At the recent Indigenous Land and Sea Ranger conference held at Kewarra Beach, the Authority’s executive director, Scott Buchanan, and manager Aboriginal Partnerships, Rebecca Lagerroth, attended a ‘speed dating’ information session with Indigenous rangers—groups of rangers were given 10 minutes to talk with Scott and Rebecca, before moving on to the next table. Other organisations involved included Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, Biosecurity Queensland, Queensland Rural Fire Service and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
Scott and Rebecca promoted ways the Authority can support Indigenous rangers within and adjacent to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, such as through technical advice and assistance to develop land management plans, training to strengthen GIS skills and development of project partnerships.
Also representing the Authority at the conference was Mike Stott, who presented a session on ‘Using the internet for mapping’. This included ‘how to’ information relating to Google Earth, QLD Globe, QTOPO, Quantum GIS and NNT. The Authority has offered ongoing assistance to participants at the session, which is already being taken up.
Hosted by the State Government’s Department of Environment and Heritage Protection and the Commonwealth Government’s Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the session was attended by Indigenous rangers from across Queensland and local rangers from Girringun, Jalbalbina, Yirrganydji and Gunggandji.