Mulyamiji March 2024

Kate Cranney

Tjuwanpa Women Rangers and Mala Rangers march across Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park in search of tjakura.

For the second year in a row, March saw Traditional Owners and Indigenous rangers from across the desert come together with scientists and land managers for the largest collaborative threatened species monitoring event in the Australian desert – Mulyamiji March.

Combining their expert tracking skills and local knowledge with the latest and greatest in science, Indigenous rangers marched across the desert in search of the Great Desert Skink, also known as tjakura, mulyamiji, tjalapa, warrarna and nampu.

"They been looking after these tjakuras for a long time. That's why it's for us mob to look after it, and the young fellas."

Cedric Thompson, Mala Ranger

Kuyu pungu (master trackers) surveying at Newhaven with Australian Wildlife Conservancy: Margaret Lewis, Caroline Gibson, Alice Henwood, Lee Wayne, Cindy Gibson and Irian Kuen.

The tjakura is a large orange skink, around the size of a blue-tongued lizard. They live in large communal family burrow systems with a communal toilet where the family deposit their scats.

Dr Rachel Paltridge, IDA Ecologist, with a tjakura at Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park.

Once widespread across the desert, but now threatened by the combined impacts of feral cat predation and wildfire, tjakura occur almost exclusively on Indigenous land, and have strong tjukurrpa (Dreaming songs, sites, stories) across the desert. They thrive in areas where Indigenous rangers conduct traditional burning and cat management.

"For tjakura it's a very important story through here, big tjukurrpa through here. People ate them at the time, when it was plentiful, everywhere, everywhere in the desert."

Leroy Lester, Mala Ranger

Left: Wiluna Martu rangers; Mala and Tjuwanpa Women Rangers surveying at UKTNP. Right: Birriliburu rangers surveying on Martu country.

Even with lots of flooding through Country, making survey conditions less ideal, 13 ranger teams joined the march across the desert in search of tjakura. As the monitoring event grows, more ranger teams are joining the program. Tjuwanpa Women Rangers travelled to Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park to connect up with Mala Rangers and learn the ropes of tjakura surveys, so they can do similar monitoring back on Arrernte country.

"I've learnt how to do the survey here, so I am planning to have my project in tracking and see what we can find in our area."

Sonya Braybon, Tjuwanpa Women Ranger

By implementing management actions from the new recovery plan and surveying these sites every year, rangers are hoping that they will see an increase in the national tjakura population over the next ten years.

Here are some key highlights from the national survey:

Most active burrows:

Kiwirrkurra rangers, with 114 burrows
Uluru Kata-Tjuta Mala rangers, with 90 burrows

Biggest effort/most sites surveyed:

Uluru Kata-Tjuta Mala rangers, with 34 sites

Best school participation:

Warakurna school, who worked with Ngaanyatjarra rangers and spent some time studying tjakura at school

Best photo:

Wiluna Martu rangers, with camera trap images they posted

Best social media post:

CLC Tjakura rangers

Most improved:

Ngalurrtju rangers

Kiwirrkurra rangers with the trophy for finding the most burrows during Mulyamiji March 2024, pictured with Tony Armstrong and Dr Rachel Paltridge.

Nolia Ward, Yalti Napangati and Jodie Ward with the trophy.

The Indigenous Desert Alliance (IDA) is coordinating the implementation of priority actions in the Great Desert Skink Recovery Plan with support from the Australian Government's Saving Native Species Program and NESP Resilient Landscapes Hub. NESP is supported through funding from the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program. The IDA gives special thanks to the 15 Indigenous Ranger Programs who contributed their expert skills and knowledge to Mulyamiji March in 2024.