Just over five hours south of Sydney, dozens of Indigenous rangers gathered for a three-day forum – the first ever ranger conference for the far South Coast.
Taking place at Mystery Bay, the event is surrounded by significant Dreaming sites – the Mother mountain Gulaga and her two sons, the island Barranguba and smaller mountain Najanuga.
For Yuin Djiringanj Elder Warren Foster, seeing the intergenerational cohort makes him feel "proud and deadly".
“It’s good to see all those younger rangers coming together. Connecting together and learning off each other," he told NITV.
“They’re learning a lot about looking after Country, looking after Mother."
Over 50 rangers from six of the South Coast’s Local Aboriginal Land Councils (LALCs) attended the summit, representing ranger programs at various stages of development.
Aboriginal ranger work covers a variety of land management tasks, including cultural burning, monitoring threatened species and managing sacred sites.
This summit is a mixture of LALC delivered skill-sharing workshops and other expert demonstrations, including thermal drone imagery to track pest and endangered fauna, weed identification, cultural mapping and using virtual reality headsets for surveying cultural sites.
Hosted by NSW South East Local Land Services, the event responds to growing investment in Aboriginal ranger programs across the region and supporting emerging groups with training, connection and practical collaboration.
Groups, like Bateman’s Bay LALC Walbunja Rangers, have been working for over a decade and they’re keen to share their reflections with neighbouring land councils.
Walbunja man Andrew White told NITV that it’s “awesome” to see the empowerment of ranger programs in his region.
“We've sort of felt left behind in some regards to ranger programs and stuff but for us to come together like this is really important”, he said.
The slower uptick of Aboriginal ranger funding in south-east Australia is something that Local Land Services Officer Sonia Bazzacco sees as a reflection of distinct regional challenges, such as the close proximity of lands councils and private land ownership, which limits LALC managed land.
“There's only so much funding in this space, at this moment, and a lot of the ranger groups are saying we don't want to compete with each other - we want to be able to work together," she told NITV.
“This is a really great opportunity for everyone to come together, learn from each other, motivate each other and even find ways to collaborate together because they're all skilled in different areas.”
This event is jointly funded by the Australian government under Saving Native Species and the Natural Heritage Trust and delivered by Southeast Local Land Services.
Organisers hope that events like this connect local communities and create deeper relationships with agencies that can support ranger initiatives.
Many attendees said the event felt surreal but long overdue, including Uncle Noel Webster, who travelled two and a half hours to attend the gathering.
“My Christmases have all come at once, like a kid in a lolly shop, I’m that excited. Couldn’t sleep last night!" the Yuin man said.
"It’s a proud moment for me. Touch on my heartstrings and got to pinch my nerve and skin and make sure it's really, actually happening.
"I didn't think I would see this in my lifetime.”
