Land and sea management activity

Sea country

Sea country work currently includes monitoring and reporting of fishing vessels to NT Fisheries and undertaking illegal foreign fishing vessel patrols for AQIS. Other activities include monitoring turtle and dugong habitats and the removal of marine debris and ghost nets from coastal waters and beaches.

Fee for service work

The Yirralka rangers are involved in a number of fee for service activities for AQIS. These include monitoring ants and mosquitoes, weeds and illegal foreign fishing activities.

Feral animals

The management of feral animal populations across the homelands is a major and ongoing activity for the Yirralka rangers. They are currently involved in aerial and ground shooting programs for buffalo in conjunction with a commercial safari operation in partnership with some traditional owners from the homelands, and trapping and shooting pigs which are causing extensive damage to country. Work is also being undertaken in developing feral animal monitoring programs, including the construction of exclusion fences for monitoring and educational purposes.

Fire

The Yirralka rangers are involved with traditional owners undertaking customary hunting fires (Worrk), as well as ecological burning and fuel reduction burning around communities.

Ecological knowledge

The Yirralka rangers recently held a series of workshops in the IPA to talk and learn about customary burning practices and have completed some follow up burning on a floodplain north of Dhalinybuy. They continue to collect and record information about Yolngu place names for inclusion within their Geographic Information System (GIS) and to collect associated stories. Eventually they aim to produce their own maps of the region with the correct and relevant place names. The rangers are also undertaking to incorporate the Yolngu seasonal calendar within their work programs. These are some of the ways they intend to make Yolngu ecological knowledge the foundation on which they continue to build and formalize their land and sea management program.

Linkages with schools

The Yirralka land and sea management program offers work experience to school pupils and students are often invited to participate in suitable ranger activities. The Yirralka women rangers are currently joint-training with Vocational Education and Training (VET) secondary students in the Certificate II in Conservation and Land Management. It is hoped that both the secondary students and the rangers will benefit from the reciprocal learning relationships that could develop.

The Mulka project

The Mulka project tells Yolngu stories of culture and country. It is a multi media archive and production facility employing and empowering Yolngu people of north east Arnhem Land. The aim of the Mulka project is for Yolngu people to document their culture and tell their own stories through digital media. The Mulka project is supported by the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka art centre and museum in Yirrkala.