There will be no oil and gas mining in Watarrka National Park, the Northern Territory government has announced.
The news follows the Tuesday visit to Canberra by senior Martutjarra and Luritja traditional owners who jointly manage the park with the NT government, who asked the federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt to urgently designate the park a heritage area to protect it from mining.
Mr Hunt said he would consider the group's application to prevent mining by Palatine Energy, which applied for an exploration licence in 2012, and indicated it may use hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and gas.
They also asked Mr Hunt to block all further mining activity in the 105,200 hectare park in central Australia, which houses major tourist icon Kings Canyon.
On Tuesday afternoon, NT Mines and Energy Minister Dave Toller issued a statement saying that Palatine's application would not be granted.
He said that Palatine's application did not satisfy all the new criteria implemented by the government last week, when it said it would not grant exploration permits in agricultural areas, places of high ecological value, culturally significant areas, and residential areas.
Mr Tollner criticised the Central Land Council (CLC) for its attack on the government, saying it was unfortunate that the CLC chose to be vocal about the actions of the NT government before allowing proper processes to be undertaken to ensure all parties affected in this decision could be consulted.
Earlier on Tuesday, CLC director David Ross called on Chief Minister Adam Giles to "put up or shut up" and accused him of ignoring the traditional owner representatives "because he and his government don't like the consistent and united stand they have taken".
The CLC and the NT Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) said the NT government had failed to meaningfully engage over the past three years over the matter of Palatine's licence.
"If government wants to talk about expediency and giving business certainty, three years is too long," said David Morris, principal lawyer with the EDO who accompanied traditional owners to Canberra.
"This should have been an obvious one: it's Watarrka National Park, it's one of Australia's icons," he told AAP.
Traditional owner Julie Clyne said she wasn't expecting such a quick response from the NT government, and the announcement was a weight off her shoulders.
Mr Morris has called on Minister Tollner to formalise his announcement by declaring a mining-exempt reservation for the park.
