Land Care

Introduction

Aboriginal landcare is about looking after the land which surrounds the town areas of communities and homelands. These areas are large (4 to 10 sq. km.) and are defined as the land in which cemetries, sports ovals, camping areas for visitors, buffer zones etc. are established. They are re-vegetated with the aid of natural rainfall rather than traditional methods of irrigation. Seed of trees, shrubs, grasses etc. are directly sown into ponding banks, staggered furrows and spirals which collect and pond rain water to assist the germination of the seed.

Area outside of Kalka community. Grass land was burnt out and didn't re-grow because of insufficient rainfall over a 2 year period

These areas usually require re-vegetating because trees and shrubs have been harvested and used by the local community. The lack of vegetation cover allows the wind to de-stabilise the exposed soil surface resulting in very dusty conditions within the community as well as the associated health problems. Landcare programs are designed to re-vegetate these degraded land areas and they are usually initiated by the community.

The areas between communities and homelands, often referred to as the rangelands are managed using traditional methods of patch burning. Aboriginal landcare is also about looking after land between communities and Homelands and is often referred to as the rangelands. These are managed using traditional methods of patch burings. Where necessary some of the rangeland can be directly seeded with grass seed etc., however these areas are usually quite small. The careful use of fire can be used to carve out a mosaic in the landscape preventing the loss of species which would normally be destroyed by hot wildfires. Patch burning is a system of burning small areas of vegetation which will easily re-generate after rain.

It's done in the cool months of the year and usually in the late afternoon depending on the weather conditions, ie. temperature and wind strength. The rangeland becomes a patch work of vegetation which is at different stages of growth.

Landcare Projects

Over the years the Land Management unit has encouraged the concept of "Landcare", ie. looking after the various land areas by communities and Homelands. The following projects give a good illustration of what can be achieved:

• Ernabella project
• Pipalyatjara projects
• Kalka project
• Wingelinna project
• Warakurna project
• Patch Burning Workshop
• Warburton project
• Umuwa project
• Amata project
• Seed Collection