SA Aboriginal rangers unite to tackle feral threats as national program expands

More than 200 Aboriginal land and sea rangers from across South Australia have gathered for the state’s first dedicated ranger conference, sharing strategies on feral animals, biosecurity and career pathways as the national Indigenous Rangers Program enters a major expansion phase.

The inaugural South Australian Aboriginal Land and Sea Ranger Conference was held in Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills, bringing together rangers from mobs across nearly the entire state. The event was organised by the Alinytjara Wilutura Landscape Board in partnership with Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal Corporation’s Yarluwar-Ruwe Rangers.

While rangers come from vastly different environments — from desert Country to coastal wetlands — conference organisers said common challenges are increasingly obvious: invasive plants and animals, pressure on native species, and the need to build strong training and career pathways for young people who want to work on Country.

As Kim Krebs from the Alinytjara Wilutura Landscape Board noted, rangers often draw on a mix of resources and determination to get the job done. “Sometimes they’ll do it with a bit of funding from the federal government, some of it comes from the state government and some of it just comes from the heart,” Ms Krebs said.

One example raised at the gathering was the impact of foxes and other feral animals on vulnerable shorebirds. Yarluwar-Ruwe ranger Cameron Clarke described the blow dealt to a local effort to protect fairy tern nests — only for foxes to attack most of the monitored sites. “I was really devastated by that because all the hard work we did putting up the fences around them only to find fox prints and broken shells,” he said.

The conference also highlighted the breadth of ranger work statewide, including conservation programs on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, where rangers have been involved in efforts to re-establish warru (black-footed rock wallaby) populations in areas the species had disappeared from.

The gathering comes as the Commonwealth moves to significantly scale up the Indigenous Rangers Program. Round Two outcomes of the program’s expansion include funding for 82 new ranger projects nationally, with the National Indigenous Australians Agency stating the investment is designed to help double the Indigenous ranger workforce by 2030. For young people weighing up their future, experienced rangers say the job can open doors well beyond land and sea management. “Use it as a stepping stone,” Daryle Clarke said.