Case Study Working on Country
KALAN RANGERS, QUEENSLAND
Located in the Cape York Peninsula of North Queensland, the Mt Croll Nature Reserve and surrounding Aboriginal freehold land covers 17,990 hectares of pristine ecosystems including 5,132 hectares of a designated Nature Refuge under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992.
Six Aboriginal rangers and a trainee, the Kalan Rangers are employed by the Balkanu Cape York Development Corporation in partnership with the Kalan Aboriginal Corporation and the Toolka Land Trust, funded through the Working on Country program.
The Kalan Rangers are fulfilling their aspirations to care for country by managing ecosystems and habitats, controlling weeds and feral animals, implementing fire management practices, testing soil and undertaking cultural heritage activities. This includes documenting and registering culturally significant sites.
The framework for the rangers’ land management plan is provided by the Conservation Agreement between the Toolka Land Trust and the Queensland Government to establish the Mt Croll Nature Refuge.
Engaging Traditional Owners in caring for country
“That’s our home and [that of] our fathers before us, we want to care for country the way they did.”
Ranger
Traditional Owners meet regularly to plan and guide ranger activities in accordance with their cultural priorities. Working with the Kalan Rangers, Traditional Owners and Elders are passing on their knowledge of bush medicine and tucker, flora and fauna, ways of caring for country and their traditional language. The Kalan Rangers together with the Traditional Owners and Elders are creating a database that documents the scientific and traditional language names of flora and fauna.
Elders and Traditional Owners feel their unique and important knowledge is valued.
“Some of that knowledge is being transferred to younger members, the older ones really like the fact that this program is valuing and respecting that knowledge. There’s a huge amount of that cultural knowledge that is being noted.”
Organisational stakeholder
Raising aspirations
“[Working in the program] makes you feel confident in yourself in what you do. I’m planning to start up my own enterprise with my family... maybe looking at tourism, set up a car hire business.”
Ranger
Exposure to different working environments and training opportunities has increased the rangers’ confidence in their skills and abilities, strengthening their career aspirations.
The Kalan Rangers have completed their Certificate III in Conservation and Land Management; other natural resource management training courses, computer literacy and financial management training with Westpac.
Children also have broadened their horizons and raised their career aspirations. Held in high regard by the community, the Kalan Rangers are positive role models for school children aspiring to a career in land management. Children are involved in a Junior Ranger Program, camping trips and regular school visits from the rangers.
“We’ve got kids in the [Junior Ranger] program who look up to rangers, look up to them as role models. They want to be rangers further down the track.”
Ranger
Important for the transfer of knowledge between generations, children are learning about cultural practices, artefacts and language including how to make baskets, dilly bags and spears. The Kalan Rangers are teaching nursery rhymes, parts of the body and flora and fauna names in their traditional language.
“Bringing language back into the school, our boys are now talking language; they know the names for the birds and animals.”
Ranger
Improving standards of living for families
“It’s really important, you can see it has improved some of the families… one person working, you have a vehicle, at Christmas time – in the past you couldn’t really buy too much – now you have money saved up, you can take the family to Cairns.”
Ranger
Earning a decent income, the rangers and their families have greater life choices. With increased capacity to cover day-to-day expenses (such as food, clothes, furniture and household goods) the Kalan Rangers have been able to buy presents for their children, take up hobbies and support more social activities. Examples of this are that one ranger bought a guitar, and a football team of rangers has been established.
Having access to computers and training in computer literacy, the rangers can now shop online and access a variety of goods not available locally.
The rangers are saving money and undertaking long-term financial planning. Some are entering into agreements to buy their own cars and some are buying houses through the Indigenous Business Australia home-ownership scheme. Rangers have also been able to go on family holidays.
All the Kalan Rangers with children have established a Student Education Trust (SET) fund. A Cape York Partnerships initiative, SET allows families to put aside money for their children’s school fees and other education expenses. The rangers are contributing more money to their children’s SET funds, with some rangers contributing in the Gold Category—the program’s highest category.
Caring for our Country is administered by a joint team of the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Photo credits: (Front page L–R) Kalan Rangers (Kalan Rangers), Kalan Ranger at work monitoring (Kalan Rangers), Ranger on Country (Kalan Rangers), Landscape (Kalan Rangers).
© Commonwealth of Australia 2012
Published October 2012
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