Mimal Rangers News
Welcome to our newsletter. Here is a quick look at the last three months of 2021 with the Mimal rangers… |
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| Women in fire
Fighting fire by air
We trained two new women in fire-fighting this year. Plus experienced fire-fighter Anthea Lawrence attended her first fire fought by chopper. She used the chainsaw to chop the burning ends off fallen trees. This reduces the burn time and the chance of embers being carried by the wind and re-starting fires days after we have extinguished them.
The 2021 women’s fire camp video has also been released. Featuring Mimal, ASRAC, Bawinanga and Parks and Wildlife, the footage captures the women training, sharing and talking about their future aspirations. Watch it at the link below…
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| Final Flames
Busy Fire Season
The fire season was much kinder to us this year compared to recent times, we had more moisture in the soil and plants keeping our early burns small and none of our late fires were pushed with hot dry and windy conditions. However, we made our own luck by planning and successfully burning strategic fire breaks early in the early dry season and responding early to wildfires with a dedicated crew of rangers. We responded to more fires than past years – there was a lot of lightening activity especially in the east. Through a combination of early response, hard work and light winds we were able to get all wildfires under control quickly.
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Midnight Spring Fence
Exclusion fencing for feral animals to improve our waterways
Mimal Rangers have built a 2.9km exclusion fence around Midnight Spring that will help to improve the waterway by keeping out feral animals. The fence will keep out large herbivores like buffalo, pigs, donkeys and cattle. These animals muddy up the water and cause damage to plants in the water and on the banks. By keeping these animals away from sensitive waterways, the native ecosystem improves very quickly. Our Feral animal management coordinator (FAMCO) has made a film comparing fenced and unfenced areas that clearly shows how important it is to keep these animals away from the waterways. This film will be out soon and we will send a link when it goes live. |
Strong Women
Local women’s network meet up
The women of Bulman and Weemol came together for our third local strong women’s network meeting. This also gave Kate Van Wezel our new Strong Women for Healthy Country coordinator the chance to meet us all in person. Kate talked us through the report from the last women’s forum and the women discussed their own needs and ideas. The rangers also attended an online message sticks meeting which virtually links women from the network to support each other and to plan the 2022 forum. |
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Healthy Animals
Biosecurity update
We are thankful to have a great partnership with Bravecto and Ropergulf vets. The medicine delivery program can help keep dogs tick free for around 3 months. We are doing our best to protect our people and animals from deadly ehrlichiosis. It is a sickness that is passed on through ticks. The parasite can also make humans sick. Ticks can even cause heart problems in babies and children. If you see a dog with ticks around community please let us know. |
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Learning on country
Mimal rangers and community elders pass on their knowledge
The latter half of 2021 has been action packed in the Learning on Country program which is a collaboration between Bulman school and Mimal Land Management. Students are currently involved in Learning on Country activities once a week, in half or full day activities on country where they are taught a wide range of land management skills and passed language and cultural knowledge from elders and rangers. LOC Activities have most recently included bark cutting and preparing for painting, river walks with a focus on plant knowledge and seasons, bird spotting and bird language names. Propagating important bush tucker and useful plants to be planted at the school and ranger base has also been a big part of the program. The older boy students have been out with elders and rangers selecting the correct trees to make didgeridoos ( Morlu in Dalabon or Bambu in Kriol) and then preparing them, learning to play and also to be part of traditional dance.
2021 was also the first year of Learning on Country camps.
Students took part in over 3 days at Australian Wildlife Conservancy’s Wongalara reserve. These are our neighbours, managing land further south on the Wilton River. Students were so happy to camp over two nights and learn both science monitoring techniques from staff and also learn stories of this place from elders, where their families are traditional owners.
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Sugar glider nest boxes and monitoring
Monitoring on country for tree mammals
The rangers and Bulman school students in our Learning on Country program have been working on a project to create homes for Savannah gliders – Petaurus ariel (Sugar gliders or lambalk in Dalabon). We have been working hard over the last few months to install the 100 nest boxes that were made on the ranger base. These have been installed in 10 different areas where traditional owners and community members are interested in adding shelter for gliders and finding out if they are inhabiting the area. We have been installing cameras in all of the sites to see if gliders or any mammals are using the nest boxes or present in the areas. |
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| Lifesaving skills
Upskilling our people
Accessing training in remote areas can but challenging but our good partnerships are delivering more regular support. In fact, it’s been a busy few months for training.
We undertook First aid with St Johns and heavy rigid vehicle licences with CDU. Plus we joined Ropergulf in undertaking chainsaw and white card training. |
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| Daluk Connections
Warddeken women’s camp
Warddeken and their TOs invited our women to their Daluk camp. With a focus on healing and wellbeing specifically for daluk, the camp was a calm space for women and children to connect, reflect and hold important conversations about caring for country and culture. There was also ample time for weaving, collecting bushfoods, singing, and swimming in the heat of kurrung (the build up season). |
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Festive Finale
Santa Comes to Bulman Weemol
Sadly due to Covid risks, our big end of year party was cancelled, but it didn’t stop Santa getting around Weemol and Bulman with gifts for all the houses and food that had been cooked by the rangers. A big thank you goes out to everyone, near and far who have supported us through the last year. We can’t wait to see what 2022 brings…. |
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Mimal Land Management
Ranger Base Lot 31 Weemol Community NT 0852
Phone (08) 8977 4051
Darwin Office 4 / 98 Woods Street, Darwin NT 0810
Post PO Box 754 Nightcliff, Darwin NT 0814
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