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Aboriginal rangers help quarantine
10 November 2000
Aboriginal landowners in northern Australia are joining forces with quarantine scientists to protect their land and food supplies from exotic pests and diseases.
Fifteen rangers from the Djelk, Oenpelli and Ramingining communities in Arnhem Land completed a two-day course in pest and disease identification at Maningrida in September.
The course was run by the Northern Australia Quarantine Strategy (NAQS) - an AQIS program that surveys for exotic pests and diseases along Australia's northern coastline. This is the area of Australia most vulnerable to attack by new pests and diseases, and 75 per cent of it is Aboriginal-owned.
The training is the first step toward equipping rangers to identify signs of intruders that could affect the health and wellbeing of their community, their animals and their country. It covered identification of weeds such as Siam weed, which could invade native flora, Japanese encephalitis, which could affect people; and animal diseases such classical swine fever and surra that could affect traditional food supplies.
According to course co-ordinator, NAQS scientist Andrew Moss, Aboriginal knowledge of identification procedures for exotic pests, weeds and diseases has benefits for both Aboriginal communities and Australian quarantine more broadly.
"While NAQS conducts regular surveys of the northern coastline, we recognise that this surveillance can never be totally effective without the co-operation and vigilance of local people. We've got limited resources to survey many thousands of kilometres of coast - it makes sense to pass this knowledge on to the land's owners so that monitoring can continue every day of the year.
"Aboriginal people are already working with quarantine to trap for exotic pests such as screw-worm fly and papaya fruit fly. The training we've just finished will equip rangers with additional skills in monitoring for pig and buffalo disease and weed identification. Ultimately we hope to be able to leave the responsibility for monitoring and quarantine awareness on Aboriginal land in Aboriginal hands."
According to Ray Hall, co-ordinator of the Djelk Rangers, the training provided "a pool of skilled people on the ground to assist in formal quarantine programs. The AQIS group has established quality working relationships within the Djelk Rangers in a very short time," he said.
More information
Contact: Andrew Moss
Phone: (08) 8999 2103