But while environmentalists were hailing it a major tourist attraction, farmers who once grazed the land were calling it a potential seed bed for weeds

The Warby-Ovens National Park is an amalgam of the Warby Ranges woodland stretching from Glenrowan to Peechelba and the red gum forest and wetland along the lower Ovens River.

The 14,655-hectare park is the latest national park in Victoria, following on from official proceedings at Barmah, Gunbower and The Lower Goulburn River National Park in the past week.

Chief ranger for the region Hamish Maclennan says it will be an international tourist attraction.

“These parks will all be tourist attractions, there are international visitors in particular, people more used to national parks than say we are in Australia, who build their holiday around parks of interest,” he said.

“Previously it wouldn’t have been possible to sell the Ovens River park but once it is fenced out and delineated it will be an attraction.

“The park itself is in very good condition.

“The farmers who have in the past grazed there and looked after it have done a good job.”

Mr Maclennan said the public land along the river had never previously been delineated from private landholdings.

He said $8.5 million had been allocated to fencing the parkland from paddocks.

But farmers told The Border Mail that they fear the narrow riverside tract will be locked up and forgotten.

They say the riverside national park that they had grazed was too narrow to be effectively managed as parkland.

The national parks were the result of a three-year study into river red gum forests initiated by then Victorian environment minister John Thwaites in 2005.

Camping will still be possible.

But dogs will be banned and campfires limited to fireplaces that are yet to be built.