Recording data right way on Country

3 minute read

In South Australia, a strong network of ranger teams has been working hard to co-design the technology and tools they use to collect and manage their data while working on country. Working collaboratively with Right Place Geo, rangers were particularly interested in learning about how they can improve on data collection after seeing how some neighbouring teams were using their data to tell the story of their ranger work. With their own setup, they want to record the work they do, so they can see how their work meets their community’s goals for Country.

Far West Coast Rangers painted planning map, digitised and now used as a base map layer in their mapping and survey work.

SA Team Spotlight: Far West Coast Rangers

The Far West Coast rangers were one of the teams that worked with Right Place Geo on establishing a system for data collection. The FWC Rangers are a team based in Ceduna, in the far west of South Australia.

Since starting up, the team have been working on managing threats to their country, aiming towards goals set out in their Far West Coast Healthy Country Plan – a traditional-owner led, strategic plan for looking after country. Without their own system for data collection, it was difficult to track their progress towards the goals in their Healthy Country Plan and to tell the story of their work on country.

“It was hard getting information from a piece of paper and a pen, but using this app has made it much easier to do our work proper ways.”

Richard Lennon-Lawrie, FWC Ranger

FWC Rangers Richard Lennon-Lawrie and Troy Newchurch testing out their survey method in the field on country near Ceduna.

FWC Rangers Jordan Miller and Richard Lennon-Lawrie and Stafford Smith, Right Place Geo, designing their dashboard back in the office.

FWC Rangers were familiar with the Fulcrum app through their work with other partners, and decided to trial designing, building and testing their own data forms within the app, based on the data they needed to tell the story of their work and goals.

“Now we have the apps to record our work and log jobs to be done. It is easier to manage the workload and keep communication between us rangers and [National] Parks good.”

FWC Rangers

FWC Ranger Richard Lennon-Lawrie and Stafford Smith, Right Place Geo, testing out fulcrum apps in the field.

FWC Rangers Jordan Miller, Richard Lennon-Lawrie, Troy Newchurch and Stafford Smith, Right Place Geo, doing a quandong survey.

Once the rangers felt comfortable using Fulcrum, Right Place Geo came in and worked with the team to build, design and refine their data collection, and fed that data into their own live dashboard. The rangers designed the dashboard too, using it to collate and analyse their data so they can see the impacts of their work in real time. The dashboard is displayed at their ranger base, so the rangers and visitors can see the story of ranger work on country.

These tools are also being shared and used by other teams in the desert, and the data can be shared easily too – this helps with tracking big threats to country like Buffel grass and the management that rangers are doing. Desert mob are already good at working with each other, and some more good collaboration has come out of designing and sharing these tools between ranger teams.

“And now we’re teaching other people how to use it – that part is about sharing the caring for our Country.”

Richard Lennon-Lawrie, FWC Ranger

Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation

FWCAC manages the Far West Coast land, recognised in law (having been Determined) as belonging to the Far West Coast Aboriginal Peoples in the Federal Court Determination for Native Title on the 5th of December, 2013. The Far West Coast determination covers a vast area of land between the Western Australian Border and Tarcoola to the North and around Streaky Bay to the South. It includes several Aboriginal lands trust holdings such as Yalata Community and Koonibba Community, over which exclusive native title rights have been recognised. This Determination gives the group rights to access and camp on the area, enjoy the land, teach and conduct ceremonies and protect sites of significance on the area. Members of the claim group recall living near the Lake in the early part of last century and the Lake itself is a sacred site. The Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation has over 1500 members, who are serviced by a 12 person Board comprising of 2 Directors representing each of the 6 Cultural Groups. These cultural groups are as follows: Wirangu, Kokatha, Mirning, Yalata, Oak Valley and Roberts Family.

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