5/4/14 Ngunya Jargoon IPA - Bungawalbin - Whiporie Plantation - Coffs Harbour

The tour group listens as Mark with
HotSpots, shows them Borona Pinnata

The tour group spent a fascinating Sunday getting to know more about the aboriginal culture from its "song lines" and stories, to the way their cultural values relate to fire on the landscape.  We began the day just south of Ballina in one of 4 North Eastern NSW Indigenous Protection Areas (IPA) - this one is called Ngunya Jargoon. Ngunya means "my" or "our" and Jargoon means "land."  The IPA is a conservation area that holds a huge variety of flora and fauna.  There are 62 species of orchid that grow 

and are protected here. We were shown a flowering plant called Boronia Pinnata with a pleasant, strong smelling oil, one of many plants being conserved here for its medicinal uses.  The IPA is being studied and conserved for bioprospecting, that is, looking for valuable industrial & medical chemicals and oils in its native plants.  

We were met by Oliver Costello with the Northern Rivers Fire and Biodiversity Consortium, a network of

 land managers and stakeholders working toward a landscape approach to fire and biodiversity in Northeastern New South Wales. Oliver's talk with us focused very much on the success of this IPA in building a fire management plan that was geared toward and around respect for the historic and cultural use of the land by inclusion of the aboriginal land owners, the Jali Council of the Bundjalung Nation. 

Tour group members getting
 Lemon Myrtle tea

We were met, when we arrived, with a fire over which he was making tea, made from leaves of the Lemon Myrtle tree - very good, very lemony and refreshing! 

As has happened almost every stop where we were outside looking at landscapes, the land manager hosting us begins his or her talk by asking us to recognize and honor the original owners of the land, the custodians who have cared for it for  thousands of years making it possible for us to appreciate it today.  A very interesting cultural nod!

The consortium program in place here is called the Firesticks Project which aims to reinvigorate the use of cultural burning by working closely with aboriginal communities to build trust, and thereby buy in and understanding, about the need to put fire on the land in historically appropriate ways that support the complex biodiversity of the land. Oliver says it was not a quick process.  Building the trust with the aboriginal community required time and a willingness to meet, talk and share, as well as set aside some past history, to get to a place where they could begin working together. The Firesticks approach takes into consideration not just the land but the culture of the people that live there.  

The fire management plan has a very strong connection to history.  Oliver talked about that connection all the way back to "the dreaming" which is essentially the Creation for the Aboriginal people. They had a "corroboree," similar to a pow wow among Native Americans in the US, where elders and land managers talked about the history of fire on the land and how it was used to open up pathways

Oliver Costello talks about the IPA

 used by many original people to travel "in country." Those pathways also served as firebreaks and fire scars are where "bush tucker," or aboriginal food grows. He said it's time consuming but the collaboration with the elders was a critical part of making the planning process work.  He says it has to be about more than just the paper that gets signed or it will disappear when specific elders or land managers move on.

There are several conservation areas in Northeastern New South Wales and the research and planning done in each will be used to help the government build better land management practices and research elsewhere. Once the work done in these IPAs is done, the traditional custodians of the land will be a part of communicating that research.  Its also hopes it will help them learn more about their own land and reconnect them to the land and their history.

Mathew Pope -
Forest Corporation

A short bus ride later we were in Whiporie at another pine plantation, this time with a southern pine species.  We heard from Mathew Pope about the challenges of fighting fire where the only have 10 staff members and arson can be a problem! There is also the issue of the local people burning grass to get it to have "green peaks" so its better for grazing, but then once its started burning, simply walking away. Those fire get away a lot and threaten the pine plantations.  SO much time is spent working with neighbors and the community so they recognize the pine as an asset.  For Matthew, all firefighting is inital attack and they use only heavy equipment - dozers and aircraft - to manage it, no hand line at all.   He says 90% of their fire is from re-ignition of purposely started fires. 

Big Dingo!

Following our time at the plantation  we headed back to Coffs Harbour. Along the way we found another "big thing!"  this was a giant Dingo, the native wild dog found all over the Australian Outback! And yes, it has something in its mouth but not a baby (if you've seen the movie!). It was a stuffed Christmas elf for some reason!

We were lucky enough to be done with our day about 3:45 and have some time to walk to the beach areas of Coffs Harbour and dip our toes into the ocean!  The evening ended with dinner down on the Jetty.

Toes in the ocean at Coffs Harbour

Mondays schedule involves working on some of our final report in the morning and heading to the airport to head for Melbourne and the Victoria part of our trip.