Limmen National Park, announced in 2012, is the third largest national park in the Northern Territory, after Judbarra / Gregory National Park, with an area of approximately 9,369 square kilometres (3,617 sq mi).^[2] Located about 600 km south-east of Darwin on the Gulf of Carpentaria, the park incorporates wetlands, sandstone structures and numerous rivers, including the Limmen Bight River from which the park takes its name.^[3][4]

Limmen National Park was declared in 2012 but approximately 20% of the area originally planned for the park was excluded to allow for Iron Ore exploration and extraction,^[5] a decision welcomed by Western Desert Resources, the company developing an Iron Ore mine in the excised region.^[6] However, the NT Environment Centre argued that the NT Government had been "unnecessarily generous to miners"^[7] and concerns were also raised by the Amateur Fishermen's Association of the Northern Territory and neighbouring pastoral lease holders, upset by Western Desert Resources building a haul road across their property.^[8]

Following a decline in the price of Iron Ore, Western Desert Resources went into administration in 2014 and their mining operations ceased.^[9] In 2018, the Northern Territory Government approved a new operator to restart the mine,^[10] this time operated by Nathan River Resources, a company owned by international shipping and mining company British Marine.

A major attraction in the park are the "Lost Cities"—sandstone rock formations resembling tall apartment blocks.^[11]