Mallee rock hole and soak surveys

First Peoples of the River Murray and Mallee Region (First Peoples) recently completed the latest round of mallee soak and rockhole fauna monitoring. The monitoring was once again undertaken at Butcher’s Soak and a new rock hole site near Maggea was included.

Working with the Murray Mallee LAP and Natural Resources SAMDB, First Peoples set up motion sensing cameras, bat detectors and bird song meters to gain a better understanding of the importance of soaks and rockholes to mallee wildlife.

The project is gathering valuable information, building the skills and knowledge of all involved, and providing employment for members of the First Peoples community.

The project is funded by the SA Murray-Darling Basin NRM Board through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program and the NRM levies.

Water planning for the future

The Peake Roby and Sherlock water allocation plan (WAP) and the Mallee WAP are the first in South Australia to properly recognise the interests of the Traditional Owners of the water resource areas.

The First Peoples of the River Murray and Mallee, and Ngarrindjeri Nations have been working with DEWNR staff to make changes to the Mallee and the Peake, Roby and Sherlock WAPs. Nations contributed valuable information to these WAPs and for the first time these plans document Aboriginal Nation's future needs for water. The plans now also include information on protecting Aboriginal cultural heritage when undertaking certain water affecting activities.

The Peramangk, Kaurna, Ngadjuri and Ngarrindjeri Nations are now being engaged in other prescribed water resource areas to amend the Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges, Marne Saunders, and River Murray WAPs. As part of this process a three Nation workshop was recently held across these WAP areas in collaboration with the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges NRM Board and DEWNR’s Aboriginal Engagement and Reconciliation Unit.

To see the amendments for Peake, Roby and Sherlock, and Mallee WAPs that were adopted by the Minister for Environment and Conservation on the 29 November 2017 visit http://www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au/samurraydarlingbasin/water/water-allocation-plans/mallee and http://www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au/samurraydarlingbasin/water/water-allocation-plans/peake-roby-and-sherlock

Aboriginal engagement into water allocation planning is supported by National Partnership Agreement funding and the SA Murray-Darling Basin NRM Board levies.

New staff in Murray Bridge

Natural Resources SA Murray-Darling Basin has welcomed two new Field Officers to the team.

Merv Smith and Conway Johnson come well qualified and with a vast amount of experience having worked as part of the Murray Bridge Aboriginal Learning on Country (ALOC) program.

The ALOC program in the SA Murray-Darling Basin supports natural resources management training and employment for Aboriginal people with projects at Gerard, Murray Bridge, Raukkan and Monarto Zoo.

Their new roles will involve a wide range of natural resources management activities including pest plant and animal control, fish and frog monitoring at wetlands on the River Murray, supporting threatened species recovery, and park maintenance at a number of local conservation parks.

Merv and Conway are based in the Murray Bridge Natural Resources Centre and will work across the Mallee and Coorong, and Ranges to River Districts.

Reconciliation Action Plan launched

On the 7th of November the new Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) Reconciliation Action Plan 2017-2019 was launched.

The launch began with a Welcome to Country by Kaurna man Jack Buckskin and his son, followed by a smoking ceremony where Jack cleansed the event and invited the spirits of those attending to provide safe passage for those who live and work on Kaurna Country.

The Hon. Ian Hunter, Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation officially launched the plan, followed by speeches from Acting Chief Executive John Schutz and Reconciliation Executive Sub-Committee Chair Matthew Ward.

The Reconciliation Action Plan aims to help staff to be culturally respectful, improve employment and economic opportunities for Aboriginal people and improve the way the department engages with Aboriginal Nations across the state. As a practical first step all staff are being encouraged to consider five easy things they can do to contribute to reconciliation: LEARN about Aboriginal culture, ACKNOWLEDGE Traditional Owners, PROCURE from Aboriginal owned businesses, CONNECT with our Aboriginal engagement staff, and GET OUT THERE to Aboriginal community events.

For more information about reconciliation in DEWNR, contact the Aboriginal Engagement and Reconciliation Unit on 8204 9363.

Bird and bat monitoring at Gerard

The Gerard Country Rangers have been working with Berri Barmera Landcare to monitor birds and bats at Gerard in the Riverland.

Monitoring has focussed on both the mallee and floodplain sections of Gerard and a range of interesting bird species have been recorded including black-shouldered kite, varied sitella, striped honeyeater and three species of parrot. The bat recorders are still out so the results for bats are not yet known.

As well as collecting valuable information on the wildlife around Gerard this work is also assisting to build the skills and knowledge of the Gerard Country Rangers to be actively involved in monitoring into the future.

The Gerard Country Rangers are supported by the SA Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resources Management Board with funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program and the NRM levies.

Raukkan working to restore the Teringie wetlands

The Raukkan Aboriginal Learning on Country (ALOC) team is working closely with Natural Resources SAMDB Wetlands and Floodplains staff to manage and monitor the Teringie Wetlands at Raukkan.

The Teringie wetlands, near the township of Raukkan on Lake Alexandrina, are part of the Coorong and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert Ramsar site.

The things regularly monitored at the wetlands include birds, fish, frogs, vegetation, surface water and ground water. The information collected is used to better understand the wetlands and to inform their ongoing management.

As well as wetland management and monitoring, the ALOC team has also been involved in significant amounts of work at Teringie to remove environmental weeds such as boxthorns, control feral animals like foxes and rabbits, re-establish native vegetation around and between the wetlands, and stabilise lakeshore erosion on Lake Alexandrina.

The Raukkan ALOC team is supprted by the SA Murray-Darling Basin NRM Board through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program and the NRM levies.

Green Army celebration in Mannum

Congratulations to the Mannum Aboriginal Community Association (MACAI) Green Army Team who celebrated their achievments and the success of their two Green Army projects at a ceremony in Mannum.

The team worked hard over 12 months undertaking a range of natural and cultural resources management activities at Sugar Shack, Ngaut Ngaut Conservation Park and Roonka Conservation Park in the Mid Murray area.

A number of the team have now enrolled with the TAFE Aboriginal Access Centre to continue their Conservation and Land Management studies.

The team was employed by Conservation Volunteers Australia with funding from the Australian Government.

Putjeda Creek restoration update

Putjeda Creek in the Riverland is a very important site to the Gerard community and the First Peoples of the River Murray and Mallee Region (First Peoples).

The creek, which runs through both Gerard and the Katarapko National Park, has become blocked at several points along its length which has disconnected it from the River Murray at normal river levels. This has caused the once beautiful, healthy and thriving creek, which was highly valued for fishing, hunting and camping, to become a dry, highly saline area which is lined with dead trees.

Over the past few years, lots of work has been happening to restore Putjeda Creek. First Peoples have undertaken an Aboriginal Waterways Assessement of the area to document its cultural values and reinforce the importance of its restoration. The creek has been mapped and the blockages have been identified for removal.

Along the creek and the adjacent floodplain, the Gerard Country Rangers have been undertaking weed and feral animal control, pumping water into wetlands, trialling watering techniques for blackbox trees, and monitoring the local wildlife.

The next stages of the project will be to remove the blockages along the creek and replace the old crossing point which will once again allow fresh water to flow through Putjeda Creek.

The project is funded by the SA Murray-Darling Basin NRM Board through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program and the NRM levies.

Glenn and Boony's update

In this edition we would like to talk about the success we have had on one of our rabbit and fox baiting programs in the Riverland.

For the last five years we have been working on two areas of land called Border Cliffs and Murtho Forest. These areas are a part of the Ramsar wetland project and had been overrun with rabbits and foxes for years.

The majority of the work we have done has been running bait trails of 1080 oats which controls rabbits, and a 1080 fox bait called FoxOff that for the first two years worked very well. As the third year of the program rolled around we began to incorporate other control methods such as fumigation of the rabbit warrens in combination with the baiting.

In the lead up to the fourth year of this program we began to notice the rabbit numbers had dropped by quite a bit and the native vegetation was slowly coming back. So we incorporated a warren destruction program to our usual 1080 oat baiting and fumigation works. This proved very successful, and in our next phase of mapping the evidence of rabbit activity was almost zero, indicating populations were extremely low.

In conclusion, as we come up on our sixth year of the program I am proud to say we have reduced the rabbit populations to such low numbers that baiting is no longer a viable option this year.

Vegetation is starting to show signs of regeneration, and a number of cultural heritage sites have been protected from further degradation by these pests. Fox baiting will continue, but if the number of baits taken this year is any indication, our efforts are also having an impact on the fox population and this will also be able to be cut back in future.

MACAI visits Yookamurra

Late last year the Mannum Aboriginal Community Association Inc (MACAI) Green Army team and Natural Resources SAMDB staff held a planning workshop at Yookamurra Wildlife Sanctuary. It was a great session that was topped off by a fantastic guided walk through some beautiful old growth mallee.

One vaulable outcome of the day was the establishment of an ongoing relationship between MACAI and Yookamurra which is resulting in the development of cultural information for the sanctuary, education opportunties for MACAI members and Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) staff, cooperation on public and school education programs, and cross-promotion of Yookamurra and Ngaut Ngaut Conservation Park.

The Australian Wildlife Conservancy's volunteer, education and intern programs at Yookamurra are supported by a SA Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resources Management Board Connecting Communities Grant which is funded from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program and the NRM levies. The Green Army team was employed by Conservation Volunteers Australia with funding from the Australian Government.

Gerard fish monitoring

The Gerard Country Rangers assisted the Natural Resources SAMDB Floodplains and Wetland Team recently to survey fish at Gurra Gurra Wetlands in the Riverland.

Although the rangers undertake a lot of their work on Gerard they are also involved in a range of other natural resources management activities across the Riverland, including working with Natural Resources SAMDB and a number of Landcare groups.

The Gerard Country Rangers are supported by the SA Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resources Management Board through funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program and the NRM Levies.

For more information

For more information on the stories in this update, or to discuss submitting stories for future issues, please contact Chris Koolmatrie, Aboriginal Partnerships Project Officer, Natural Resources South Australian Murray-Darling Basin,
on (08) 8580 1800.