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Research

The IDA’s Desert Projects program works closely with IDA Member organisations, Traditional Owners, Indigenous rangers and scientific partners to develop and implement two-way science projects that involve collaborative exchange between Indigenous and scientific knowledge systems based on mutual respect and responsibility. 

The research undertaken informs the planning, implementation and reporting of collaborative land management activities, and allows those activities to be adapted to best deliver interlinked cultural, environmental and economic benefits.

Cailtin Thomas (GACS Rangers), Hannah Cliff (IDA) and Pricilla Reynolds (GACS Rangers) check on a cameratrap being used for mound based monitoring of Malleefowl on Morapoi Station.

Browse the latest published research

Building relationships between First Nations Peoples and Western scientists to increase capacity to understand, respond and adapt to climate change

First Nations and their People have stressed to Western scientists that Country is in distress and…

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Restoring fire management to Australian deserts: progress after a decade of burning

Management can change desert fire regimes, bringing expected cultural and biodiversity benefits. We…

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Extensive fires in Australia’s northern spinifex deserts – investigating the 2023 ‘Black Spring’ and the influence of indigenous fire management

Australian deserts have experienced extensive fires for decades, following interruptions to…

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Fire regimes drive population trends of a threatened lizard in the central and western deserts of Australia

This research collates long term Great Desert Skink monitoring datasets from Uluru Kata Tjuta…

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The relationship between the presence of people, fire patterns and persistence of two threatened species in the Great Sandy Desert

Indigenous Australians who lived in the desert used fire for many purposes. The interruption of…

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Indigenous and cross-cultural wildlife research in Australia

The rights, responsibilities and expertise of Indigenous Australians in Caring for Country are…

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Potential threats and habitat of the night parrot on the Ngururrpa Indigenous Protected Area

Surveys indicate that there could be at least 50 night parrots on the Ngururrpa IPA, which is the…

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Extant and extinct bilby genomes combined with Indigenous knowledge improve conservation of a unique Australian marsupial

Ninu (greater bilby, Macrotis lagotis) are desert-dwelling, culturally and ecologically important…

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"I’ve got my mother who knows about all of this [Malleefowl], you know, but working two ways, you know, scientists and Aboriginal people working together. Get everything in motion and don’t stand back and wait… We’re going to get people coming out or helping us to go, okay, this is what we need to do, you know, and this is how we can work together.”

Fifi Harris, Tjiwarl

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