Filming a documentary for Caring for Our Country in an area of the Great Western Woodlands which has been burnt. Photo: Wayne O'Sullivan

The Ngadju people whose lands cover a significant portion of the Great Western Woodlands, are looking to reinstate traditional burning methods. Proper management will safeguard biodiversity and protect and preserve the cultural value of their homelands.

Ngadju Traditional Owners want to put in place a program which aims to develop and enrich the Indigenous fire practises of the region and provide land and fire management for the safety and benefit of the wider community.

In September 2011 a number of them met in Norseman to conduct a fire management assessment on their country, supported by a grant from Caring for Our Country.

Altered fire regimes have been identified as a major threat to the landscape and biodiversity conservation values of the Great Western Woodlands. This is reflected in the allocation of more than $2 million towards fire management from the WA state government’s $3.8 million budget for Biodiversity and Cultural Conservation of the Great Western Woodlands.

We consider some current approaches to fire management in this region are damaging and inadequate,  and more science and knowledge is required urgently. Involving Traditional Owners in management could be an important step towards smarter fire management. It is also vital for protection of cultural heritage and could provide a unique opportunity for traditional owners to be directly involved in enhanced management of the woodlands.

CSIRO are supporting the Ngadju people, and have put forward a funding proposal to the government for a project to investigate traditional Aboriginal burning regimes in the Great Western Woodlands and their application to contemporary fire management.

They propose to work with the Ngadju, surveying areas before and after trial burns, monitoring the impact of the fire, and then scaling up the results to determine what the approach might mean at a landscape scale. This proposal is currently under consideration by the state government’s Community Reference Group for funding from the current budget allocation.

More information on Ngadju fire management in the Great Western Woodlands will be available soon.

Get Involved

Sign up as a cyberactivist and receive regular updates on the Wilderness Society campaigns.

Support our campaigns by making a tax deductible donation.

The prolific gums that make this region of Australia so ecologically unique. Photo: Barbara Madden

Much of the southern edge of the Great Western Woodlands borders the West Australian Wheatbelt. In and area where we are promoting restoration and connectivity, a proposed new barrier fence threatens further habitat fragmentation and destruction.

The proposal is driven by farmers who have problems with emus and dogs threatening their crops and livestock. A range of different options of control for these animals were costed by reports commissioned by the Department of Agriculture and Food WA.

The farmers preferred option is to build an extension to the existing State Barrier Fence from Ravensthorpe to Cape Arid, cutting through the bush. This scenario would see a swathe 120m wide cut through the Unallocated Crown Land of the Great Western Woodlands. This would mean at least 6000ha of clearing and chaining, and leave 300,000 ha of bush currently continuous with the Great Western Woodlands languishing as Wheatbelt remnant bush, isolated by the proposed fence.

The proposed route that the farmers of Esperance have been asked to approve also goes through or annexes a number of conservation reserves, nature reserves and national parks, such as the Cape Arid National Park.

Other options considered were a fence line following the actual edge of the farmland (300km longer, so considered too high a cost) or a “virtual fence” where the barrier is maintained by doggers, considered inefficient and expensive by the proponents.

Habitat fragmentation

This amount of land clearing and habitat fragmentation is unacceptable in the Great Western Woodlands, internationally significant and recognised for its intactness and connectivity.

Poor consultation is the hallmark of this process, with the government committing funds on the basis of selective agricultural economics alone. There has been no independent environmental assessment into the ecological consequences or consideration of any other views. The perspective of Traditional Owners, and others in the community who may have an opinion on a 490km barrier fence cutting through the bush have not been heard.

The financial costings of the project made available to the public to date are misleading, with a raft of expenses externalised or omitted. Ongoing maintenance of the fence, control of weeds, dieback and other diseases, and erosion have been ignored. The work of agencies like the Department of Environment and Conservation and the Department of Agriculture and Food WA are hidden, and will fall to the taxpayer.

South Coast Natural Resource Management, positioning themselves for a project management role, need to tread carefully, have a considerable conflict of interest with their biodiversity protection responsibilities. The bush itself, the value of connectivity, and the impact of a barrier on resource nomadic native animals like emus has not been considered. The real cost of this fence is huge.

Like many other areas in the WA Wheatbelt farms along this boundary have questionable long term viability. The extent that the state should continue to subsidise marginal farming, at the expense of the environment needs to be challenged.

Conservation concerns

Fundamental to the Wilderness Society’s concern is the impact this proposed fence will have on conservation of The Great Western Woodlands.

This proposal is at odds with the State Governments own strategy for the region "A “Biodiversity and Cultural Conservation strategy for the Great Western Woodlands” which lists as its first priority objective: “A net improvement in Native vegetation condition and connectedness”.

The strategy commits the government to consulting all stakeholders, not just selected interest groups.

The strategy includes actions such as: “ Assisting land managers in minimising the impact of their activities”, and “Restore and maintain physical connections with native vegetation elsewhere in the south-west of WA” and “re-establish connections with surrounding natural areas through programs such as Gondwana Link”.

With the fence as proposed we are losing the opportunity for a dialogue about how to better manage the interface between agriculture and the bush, one that involves adequately funded active management techniques, without destructive barrier fences.

At the very least there needs to be an independent environmental assessment that actually looks at the ecological implications of the fence proposal. Such an inquiry would explore why hard barriers between wildlife and farming systems have fallen from favour elsewhere in the world.

The intentional modification of the form of the eucalypts, creating a bowl in the center to store water. It is thought to be widely used by Ngadju people in their country. Photo: Wayne O'Sullivan

The Dahl Trust is working in the Great Western Woodlands on a collaborative project with The Wilderness Society, The Goldfield Land and Sea Council and the Ngadju community.

The project will locate and map culturally significant “water trees” in the traditional lands of the Ngadju people, so they might be safeguarded from damage or destruction.

While naturally formed water trees are known in this area and elsewhere, here many of the trees have been created by direct human intervention, modifying the form of the eucalypts by creating a bowl in the centre to store water. Ngadju lands have very little fresh surface water, and limited catchment areas.

The water trees were essential resources that allowed people to move through and live in this landscape. The trees are vulnerable, especially to fire, but also to unwitting damage through infrastructure development, which is increasing in this region with a resource development boom underway.

Roading, pipelines, seismic lines, drilling programs and power line all pose threats to these trees. This project will record the location of known trees and search for others. The search will not be a random process, as traditional knowledge still exists, with the trees particularly located along travel routes. By mapping known trees, and then searching ‘best bet’ locations, it is hoped to build a map of likely areas to guide a second stage search.

Sharing knowledge

The Water Tree project grew from work where Ngadju people shared aspects of their knowledge about traditional seasons and indicators with CSIRO scientists, allowing them to document a seasonal calendar. The role of water trees was highlighted in this work as an innovative response to navigating life in a harsh environment.

The knowledge gained in this search and mapping exercise will be used to develop a strategy for protecting the water trees. The database will provide ready access to the collected data and enable the Ngadju to monitor risk to the trees from any proposed projects in the area, and allow their incorporation into heritage assessment work. Importantly, the data will become a component of a planning process for fi re ecology work, to reduce fi re risk to the trees.

This can be used both by the Ngadju themselves, and by government agencies with responsibility for fi re preparedness, mitigation and control. Awareness of the project, through opportunities such as this, help promote the existence and cultural significance of the trees, and the ongoing connectedness of the Ngadju people to their environment.

For tens of thousands of years the Aboriginal people have lived across this area implementing ecological management. Today there remains an important role for Traditional Owners in managing and conserving the natural processes of this rich area. Significant knowledge and expertise can be brought to bear against threatening processes.

Addressing issues of biodiversity loss, contraction of species, feral animals, weeds, changed fi re regimes, pollution and overgrazing, are all high priorities. In addition, protection of Aboriginal culture and heritage sites will be important criteria in developing a new management framework. This project is one small part in that picture.

For more information on this project click here (pdf 6.4 mb).

Get Involved

Sign up as a cyberactivist and receive regular updates on the Wilderness Society campaigns.

Support our campaigns by making a tax deductible donation.

Biodiversity in the Great Western Woodlands is extraordinary. Photo: Lochman Transparencies

After contributing to the state government’s Biodiversity and Cultural Conservation Strategy, the Great Western Woodlands Stakeholder Reference Group was reconvened  to provide feedback on the proposed spending of $3.8 million of state funds.

Unfortunately, in the first meeting the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) tabled spending proposals accounting for the entire budget.  This situation has not changed in subsequent meetings, leaving the other stakeholders frustrated, with no opportunity for discussion of alternative spending proposals.  Many of the proposals from DEC are not being made in a whole of landscape context, and risk wasting resources or even being detrimental to the long term health of the Woodlands.

Together, these issues highlight the need for and importance of a truly independent reference group, and an adequate land use planning process to provide context for management of this important wilderness area.

The DEC budget proposal:

Our concerns and suggestions for the budget;

• More than half of the money is allocated to strategies to manage fire. Without a whole of Great Western Woodlands planning context, this risks causing more damage than protection. Methods include chaining of at least 119 km, 2613 km track upgrades, and 220033 ha of prescribed burning alone in the 2011-12 season. We are calling for more knowledge, more science, and an opportunity to develop Traditional Owner approach, participation and management.
• A large amount of the remaining money is to go on development of ‘visitor services’, promotion and recreation sites. The very limited money available must be spent on Biodiversity Conservation and management as a priority.
• Significant funds are being used as  DEC agency operation money. That’s no surprise when you consider the funding cuts imposed by the WA state government however,While some of this is reasonable , prioritising Biodiversity Conservation and management needs to take priority.
• DEC propose contributing funds to an improved geology map for the GWW. While geological data is a good surrogate for biodiversity, the mineral sector is in a very strong financial position at the moment, including very generous support from government, and can better fund this work. Starting work on a dedicated vegetation map is better bang for our limited biodiversity buck.

It is unfortunate that an opportunity for community engagement is being ignored in favour of a stale, top down bureaucratic model.

We will continue to work with stakeholders to set up a process that allows for consideration of their ideas, and advocate for allocation of funding towards some of the communities priorities.

A scoping study has been done towards a landuse plan for the Great Western Woodlands click here for more info.

To download the Biodiversity and Cultural Conservation Strategy for the Great Western Woodlands click here.

Get Involved

Sign up as a cyberactivist and receive regular updates on the Wilderness Society campaigns.

Support our campaigns by making a tax deductible donation.