The Western Yalanji rangers play a vital role in protecting the wildlife and environment of the Palmer River area. Photo: Supplied.
Cape York and Torres Strait residents and visitors were encouraged to take a moment on 31 July to recognise the essential role of rangers in the conservation of our iconic wildlife and beautiful environment for World Ranger Day.
Rangers covered everything from prevention, management, healing and education, according to Queensland Rangers Association president Corinna Browne said.
“The day to day of rangers is quite varied – we come up with many different challenges and we’re problem solvers,” she said.
“Our day could look like anything, from walking tracks for maintenance, to doing visitor engagement and education.
“We have different times of the year where we’ll do pest management and fire management, and included into that, we are keeping an eye on threatened species.
“On the flip side of that, we are dealing with negative interactions with human-wildlife conflict, and the compliance side of keeping our protected areas and our wildlife safe.”
Ms Browne said although Queensland’s rangers were fairly well resourced and supported, there were many aspects of the job people did not know about.
“We’re very lucky in Queensland that we have many great tools that enable us to do the work that we need to do on the ground, and we do have good support and recognition from the community,” she said.
“What we do is quite dangerous, quite difficult, and a lot of people don’t realise the distances we travel, how remote we work, the sacrifices we make, like time away from family.”
In Cape York’s Palmer River region, the Western Yalanji Indigenous rangers combine traditional First Nations knowledge with the role, resulting in effective burns that have brought wildlife back into the area.
“Before we came in and started doing burns here and managing the property, there was hardly any wildlife around,” Western Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation chief executive officer Brad Grogan said.
“Now you’ve got all your parrots and lorikeets returning; you’ve got your lizards and goannas and frilled-neck lizards returning.
“You can really see the change in environment just from a little bit of management.”
Mr Grogan said he was glad the people involved in conserving the environment enjoyed by all were being recognised, not just on World Ranger Day.
“It just makes you feel proud that what you do is actually being recognised,” he said.
“We’re based in the middle of nowhere, but we do our jobs and be part of the Country and part of the healing process.”
Parts of Cairns went green on 31 July to recognise the contribution of the region’s rangers for World Ranger Day. Photo: Supplied.
