NT Aboriginal rangers share in $1.4m grant funding for research into everything from turtles to Gamba grass

Aboriginal ranger groups across the Territory have been granted a combined total of $1.4m funding for research projects that include monitoring green turtles on Groote Eylandt and providing aerial support to manage Gamba grass and other pest weeds in the Top End.

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs; Minister for Parks and Rangers Selena Uibo addresses media regarding a new round of grants for the Larrakia Land and Sea Rangers. Picture: Che Chorley

ABORIGINAL ranger groups across the Territory have been granted a combined total of $1.4m funding for research projects that include monitoring green turtles on Groote Eylandt and providing aerial support to manage Gamba grass and other pest weeds in the Top End.

The latest round of Aboriginal Ranger Grants is part of a commitment the NT Government made in 2016, bringing the total spend thus far to $12m.

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Tamika Bray, Land and Sea Ranger on a shell fish survey in the mangroves of Larrakia. Minister for Aboriginal Affairs; Minister for Parks and Rangers Selena Uibo ahas just announced a new round of grant funding for the program. Picture: Che Chorley

Another $12m will be spent by the government in the next four years.

Parks and Rangers Minister Selena Uibo, revealing 13 ranger groups had been awarded funding for 16 different projects in the latest round of funding, said it was “really important to recognise the land management and the economic, environmental, and the social and cultural outcomes” that come from the on-country projects.

Larrakia Rangers, using grant funding from a previous round, have been monitoring the “exploited” populations of edible shellfish including long bums, periwinkles and mud muscles for the last year and a half, with the project now at the halfway mark.

Manager Ben Smith said the rangers had also been involved with the collection of shellfish at the beginning of research conducted into the impact of toxic chemicals once used in firefighting foam (PFAS), as the critters were a good indicator of the environment as they filtered things at the bottom of the creek as they fed.

Land and Sea Rangers on a shell fish survey in the mangroves of Larrakia. Minister for Aboriginal Affairs; Minister for Parks and Rangers Selena Uibo ahas just announced a new round of grant funding for the program. Picture: Che Chorley

Projects in the latest ground of grant funding include $137,184 to Anindilyakwa Land Council to monitor green turtles on Groote Eylandt to “inform conservation, education and inspire community support for their sustainable management”, $100,000 to the Thamarrurr Development Corporation for aerial support for “collaborative management of Gamba grass and Mimosa across the Western Top End (WTE) NT” and $35,587 to the Tiwi Land Council for its program to eradicate tropical fire ants from Melville Island.