Finding more ways to care for Country

“It’s very rewarding travelling on Country and being able to access and assess the sites that our ancestors occupied before us. And being given the opportunity to protect these sites from further damage comes with a huge responsibility that our Rangers are very capable of upholding”.

These are the words of Ranger Coordinator Rob Baxter – and that sense of purpose is at the heart of what GLaWAC’s On Country Rangers have been doing lately: getting out across Country, working with the RAP team and building their skills in cultural heritage assessment.

On the ground, that has meant checking out sites in the Mitchell River National Park – some first recorded back in the 1970s and 1980s – as well as places around Shoreline Drive in the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park. Rangers have even been flying drones to cover more ground, gathering the information needed to work out priorities for protection.

And it doesn’t stop when they leave the field. Rangers Logan Hudson and Shakiah Tungai, along with RAP Site Monitor Amelia Harrison, recently headed to the Monash archaeology labs in Melbourne to sort through material from excavated sites – adding another layer to their understanding of the places they work to protect. 

“We are very fortunate to be given this opportunity as guardians of Country”, reflected Rob.

There are so many ways to deepen our knowledge of Country, and we are keen to take advantage of them all so we can protect it for generations to come.