Aboriginal stakeholders, landholders and Western Local Land Services (Western LLS) have been working together to pro-tect Aboriginal cultural heritage values in the Euabalong area prior to undertaking substantial weed control works.
The weed control works, which were pri-marily to remove African boxthorn, mesquite and cactus, came about through the 2021-22 Western Weed Manage-ment Program which is coordinated by Western LLS.
As part of the program and prior to any on-ground works commenc-ing, the participating landholders and Western LLS are working with local Aboriginal stake-holders to undertake assessments for Aborigi-nal cultural heritage and record all known sites.
Western LLS Senior Land Services Officer, Andrea Cashmere said this work is helping to protect Aboriginal cultural heritage values and ensure that sites are not disturbed and are protected into the future.
“Ensuring we do not harm any Aboriginal cultural heritage values and are actually pro-tecting heritage is an extremely important part of this program,” Ms Cashmere said.
“While this is fundamentally a weed control program, the protection of Aboriginal cultural heritage values is part of good land manage-ment practice.
“Participating landholders gain a better un-derstanding of Aboriginal heritage on their properties and why it’s important to protect it.
“Surveying sites allows for knowledge to be shared amongst community and gets commu-nity working together on Country which is really important for culture.”
Through the 2021-22 Western Weed Man-agement Program, 28 landholders were contract-ed to carry out control works to improve and sustain the condition of close to 25,000 hectares of natural resources through the control of invasive African boxthorn, mes-quite and cactus.
With African Boxthorn out competing the native understory and altering the structure of the vegetation community, as well as being a haven for pest animals such as foxes and rab-bits, the control works were carried out in targeted areas to help protect Plains-wanderer habitat and Coolibah Black-Box Threatened Ecological Communities.
Landholders interested in participating in the 2022-23 Western Weed Management Pro-gram are encouraged to contact WLLS.
This program is supported by Western Lo-cal Land Services, through funding from the Australian Government.
