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Central Land Council Director, David Ross congratulated traditional owners of the northern
Tanami region today for their hard work and enthusiasm enabling the Australian Government to
declare the region as an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA).
Mr Ross said that the declaration to have 40,000 square kilometers of the area as an IPA is a
valuable investment by the Australian Government and a boost to the Lajamanu community.
“Investing in the bush, stimulating employment and building on the skills of local people is vital for
the future of young Aboriginal people in remote areas,” Mr Ross said.
“Lack of employment opportunities in remote areas contributes to urban drift, alienation and
social dysfunction which costs lives and money.
“We would like to see many more of these types of investments in the bush by governments,” he
said.
The northern Tanami has an unbroken history of Aboriginal traditional use and management and
Aboriginal customary practices remain strong and continue to have a profound influence on
regional ecological processes.
It has a large number of cultural sites, dreaming tracks and historic locations for the Warlpiri and
Gurindji people. It remains a dynamic cultural landscape supporting the spiritual and social
wellbeing of around 1200 traditional Aboriginal landowners.
“I think Lajamanu can feel proud of its young men and women who have worked on this. All
Australians reap the rewards of the preservation and management of a unique part of our natural
estate,” Mr Ross said.
“Already the rangers have had contracts rehabilitating the Tanami Mine Site and are about to begin
a flora and fauna survey at the old mine. They are also involved in controlled burning and a broad
range of other land management activities."
The community and the CLC began talks in 1999 to develop local opportunities for employment,
training and cultural maintenance through land-based enterprises.
A grant from the federal Department of the Environment for the last four years has enabled the
Central Land Council, the Wulaign Resource Centre and the Australian Government to develop
the region as an Indigenous Protected Area.
The Northern Tanami Indigenous Protected Area takes in the northern half of the Central Desert
Aboriginal Land Trust (ALT) and the southern third of Hooker Creek ALT.
It extends west to the boundaries with Yingualyalya, Purta and Mount Frederick ALT’s and east to
the edge of Karlantijpa North ALT.
Several mining leases, including Groundrush and the Tanami Mine fall within the area as they are
on Aboriginal freehold land and are environmentally managed by the Wulaign Rangers who are
key participants in the Tanami Biodiversity Monitoring Project.
30 April 2007
