Connecting up for the Far West Ranger Gathering

The very first Far West Ranger Gathering was held this February in Scotdesco, South Australia, and was a great opportunity for about 40 rangers from 6 teams in the Far West region to yarn up with each other, spend time together on country, and celebrate the strong network of the Far West region.

The long-awaited gathering was hosted by the Far West Coast Rangers. From planning the workshops and agenda, hauling gear to the event and MCing, the rangers took the lead, helping to bring everyone together and making everyone feel welcome.

Scotdesco is a special place for many of the rangers, it is a small, remote and family-orientated community on the eastern edge of the Nullarbor Plain. The ladies at Scotdesco worked hard all week to make sure everyone was looked after and everyone was comfortable.

The major focuses of the gathering were to showcase ranger work from across the region, learn new things with each other through some joint training, and celebrate the strong network of the Far West region.

“It's good to connect with the rangers that we work close with, like Oak Valley and Yalata, but then also getting to know the new ranger teams, and learning from each other is good.”

Jordan Miller, Far West Coast AC Ranger

Each team had the chance to present on their work, yarning up with some photos and videos so everyone could get to know each other a bit more. This was a great way to see how much variety there is in ranger work in this region!

“The ranger presentations were awesome you know, showing the projects and the patrols they do, and there’s all different ways and methods they do, and it was good to pick up and learn from different rangers, so it was awesome.”

Krystal Newchurch, Oak Valley Rangers

Joint training sessions on two-way mapping, feral predator management, conflict management & compliance, and using Fulcrum good ways were run over the course of the few days.

“We did a lot of workshops, two-way mapping, conflict management, I did a bit on Fulcrum and a bit on feral pest management.”

Ronald Freeman, Far West Coast AC Ranger

In the two-way mapping workshop, led by Kim Mahood, rangers collaborated to make a map of the Far West region. Two-way maps are large canvas maps that show stories, sites, animals, plants and language, and are a great tool for knowledge sharing and keeping culture strong. The Far West Coast and Oak Valley Rangers both made two-way maps for the country they work on, and everyone got to see them to get an idea of what it was all about.

The feral predator management workshop was a chance for rangers and predator management experts to share their knowledge and experience with a range of predator management tools. There were some practical demonstrations on how to set leghold traps, use thermal drones to spot cats at night, and the Far West Coast Rangers showed the group Canid Pest Injectors with dingo excluders, a device that triggers poison for foxes but not for dingoes. The rangers then had the opportunity to practise planning a predator management program to protect a particular species, including choosing the most suitable tools, and planning how to measure the success of the management.

Rangers got some hands-on training in safely dealing with conflict, an important skill for those who interact with tourists, along with how to collect good information for compliance if tourists are doing the wrong thing.

“It’d be useful to take the compliance and management back to Oak Valley way because there’s a lot of tourists go through, and ... there’s certain areas they can’t camp and it’d be good to approach them in a good way.”

Krystal Newchurch, Oak Valley Rangers

Right Place Geo ran the workshop on using Fulcrum good ways. Rangers were able to learn about drone mapping and data systems, learning from each other about the different data tools they all use, and yarning with Staf about what tools might be a good fit for their data and mapping needs. There was also time to have a play around with some different drones!

In between the workshops, there was a lot of time set aside to just connect and have fun with each other. It was a great week with lots of connection and yarning, building up the Far West region network strong ways!

“I’ve learnt a lot over these past few days, just being out on country too and in the workshops. So we’ll be taking a huge chunk away to start our team and build it up.”

William Roderick, Wirangu-Naou Ranger