Tida Nou, part of WWF Australia’s species team, recently took part in a back-on-country trip with Helen Pitman, Nyaliga Traditional Owners and Wunggurr Rangers to Karunjie Station in the east Kimberley region.
Here she tells us her story:
In 2008, a fire management plan was prepared by the Kimberley Land Council and Nyaliga Traditional Owners. The fire management plan for Karunjie involved undertaking an early dry season trip to the property, and trying to reinstate a more patchy mosaic burning regime and protecting the property from late season wildfires, through creation of fire breaks and a combination of aerial and on-ground burning.
May in northern Australia is dry season time, so Nyaliga Aboriginal Corporation members, Wunggurr Rangers, and Kimberley Land Council staff spent several days at Karunjie Station putting the fire management plan into action.
Aerial burning was carried out by Nyaliga Aboriginal Corporation Chairperson, Angelo D’Anna and the WA Fire and Emergency Services, and on-ground burning was carried out by Wunggurr Rangers and Phil Palmer, thankfully all went according to the plan!
The Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Richard Kingswood provided logistical and project support by providing a helicopter and pilot to assist with transport, and kindly provided the opportunity for Traditional Owners to get an aerial perspective of the landscape. Richard also briefed Nyaliga Traditional Owners and Wunggurr Rangers about the ‘EcoFire’ fire management project that Australian Wildlife Conservancy has been working on.
Helen and I were able to spend some time getting to know senior Traditional Owner, Noni Jarlott. I’d spoken to Noni a number of times on the phone, so it was great to finally meet her in person. Noni was previously involved in the legal trade of trapping Gouldian finches for the aviary trade, which is no longer operating, and so has a special interest in this beautiful species.
We also spent some time discussing Traditional Owners’ aspirations for Karunjie Station, searching for Gouldian finches and checking out the purple-crowned fairy wrens which live in thick stands of pandanus by the Durack River.
WWF species team staff plan to head back to the Kimberley in late September to undertake more monitoring for the Gouldian finch at small waterholes on Karunjie Station. Stay tuned for additional updates!
Thanks to Phil Palmer for organizing the trip, Rob Tunstall for project support, and to Nyaliga Traditional Owners and Wunggurr Rangers for sharing their time, stories and bush tucker with us.
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I hope your researchers had time to visit the bird park south of Broome. The park owner has been there for 35 years and has observed the decline in small birds throughout the area. When I asked him where all the birds were his answer was that birds require seed and if you burn all the land there will be no seed.
I suggested that the aboriginals had been burning for centuries but he replied not with 5 of them in a 4WD troupe with diesel guns!!
When I crossed the top end in 2001 it was burnt from the east coast to the west coast. It was either aboriginal land groups burning (Their right they believe) or cattlemen after an extra rush of fresh grass.
I finally found an area that hadn’t been burnt (It was the a station’s camping ground on the Fitzroy river.) The trees were twice the typical size, the grass was full height, there were birds and wildlife everywhere and you could hear the roos thumping in the night.
IMO this is Australia’s most serious environmental problem. If it continues as it was happening back in 2001 then the stretch from Broome to Fitzroy Crossing and surrounds will become another Nullarbor.