New vehicles help rangers care for land

A remote indigenous ranger group has added two new four-wheel-drive vehicles to its fleet to support landcare and cultural conservation.

The Ngurrawaana Rangers recieved a Lotterywest grant to buy the new cars, as well as first aid and tyre repair kits, all-terrain tyres and safety and communications accessories.

Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation conservation biodiversity manager Ostiane Massiani said the vehicles would assist in the rangers’ efforts to care for country.

“The vehicles will be used to support and sustain valuable and significant activities, insuring the cultural and environmental care of Yindjibarndi country and its people,” she said.

“They will assist with transporting YAC personnel to field-based workplaces and perform landcare management duties on Yindjibarndi-leased property, Ieramugadu lease as well as Millstream National Park.

A new office has also been opened, realising a long-held aspiration to have a fully functioning workspace in the community.

“The rangers will be able to learn or improve their IT skills through Microsoft Office packages, assisting the conservation program with data collation, input, graph making, video making, photo analysis and recording, archiving and administrative tasks,” Ms Massiani said.

“By moving from paper trails to fast and versatile technology for recording, photo-taking, video making, data collection, knowledge research in the field and being able to build a comprehensive and sustainable environmental library of Yindjibarndi country natural assets.”

Ms Massiani said the new additions would improve delivery of work, and enable rangers to welcome visitors to Yindjibarndi country.