At a glance

• Booderee National Park in NSW took out the 'best conservation of cultural heritage' category at the global Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards 2010. Booderee is owned by the Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community. It contains the only Aboriginal-owned botanic gardens in Australia along with over 200 species of birds, 30 species of land mammals and 180 species of fish.
• The draft marine bioregional plan and the Commonwealth marine reserve network proposal for the South-west Marine Region were released.
• Australia submitted its written pleading to the International Court of justice – a key milestone for Australia's legal action against Japan's 'scientific' whaling.
• The iconic Uluru national park and its Aboriginal traditional owners featured large on Oprah Winfrey's TV special on Australia which was broadcast in 145 countries. Staff from the national park and Canberra worked closely with Tourism Australia and Oprah's production crew for months on logistics and scripts.
• At more than 500 000 hectares, Henbury Station in the Red Centre is the largest property purchased with support from the Australian Government for inclusion in the National Reserve System with ongoing management for conservation purposes.
• In 2010–11, 103 proposals were approved after environmental assessment, a substantial increase (56 per cent) from 2009–10, when 66 proposals were approved.