[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.

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

Found in 2017 by archaeologists, the only other recorded examples are at Nielson's Creek in New South Wales and at Kisar Island in Indonesia.