Taming the wild: is the rise in ‘eco-accommodation’ a threat to Australia’s national parks?

‘Eco-accommodation’ is being proposed in Queensland in the Paluma Range national park and the adjacent Wallaman Falls, Australia’s highest, permanent, single-drop waterfall. Photograph: Peter Unger/Getty Images

Mick Ripon has fished from the rugged coastline of NSW’s Ben Boyd national park for the past 45 years. Off the remote rocks of Green Cape, Ripon reeled in his biggest catch, a 68kg (150lb) yellowfin tuna, and even proposed to his wife.

Now he’s racing to stop the construction of multiple huts at Mowarry Point and Hegartys Bay that he says will rob the park of its wilderness appeal.