how like, how
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  Speaker 1: come that situation sort of changed? Do you know?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the site was closed following the passing of a
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  Speaker 2: senior tradition loner of the area, so that that that's
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  Speaker 2: just you know that the trusloads us that to happen,
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  Speaker 2: so we respected that and now yeah, they're okay, once again,
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  Speaker 2: happy to see the site open.
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  Speaker 1: Now, how busy are you expecting it to be over
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  Speaker 1: the school holidays? Do you think it's I mean, we
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  Speaker 1: know we've got these hot spots that have been declared,
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  Speaker 1: but are you expecting it to be quite a busy place?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course it is already busy. There's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of sort of self drive tourists in the area and
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  Speaker 2: school holidays will only sort of increases that are numbers
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  Speaker 2: in the park. There's still reasonable availability at the manused
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  Speaker 2: campgrounds in the area, particularly the ones that haven't been
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  Speaker 2: opened for a long period of time, so those ones
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  Speaker 2: at the East Alligator River. Yeah, but it's good to
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  Speaker 2: see big numbers of people in the park. Local businesses
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  Speaker 2: are happy and yet fantastic to see Cagity back opening
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  Speaker 2: the business.
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  Speaker 1: And is there anything else that is still to open
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  Speaker 1: or you know, is that pretty much everything at this point.
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  Speaker 2: There are still a few sites around that don't typically
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  Speaker 2: open till later in the season because of the high
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  Speaker 2: water access issues and building some of the roads like
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  Speaker 2: four mile Billibong et cetera and West Delligator Head. We
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  Speaker 2: are working on those and you know, at the request
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  Speaker 2: of traditional owners, they'd be looking at keeping a good
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  Speaker 2: long site clothed for a little bit longer.
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  Speaker 1: Yet, Okay and Sean, what kind of impact are these
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  Speaker 1: hotspot declarations having with visitors going to Kakado.
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  Speaker 2: We haven't really seen anything yet because the majority of
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  Speaker 2: people in the park are self drive, so I think
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  Speaker 2: they would have left their down South destinations before these
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  Speaker 2: hot spots were declared, but the local hotels and those
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  Speaker 2: type of things may be seeing some sort of cancelations,
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  Speaker 2: but you know, they were busy to begin with. There's
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  Speaker 2: more opportunity for local people to take up those vacancies.
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  Speaker 1: And Sean, any advice for anyone listening this morning who's
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  Speaker 1: thinking about heading out to Kakadoo for the holidays.
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  Speaker 2: Life carefully. It's very busy. It's a lovely time. The
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  Speaker 2: year was a little bit cool and got a bit
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  Speaker 2: of rain yesterday, but I don't think that'll stick around
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  Speaker 2: for very long, so don't just enjoy and taking the
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  Speaker 2: beauty that is Kaga.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely well, Sean Barklay, Kackadoo Park, Manager of Operations.
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  Speaker 1: Always good to catch up with you. Thank you for
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  Speaker 1: your time today.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Thanks Chatty, Thank you