Indigenous rangers learn to read Country, identify plants
Four Indigenous Ranger groups from Palm Island (MinggaMingga Rangers), Townsville (Gurambilbarra Rangers), Magnetic Island (Yunbenun Rangers) and Ayr (Gudjuda Rangers), attended a Reading Country and Plant Identification workshop on Bindal Country, delivered in partnership with Gudjuda Reference Group, and funded through the Tropical North Queensland (TNQ) Drought Hub.
The workshop took place at Wongaloo Conservation Park and an adjacent grazing property.
Wongaloo, a haven for wildlife, particularly waterfowl and woodland birds, is overseen by the Wetlands and Grasslands Foundation, whose co-founder and Executive Director, Marc Stoneman AM, hosted the event, along with Bindal Traditional Owners.
The diversity of landscapes, including dry rainforest, eucalypt forest, tropical grassland and wetlands, made it an ideal location for the rangers to learn plant identification skills, how to read Country health using cultural knowledge, and industry-standard monitoring techniques.
The rangers were all keen to walk Country and to learn from Tagalaka man and Firesticks Co-Founder, Victor Steffensen, and Gudjuda Senior Ranger, Jim Gaston.
Both highlighted the importance of a holistic approach to reading Country, and shared some of the many indicators they consider when reading and listening to Country.
Victor encouraged the rangers to use these skills to view their Country through a cultural lens, as their Elders would have done. The Rangers agreed there was much more Cultural knowledge for them and the community to learn from and put into practice.
Cultural Fire Project Officer,Trinity Georgetown, provided a demonstration on how to set up camera traps to monitor animal movements and keep tabs on whether land improvement activities were increasing biodiversity.
Trinity emphasised the importance of these training opportunities for the rangers. He said learning to read Country couldn’t happen in one workshop, and that it was necessary to walk Country over and over again to observe the different seasons and indicators.
Senior Climate Adaptation Coordinator, Sarah Willis, said the workshop built on previous TNQ Drought Hub-funded training opportunities attended by some of the rangers, focused on photo-point monitoring, setting up camera traps, and using the Vegetation Condition Assessment Tool (VegCAT).
She said the skills acquired through the workshop would create more opportunities for the rangers to work on Country, including partnering with graziers to tackle land management issues on rangelands.
She said these workshops created additional benefits, including creating connections between ranger groups.
NQ Dry Tropics is a partner in the TNQ Drought Hub, funded by the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund. The Hub was established to support grazing land managers and communities to prepare for drought.
