Iconic journey, that’s the only way to describe travelling up the Gibb River Road in April after a stonker (big) wet season. The road, a single bush track with green grass creeping up to its edges, is waiting to be graded or mowed down by tourists. The intersecting ranges are broken up by full waterways lined with paperbarks and Pandanus. We are travelling through Wilinggin Country, home of the Ngarinyin people.
Reconciliation is a journey for all Australians – as individuals, families, communities, organisations and importantly as a nation. At the heart of this journey are relationships between the broader Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. (Reconciliation Australia)
It’s a long way to the town of Borroloola on Yanyuwa Country from Southern Tasmania – a couple of planes, a night in Katherine, a 10-hour drive through the deep red and bright green Northern Territory landscape. We arrive to locals fishing for barramundi on the McArthur River, grass as high as our heads that’s shot up during the wet season, termite mounds scattered through the plains some with t-shirts and hats on. Remote Northern Australia is a pretty special place with never ending skies and a stillness that accompanies the vastness.
Now seems like a good time to reflect on the last year and the challenges that we have all faced with the COVID-19 pandemic and what this has meant for businesses, communities and society more broadly. We work with many groups within Australia and around the world and the global lockdown definitely created some hurdles; however, it also showed us how resilient and adaptive communities can be and are. The pandemic highlighted for us that work, connection, and a sense of community is not constrained to a specific place but functions across place and time.
Some problems are so complex that the solution is beyond the reach of a single organisation. This is particularly evident in land management issues such as ferals, fire and weeds.
Registrations are open for an online Conservation Standards: Healthy Country Planning workshop focusing on the diverse Liffey Valley, adjacent to the Tasmanian Wilderness WHA. The course will be held virtually using platforms such as Zoom and Google Classroom through 10 x 3 hours sessions.
The Conservation Measures Partnership (CMP) is a “partnership of conservation-oriented NGOs, government agencies, funders, and private businesses that work collectively to achieve greater impact. We seek better ways to design, manage, and measure the impacts of our conservation actions so that we can learn and improve our efforts and contribute our learning to the broader evidence base.” (https://www.conservationmeasures.org/)
Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation are working in partnership with local interest groups, adjoining residents, Djarra community members, and state and local government agencies to further connect people with nature and protect and improve biodiversity at two key sites over the next four years:
At the end of each year, we ask all staff to put forward organisations they think do great work to help communities manage the places that are important to them, to be considered for an annual gift.
We occupy an extremely fortunate space in conservation – we don’t rely directly on government or even philanthropic funds.