This second edition (2025-2035) of the Healthy Country Plan incorporates the management prescription for the Arafura Swamp IPA. Our goals align closely with those of the IPA program; both aim to look after Country and support Indigenous culture while generating jobs, training and livelihoods for Yolŋu and Bi.
Monitoring and evaluation of Indigenous Land and Sea Management: An Indigenous-led approach in the Arafura Swamp, northern Australia
Balpara: A Practical Approach to Working With Ontological Difference in Indigenous Land & Sea Management
A nature-based solutions assessment framework integrating indigenous biocultural and ecosystem services perspectives: An Australian example.
More Rangers have completed their Remote First Aid training, gaining essential skills to handle emergencies in remote areas. The course covered important topics like trauma care, CPR, and how to respond to medical situations when help is far away.
What an incredible day spent with the Rangers and the Learning on Country (LOC) kids, as they dived into the essential practice of roadside burning and its critical role in environmental conservation.
During this fire season, our top priority is ensuring our Rangers are prepared for any emergency. This week, our dedicated team in Donydji completed Remote First Aid Training with Careflight.
We recently had an incredible visit from the Black Wattle Biocontrol CSIRO team. It was a fantastic opportunity for our Miyalk (women) rangers to build their capacity in scientific methods and enhance their ability to collaborate effectively.
With the dry season approaching, Rangers are taking proactive measures to safeguard the community through a controlled burning program, a key part of their Asset Protection strategy.
The Rangers have successfully conducted their Aerial Platform Shooting Training, preparing them with the skills needed to manage feral animals such as buffalo and wild pigs.
As fire season approaches, ASRAC Rangers are gearing up to ensure everyone is equipped with the knowledge. This week, we kicked off our training sessions, focusing on utilizing fire equipment efficiently with the Raindance machine.
ASRAC Rangers gathered with other fellow ranger groups at Barrapunta for fire meeting! Together, they delved into strategic planning for a healthy approach to firefighting in the upcoming season.
Our Rangers had the incredible opportunity to present at the Crocodile Specialist Group Conference 2024 in Darwin. We’re bursting with pride as they fearlessly took the stage to share their experiences and insights about the Croc Farm.
Led by Samantha Saynor from CDU and harnessing the power of Avenza, the Rangers delved deep into the art of navigation and exploration.
Senior Miyalk (Woman) Ranger, Mali Djarrbal visited Fiji as part of the First Nations Oceania First Voices Australia Forum. Mali described her experience as nothing short of amazing.
We’re thrilled to announce that our Stage 2 Crocodile Farm is officially up and running! After a long period of meticulous planning and preparation, we’ve reached this significant milestone, marking a new chapter in our conservation efforts.
ASRAC’s Donydji and Dhupuwamirri Rangers are working to stop the spread of highly invasive Gamba Grass on their country.
Arafura Swamp Ranger and Indigenous Carbon Industry Network (ICIN) Director Neville Gulaygulay recently hosted ICIN guests on his country near Ramingining in Arnhem Land.
Life-saving skills are vital when you’re out in the bush hundreds of kilometres from the nearest hospital. This week rangers did the CareFlight Remote Trauma Course at Ramingining.
Congratulations Mali Djarrbal on being promoted to Senior Miyalk Ranger! Mali has worked for ASRAC for 10 years and does a great job looking after country.
We are halfway towards our 2027 Healthy Country goals. Are we on track?
The M&E Dillybag forms part of the Intercultural Monitoring and Evaluation Project (IMEP) and gathers the work we have done so far in one place.
In late February, rangers spotted a False Killer Whale whilst out on a sea patrol near Rabooma Island in the Arafura Sea.
ASRAC’s Miyalk (Women) Rangers led a research trip to Gurruwiling (the Arafura Swamp) to help CDU PhD and Honours students, Isabel Ely and Mick Taylor, search for Banda (Long-necked Turtles).
Otto Campion was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the Vice Chancellor of Charles Darwin University, Professor Scott Bowman AO.
Video footage of the ASRAC Communication Skills Workshop held in June 2021.
Over the past two and a half years ASRAC has been working on a country-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to help track progress against the Healthy Country Plan.
Top End Conservation Management and ASRAC Integrated Weed Management Plan 2021-2025.
Wild Science Five-Year Management Plan for the Control of Feral Animals in the Arafura Swamp Basin, Arnhem Land, 2021-2025.
ASRAC and Bush Heritage Australia Arafura Swamp Region Map, July 2021.
Arnhem Land has a new crocodile hatchery! The first stage of ASRAC’s state-of-the-art facility at Ramingining opened on July 29, 2021.
Our rangers feature in this NAIDOC Week video produced by Country Needs People.
This week Ian Brown (ASRAC CEO), Yaakov Bar-lev (Ranger Manager), Neville Gulaygulay (Ranger and ASRAC Director) and Mali Djarrbal (Ranger and ASRAC Director) participated in a Country Needs People (CNP) meeting of the five Yolŋu land and sea management groups of north-east Arnhem Land.
Otto Campion editing the video which formed part of his presentation on “Landscape, fire and people” at the 2021 North Australia Savanna Fire Forum this week in Darwin.
Green plum (Buchanania obovata) is ready to eat before the wet season starts.
Rangers from Dhipirri, Mirrngatja, and Donydji along with Ramingining staff recently learnt how operate, service and repair small engines and equipment.
It’s been a big feral buffalo week for Learning on Country Program students at Ramingining School. Buffalo in Gurruwiling (the Arafura Swamp) provide an economic opportunity but damage the environment
ASRAC has received funding from the NT Aboriginal Ranger Grants Program to control Mimosa pigra.
The Arafura Swamp in north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory is one of seven new proposed Indigenous Protected Areas announced by the Australian Government in October 2019.
Djïḻpin is my country. It is my country because it belonged to my father and my grandfather.
In May 2019, ASRAC rangers attended the 7th National Fire Management Conference in Botswana, hosted by the International Savanna Fire Management Initiative (ISFMI).
My Happy Place by Mali Djarrbal in Bush Tracks Magazine, Winter 2019.
Mimosa (Mimosa pigra) and Olive Hymenachme (Hymenachne amplexicaulis) are the most serious environmental weeds found in the Arafura Swamp region.
The Yolŋu Seasons Calendar visually demonstrates changes to the landscape across our six seasons and availability of bush tucker throughout the year.
Swamp Supermarket story and photo essay by David Hancock in Outback Magazine Issue #122, Dec 2018-Jan 2019.
The Arafura Swamp IPA proposal outlines an Indigenous community initiative to establish an IPA in central Arnhem Land. It is designed to accompany the Arafura Swamp Rangers Aboriginal Corporation Healthy Country Plan.
The water mouse, or false water rat, has been so rarely sighted, Territory authorities struggle to classify it as either vulnerable or threatened.
The Arafura Swamp Rangers Aboriginal Corporation has been awarded more than half a million dollars to expand its crocodile hatchery in Ramingining.
Arafura Swamp Rangers are preparing to join a new education program aimed at improving student numeracy and literacy through real world training.
Aboriginal traditional owners in the Arafura Swamp region are preparing to open a crocodile hatchery in Ramingining.
The Arafura Swamp Rangers Aboriginal Corporation has moved a step closer to independence and direct control of its land management area, after taking over the working on country contract.
The Arafura Swamp is considered unique in its size and range of relatively intact wetlands in the Northern Territory, with the paperbark forests kept well-watered through the dry season by springs along the Goyder River.
The Arafura Swamp Rangers Aboriginal Corporation (ASRAC) recently launched their 10-year Healthy Country Plan, with support from Bush Heritage Australia, to protect Aboriginal culture, knowledge and ecosystems across 1.2 million hectares of East Arnhem Land.
Australia’s largest wooded swampland is just part of a 12,000 square kilometre block of land in the Northern Territory that will be managed for the next decade by more than 20 Aboriginal clans under a new management plan.
Not long after dawn has broken over Murwangi, a patient crocodile hides in the shade near a plump of unsuspecting ducks, and the barramundi seem eager to bite every time Peter Djigirr and Marley Djangirr toss their lures into the billabong.
A group of Indigenous rangers are working to save the Arafura swamp after years of neglect and damage by feral animals.
The Healthy Country Plan was prepared for ASRAC by Yolŋu and Bi clans and families, the traditional owners and djungkayi of the land and sea that is connected to Gurruwiling (the Arafura Swamp).
Overview report on Arafura Swamp Sites of Conservation Significance, Northern Territory Government.
Report on population estimate of Asian water buffalo and wild cattle in the Arafura Swamp, central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory Naturalist 2007.
A report to Yolŋu custodians and the Natural Heritage Trust, August 2003.
NT Government Technical Report on Arafura Swamp Water Resources, 2003.
We know that the land needs its people to care for it and to keep it healthy. In the same way we know that caring for the country keeps us healthy – physically, spiritually and mentally.
