Foremost in importance in the land management issues to be addressed on our homelands, but certainly not alone in its urgency, is land degradation. This major management issue is caused almost exclusively by prolific and unregulated third-party access to and use of our homelands and weed and feral animal infestation.
Objectives:
- To repair, revegetate and rehabilitate degraded areas on Kaanju homelands.
- To regulate third-party access to and use of Kaanju homelands.
- To control and where possible, eradicate weeds and feral animals on Kaanju homelands.
Unregulated Third-party Use and Access
Kaanju people recognise as a major management issue the intrusion onto our homelands of third-party users, such as tourists, four-wheel-drivers, pig hunters, commercial and recreational fishermen and prospectors. Unregulated use of Kaanju land and resources by outsiders is made blatant by the many unapproved roads and tracks which criss-cross Kaanju country, the camps that have been cleared without authority, and the rubbish heaps that have been left behind. While we understand that some visitors to our homelands may be responsible, prolific and unregulated use of our homelands remains a major land degradation problem.
The use and abuse of our homelands is also evident in weed and feral animal infestation and the desecration of important cultural and ecological sites and landscapes. Some areas of our homelands are more damaged than others. We are devastated that this impact is most apparent at one of our main Story Places, the area of Malandaji.
We have a project currently in progress, Protection of Historical, Social, Cultural and Spiritually Significant Sites, and a project pending, Chuulangun Aboriginal Camp Grounds Proposal that that will address the issue of unregulated third-party access to and use of our homelands.
Weed and Feral Animal Control
Weeds and feral animals have infested many areas of our homelands on the Wenlock and Pascoe Rivers. Pigs, horses and cattle cause significant damage to the riverbanks and lagoon systems by churning up beds and trampling or rooting vegetation and the ground. This problem is also evident across the alluvial flat country throughout Kaanju homelands. The invasion of weeds is dramatic evidence of the presence of these feral animals. Their role in the scattering of seeds (and the spread of weeds) and diseases in native vegetation, poses concern for Kaanju people.
Horses and cattle also have an impact on fauna species as they compete with wallaroos, wallabies, kangaroos and emus for native grasses and seeds. Kaanju people have observed a decline in the numbers of these native fauna species throughout our homelands. In areas where cattle have eaten out grasses, they do significant damage to native fruit trees, which are an important subsistence food for Kaanju people living on homelands.
Weed issues are also of increasing concern to Kaanju people. We have identified a number of serious weed threats, including the invasive species Andropogon gayanus (Gamba grass), Themeda quadrivalvis (Grader grass), Urochloa mutica (Para Grass) as well as the highly invasive Weed of National Significance Hymenachne amplexicaulis (Olive Hymaenachne). In addition, a number of weed species not yet present on Kaanju homelands but present elsewhere in north Queensland, such as Mimosa pigra (Mimosa), Hyparrhenia rufa (Thatch grass) and Crytpostegia grandiflora (Rubber Vine), have the potential to colonise and spread rapidly through our homelands.
Weeds pose real threats to Kaanju cultural values and to the sustainable development of our homelands. Further, uncontrolled and increasing levels of tourism on Kaanju homelands has the potential to give rise to rapidly expanding weed populations. We are developing a Weed and Feral Animal Management Plan that will set out strategies for the control and eradication of pests, including fencing off areas to restrict access by cattle, pigs and horses and the public, early intervention in weed control and the revegetation and rehabilitation of degraded areas.
Chuulangun Aboriginal Corporation has a Weeds Project pending, and another project currently in progress, Revegetation and Protection of Upper Wenlock River, will begin to tackle the issue of pest management and the rehabilitation of areas degraded by the incursion of weeds and feral animals. PestInfo software will be used as a means for recording data and will be incorporated into updates of the Kaanju Ngaachi web site.
