Land management activity

Gulf Fire Abatement Project          

Since the land management planning meeting in 2005, Jack Green-also the Garawa and Waanyi/Garawa land management coordinator- along with senior traditional owners has been active in developing numerous partnerships to assist with fire management in the southwest Gulf region. One innovative project that is swiftly evolving through these partnerships is the Gulf Fire Abatement Project (GFAP).

The Gulf Fire Abatement Project is a partnership between traditional owners of the southern Gulf of Carpentaria (on both sides of the NT/ Queensland Border), the Garawa, Waanyi/Garawa, Yanyuwa and Ganggalida peoples. It also includes the Northern Land Council, the Carpentaria Land Council, the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA), Bushfires NT, Tropical Savanna CRC and a number of private investors.

The project has two components. The first is fire abatement, which seeks to manage fire and reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) to the atmosphere over a specified period of time. The second, and equally important, component is Aboriginal traditional owner engagement and reconnection with country. Here, the project seeks to build traditional owner capacity in strategic fire management and combine 'two-way' knowledge about fire for the southern Gulf region.

To date the Garawa Rangers, working closely with neighbouring Waanyi/Garawa rangers and Bushfires NT have established 53 fire fuel monitoring sites across NT lands in the southwest gulf. These sites will provide traditional owners and Bushfires NT with scientific data to measure fuel loads and develop methods to measure savanna fire abatement offsets in the region.

In 2009 there was a six-fold increase in the amount of early dry season burning undertaken by the Garawa and Waanyi/Garawa rangers in the Gulf. Senior traditional owners were involved in planning meetings with Bushfires NT and the NLC Caring for Country Unit to decide where and at what scale burning was to occur in the region. This exercise has become a regular event since the establishment of both land management groups in the Gulf. In 2009, both groups put in place, via aerial burning from helicopter, over 5800 kilometres of fire breaks as well as undertaking some 250 km of roadside burning along the Savanna Highway and 150 km of fire breaks at strategic points along land trust boundaries with neighbouring pastoral stations (Benmara, Calvert Hills, Greenbank and Seven Emu). Early season burning was also undertaken around a number of outstations and sacred sites. In addition to the 7 WoC positions involved in the project the fire abatement project provided part-time work for an additional 37 traditional owners. The fire abatement project also provided the opportunity for many younger traditional owners to visit country.