Botanist John Morgan and Taungurung young people connect with country at Mt Buffalo.
Representatives from North-East Catchment Management Authority, Parks Victoria and Taungurung recently completed three days of training on alpine ecology and on-ground weed control on alpine peatland complexes across Mt Buffalo National Park.
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The training aims to build capacity for managing the sensitive areas, foster partnerships, increase opportunities for Traditional Owners to connect with Country, and discuss cultural knowledge and values that have shaped these environments for thousands of years.
“We are land managers, this is what we do,” Taungurung Elder Corrie Leatham said.
The training covered topics including the unique features of the Australian Alps and native fauna and flora, as well as discussions on legacy impacts, ongoing threats and future challenges.
A key focus was the alpine peatlands, as well as mountain pygmy-possums, weeds and exotic grasses that threaten Mt Buffalo and rehabilitation of alpine environments — including best practices and inspiring stories of success.
Biik Environmental is an an enterprise established by Taungurung Land and Waters Council to provide cultural and natural resource management services across Taungurung country.
Biik Environmental project officer Ryan Markwick said activities complemented the concept of “reading country, which combines the traditional cultural knowledge and western science to implement effective management”.
“The skills and knowledge built for Taungurung’s NRM programs is not only a building process to create a professional and high-quality land management service, it creates the ability for Taungurung young people to continually engage with ancestrally significant areas of land,” Mr Markwick said.
Biik field officers have worked with Parks Victoria to survey and control invasive weeds in remote areas of Mt Buffalo.
“We are aware of the willow’s ability to spread seed across larger distances, and finding well-established plants that may be responsible for the presence of newer shoots in other parts of the park catchment was very satisfying,” Mr Markwick said.
Working on country and sharing knowledge creates a professional and high-quality land management service and creates the ability for Taungurung young people to continually engage with ancestrally significant areas of land.
“Caring for country is all-encompassing.
“Not just the treatment of invasive species, but moving through country and reading what makes it healthy — how the movement of plants and animals work; reading the landscape for geomorphological processes; and re-establishing connections to and continuation of ancestral custodianship of country.
“We left with a sense of further optimism that momentum can be built upon to allow Traditional Owners to actively manage country under the ethos of ‘Caring for Country’.”
