Wonderful to see the first people of the country out managing the country. Well done Nowanup Rangers, Fitzgerald Biosphere Group and all involved.

After many years of support, and our direct administration of the Ranger Team for nearly five years while capacity was built, we have now handed over management of the Ngadju Ranger Team to the Ngadju Conservation Aboriginal Corporation.

Two way learning at Nowanup got a lovely boost yesterday. Curtin University staff and Noongar Elders met at Nowanup to plan out a program of learning from and supporting each other. Curtin University is expanding its program of bringing groups of students to Nowanup to camp on country and learn about Noongar culture and land management. In return these students will use their skills and knowledge to assist the Noongar

Proud to be involved with the Indigenous Desert Alliance - where the people looking after the living heart of Australia come together. Ngadju Conservation Coordinator Les Schultz attended their annual workshop in Perth, along with key Gondwana Link staff Mike Griffiths and Peter Price. Ngadju Conservation are a founding member of the Alliance, which now involves some 20 ranger groups from the central desert and surrounding areas. Les updated his

James Schultz and the Ngadju dancers are performing at the Sydney Opera House Sunday 9th October in the Homeground National Indigenous Dance Competition. Enjoy yourselves and meeting other dancers, artists and musicians from First Nation peoples from round the world. Go Ngadju Nation, protectors of the Great Western Woodlands!

The last 3 days have been very rewarding. The Ngadju Conservation team and others met in Norseman to review their priorities for Ngadju land management. During the discussions the older Ngadju women expressed a desire to get out on country with the younger women to clean out rock holes, find bush foods and medicines and hand down their knowledge to the younger generations. There is now a plan to make

Wonderful to see these new signs in place recognising Ngadju country. Congratulations to Ngadju Conservation and the Shire of Dundas for working together on this initiative. A great start to NAIDOC week for Ngadju. Yalunya Ngartawarri ngalba yungah Ngadju wamu indeed! (Welcome tree bushland big)

The Elder in Residence at Curtin University’s Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Associate Professor Simon Forest, has brought a group of mixed-course students to Nowanup. With little idea of what they were in for, the cohort left Nowanup on Thursday deeply moved and inspired by the Gondwana Link and Nowanup story. Several are keeping in touch and plan to return to Nowanup’s Bush University to further explore Noongar culture, issues, our

A good few days in Norseman with Ngadju Conservation, where the Ranger team joined with Elders and planners to review progress and talk about some ambitious plans to secure ongoing funding. We had a refresher look at the Ngadju Conservation Action Plan, developed by Ngadju with Paula Deegan last year, had planner Nic Gambold share his experiences with Ranger groups in northern Australia, and then had ‘Drone Master’ John Chandler

A good round up of recent progress by Ngadju Conservation is in this Month's issue of Rangelands NRM news - including the new premises and the quarantine fence established around the Noogoora Burr infestation. Great to see everyone working together so well.

The ongoing restoration work at Nowanup, in the Fitz-Stirling section of Gondwana Link, has been highlighted in a short article published on-line today by the journal Ecological Management and Restoration. The map shows the ‘Karta-Wongkin-Jini’ (place where people come together) area, planted last year. It was designed and implemented by Noongar leader Eugene Eades and restoration ecologist Justin Jonson. The design represents Noongar communities across the region. ‘The plantin

Ngadju Conservation’s Les Schultz talks on national radio about the importance of Ranger programs, and the incredible value they provide for outback communities. Link to interview.

Work to monitor recovery from last November’s devastating fires in the Great Western Woodlands is well underway. Ngadju Rangers have already located and established photo monitoring points at a number of burnt-out malleefowl nest mounds. A simple GPS mapped star picket is set up as the camera base for photos to be taken at regular intervals for the next 10-15-20 years, or however long it takes for leaf litter to

The full Pew Report launched in Canberra today (with a little bit of help from us) countryneedspeople.org.au 

Ngadju Conservation Convenor Les Schultz and Gondwana Link’s Peter Price are in Canberra as guests of the Pew Charitable Trusts. This morning at Parliament House, they joined with other key indigenous leaders, members of parliament and senior departmental figures to launch a major report by Pew outlining the economic and social benefits of Indigenous Ranger and Indigenous Protected Area programs. Rick Wilson MHR, the member for Ngadju Country (sometimes known

A team from Ngadju Conservation have been out on the Nullarbor at Rawlinna, working to control invasive cactus. The work, which was organised and funded through the Goldfields-Nullarbor Rangelands Biosecurity Group, involved spraying the bigger cactus clumps, then extensive grid walking to ?detect and destroy? small seedlings hidden amongst the grass and shrubs. Apart from dealing with a hazardous plant, the week marked the beginning of a new

We’re delighted to announce that Mike Griffiths has joined Gondwana Link’s Great Western Woodlands Program. Mike, pictured here (on the left) with his Program Manager, Peter Price, started work this week as Woodlands Operations Manager, based in the ‘heart of the woodlands’ at Norseman. Mike’s work program has a strong initial focus on supporting our Ngadju Conservation colleagues, as they move from their planning and training phases into extensive on-ground

With their Conservation Action Plan all but completed, Ngadju Conservation is increasing their on-ground program. Training in weed identification, mapping and control was undertaken this Thursday and Friday, in a delightfully shady ‘classroom’. Training turned to action pretty fast when a nasty patch of Noogoora Burr was found during the initial weed survey at Bromus Dam. A few hours later the patch had been mapped onto the database and killed!

A big gathering for the Outback in Alice Springs this week, with the Australian Rangelands Society Conference in full swing. We were delighted to support a strong Ngadju presence, with Ngadju Conservation's David Graham (on the right of the picture) presenting on their land management program, and trainees Eric Wilson and Matt McKenzie (centre) able to meet with Traditional Owners running similar programs across Australia. Gondwana Link's Peter Price (on

Congratulations to our Ngadju friends and colleagues for gaining legal recognition of their Native Title. An historic day, with many more to come as they resume authority over their country.ABC story  'Native title claim for Ngadju people in Western Australia's Goldfields recognised after 18 years'.

Gondwana Link has just announced its next program with Ngadju Conservation, with this stage funded through support from Rangelands NRM. As the ABC’s WA Country Hour reports, “A program aimed at conserving the traditional land management practices of the Ngadju people is underway near Norseman. The program is a collaboration between Rangelands Natural Resource Management, Gondwana Link and the local indigenous community. The five year project will include fire mitigation,

Ngadju young leaders joined the Millennium Kids 'Project Explore' program in the Kambalda Nature Reserve, Great Western Woodlands, with the kids learning how to use binoculars whilst teaching the scientists a thing or two about bushtucker!

Here's the Ngadju Conservation team (James Schultz, Les Schultz, David Graham and Daniel Graham) visiting Darwin for the World Indigenous Network Conference. Ngadju land straddles the Great Western Woodlands and the Nullarbor. Gondwana Link’s Peter Price organised the trip and we feel really proud that, together with the Pew Environment Group, we have helped these Ngadju men connect with like-minded colleagues from northern Australia and around the world.

What a great week has just been had at Nowanup, in the Fitz-Stirling section of the Link. Greenings Eugene Eades and South Coast NRM?s Natasha Moore have pulled together another fantastic ?Biodiversity Week? for students from all the local schools, which, as the photos show, included a great immersion into Noongar culture, led by a fantastic dance group down from Ballardong country. Everyone got to learn some Noongar words,

Ngadju leaders have been good enough to spend time showing the Wilderness Society team over some of the wonderful country east of the wheatbelt. Many thanks to Phil Drayson from Goldfields Land and Sea Council for organising the trip.

Kaya! Kaya! Two years after the Elders decided to establish a meeting place, and after it had been constructed and used for many, many events and gatherings, the Meeting Place was formally launched. Noongar Elders organised the event with Greening Australia, and invited WA Minister for Environment David Templeman to do the honours. He did that well, starting with five minutes of fluent Noongar, stunning all of us who had

Building on the momentum that has led to the Nowanup Meeting Place being developed, Eugene Eades has led a program which saw over 120 Noongar men come to the region for a weekend of talking, sharing and the first night dancing for decades. With much appreciated support from the Borden community they camped at the Borden Pavilion, with the day’s proceedings mainly held at Nowanup (which is not yet ready

With guidance from his Noongar Elders and a team of energetic young Noongar men, Eugene Eades has commenced work on a bush meeting place at Greening Australia?s Nowanup property. The Meeting Place design is based on a traditional camp, with a centre fire-place and seats around. Many of the materials came from the property.

David Guilfoyle, NRM ‘Restoring Connections’ project co-ordinator has organised this very significant trip of Noongar women into the Pallinup valley, visiting important sites where many of them had lived and worked before, and to Greening Australia’s Nowanup property. Most of the women live in Albany, and for many it was their first trip out to country in a very long time. One of the families present was represented by four

An important and memorable day with Noongar Elders in the Link?s Fitz-Stirling area. We shared our stories and explored how the Gondwana Link program can better support the aspirations and needs of the Noongar communities of the region. One highlight was a visit to the Link?s Nowanup property, which is being made available to the Noongar community for ongoing use. Another was the many stories shared along the

Congratulations to our colleagues in SCRIPT and the South West Catchments Council who have been successful in their application to the Australian Government for $911,000 over three years to support a joint project ‘Restoring connections between people and land in south western Australia’. This project will fund work by the Noongar community to establish a number of sites, in both the South Coast and South West regions, where ecological and

After a number of discussions over the last year we joined with Kelly Flugge from the South Coast Regional Initiative Planning Team (SCRIPT) and a number of key members of the Noongar community for a joint tour of important Noongar sites in and around the Fitz-Stirling section of the Link, plus a visit to Bush Heritage?s Chereninup Creek Reserve and outline of the work underway there. This was followed