Surveys across millions of
hectares of central Australia will be used to inform threatened species
recovery plan
Tue 20 Mar
2018 03.16 GMTLast modified on Tue 20 Mar 2018 03.25 GMT
Aboriginal rangers will use a new
bilingual tracking app to record sightings of signs of bilby habitation in a
new “bilby blitz” program.
Twenty ranger groups from
organisations in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, including the
Central Land Council, Kimberley Land Council, Central Desert Native Title
Services, Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa and the Ngaanyatjarra Council, will take part in
the survey, which was launched at the CLC ranger camp at Hamilton Downs near
Alice Springs on Tuesday.
The rangers will log signs of the
greater bilby or Macrotis lagotis,
including tracks, scats, diggings and burrows, in the new Tracks app, developed
for the CLC.
It is available in English and
Warlpiri and will be expanded to include other central desert languages, such
as Pintupi, Warlmanpa and Arrernte, in the next 12 months.
Craig Le Rossignol, coordinator
of the Tjuwanpa or Hermannsburg ranger group, said the app allowed Aboriginal
people to store and share knowledge about their country, some of which, like
the bilby count, would be used to inform western science. Sensitive cultural
information would not be shared.
He said the process of
collecting, recording and sharing information was just as valuable for
Aboriginal people, who store information “in the heads.”
“The key for Aboriginal life is
continuation,” he said. “The key is that information, that continued
information, that keeps us going.”
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