Published: 24 Sep 2024

Country Needs People welcomes the commitment by the Queensland Liberal National Party to grow investment in the Queensland Indigenous Land and Sea Program made earlier this week.

“Queensland has a unique, highly successful state-funded investment in community-based Indigenous Land and Sea Rangers”, says Patrick O’Leary, CEO of Country Needs People.

“Queensland’s nationally leading Indigenous Land and Sea Ranger Program has run for 17 years – and now supports over 200 local jobs across 47 remote and regional areas, providing a better approach to managing key environmental pressures. Indigenous Rangers keep people, nature and culture strong and are at the frontline of many of Queensland’s biggest challenges, caring for Country for all Queenslanders.”

“Indigenous Rangers are not conventional national park rangers but collaborate with and enhance the work of parks agencies as the Traditional Owners of these areas. They see the connectedness, on and off parks, from land to sea and through the landscape.”

Indigenous Rangers are led by Indigenous community-based organisations right across Queensland from the tip of the Cape to the Southern border and from the Lake Eyre Basin to the Barrier Reef Coast. 

“The LNP commitment to grow the Queensland Indigenous Land and Sea Ranger program over time means existing Indigenous Ranger jobs will be secure, and we can look forward to more growth into the future”, says Patrick O’Leary, CEO of Country Needs People.

Queensland’s Indigenous Land and Sea Ranger program creates meaningful, critical jobs in the bush, the regions and even the cities.  Combining traditional knowledge with contemporary science, Indigenous Rangers greatly enhance the delivery of land and sea management and protection across Queensland. 

Indigenous Rangers are working to reduce feral animal impacts, controlling invasive weeds, managing fire, protecting threatened species and conducting erosion repair, cultural site management, research and monitoring. They are also increasingly responding to extreme weather events like flooding, wildfires and cyclones, driven by a heating climate.  

“Every Queenslander benefits from the work Indigenous Rangers do, and every Queenslander should be proud of these Rangers and their work”, says Patrick O’Leary. “Other states could learn from the Queensland approach.”

“We urge that whoever wins government sees the value of strengthening and supporting Queensland’s Indigenous Land and Sea Ranger program, and maintains the ranger support unit in the Department of Environment, to ensure local Indigenous host organisations and their Ranger teams are given the best possible chance to succeed in their work.”

Led by a majority Indigenous board, Country Needs People is a leading national non-profit non-partisan organisation committed to Indigenous Land & Sea Management. Alongside 50 Indigenous Partners Country Needs People works to grow, strengthen and advocate for Indigenous Rangers, to ensure Traditional Owners and their organisations are properly supported to deliver land and sea management Australia-wide.