Two of the CLC’s Aboriginal ranger groups have won two Northern Territory Landcare awards.
The Tjuwanpa Rangers based near Hermannsburg, west of Alice Springs won the Alcan Indigenous award and the Muru-Warinyi Ankkul Ranger group from Tennant Creek won a merit award in the same category.
The award recognises outstanding efforts in adopting and promoting sound land management practices on public or private land and working towards culturally sustainable land use or protecting an area on behalf of the community.
The Tjuwanpa Ranger program operates on the traditional lands of the Western Aranda people. They are actively dealing with land management issues such as weeds, feral animals, threatened species and fire management. Apart from working on Aboriginal land, the rangers have also won contracts to erect bollards, construct tourism infrastructure, conduct weed surveys in parks and worked on maintenance of the Larapinta Trail.
Ranger Jeremy Kenny said winning the award was recognition of the hard work they’d persevered with over the years.
“It makes us happy to win this award after the hard work,” he said. “It’s good working with the rangers, having something to do and looking after the country.”
“Sometimes it is hard but mostly it is good and we want to keep going.”
The Tjuwanpa Ranger program started as a pilot project in 2005 and has grown into a well-established entity, overcoming hurdles such as having to complete contracts on income-managed welfare payments. The majority of participants have incomplete schooling and have no previous work experience.
The Tjuwanpa Rangers have previously won a Landcare merit award in 2007 and Tennant Creek won a merit award in 2005. Shortly after Tjuwanpa’s win in 2007, the former Federal Government axed CDEP and essentially the ranger group. Despite this, the rangers completed a contract they’d already won, but without receiving any individual pay for their work.
Now, the group employs 16 rangers and continues to complete major projects including strategic firebreaks to protect fire-sensitive plant communities, monitoring and management of the largest known population of the endangered Slaters Skink, a distribution survey of the Marsupial Mole, removing Athel Pine from the upper Finke River catchment, preventing prickly pear from entering the Finke, and raising awareness of the adverse impacts of feral horses.
Rangers have undertaken Certificate II studies in Conservation and Land Management and completed training in welding and plant and machinery operations.
The CLC’s director David Ross said the award comes after a huge effort by the rangers and their coordinators.
“It hasn’t been an easy road for the Tjuwanpa group,” Mr Ross said. “There’s been a number of setbacks for them, but the rangers keep turning up and keep looking to learn. They’re developing a reputation for being reliable hard workers and this award recognises that.
“Much credit must go to their coordinators Shane Forester and Will Dobbie. Will especially. He’s been involved from the start and has worked tirelessly to keep the project on track. The Tjuwanpa Outstation Resource Centre has also kept faith in the project and helped it thrive.
“We now have rangers groups in Tjuwanpa, Lajamanu, Docker River, Tennant Creek, Yuendumu, Alice Springs and are developing them in Ti Tree and Harts Range. We can see these ranger groups being an important contributor to the management of parks and Aboriginal land while also being an important source of employment in Aboriginal communities.”
The ranger program receives funding support from the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, the Indigenous Land Corporation, the NT Government and Aboriginals Benefit Account.
