River Red Gum vegetation survey project

Aaron Eulenstein

Over the long weekend in late January members of the Barmah Millewa Collective of Friends of the Earth camped on Wadi Wadi country in the Nyah Vinifera River Red Gum Park on the banks of the mighty Murray River, just north of Swan Hill. The purpose of the weekend was to work in conjunction with Wadi Wadi Traditional Owners on a culturally directed vegetation survey project.

We were honoured to be hosted by Traditional Owner Cain Chaplin who provided amazing insight into Wadi Wadi culture and connection to this amazing Red Gum Park.

Providing direction on survey methodology and technique was Damien Cook, senior ecologist from Australian Ecosystems. Also participating in the project was Elaine Cook, Tiku Peters, Dave Crawford, Neil Macfarlane, Nilgun Guven, Floyd O'Dwyer, Emel O'Dwyer and Teri Young from Melbourne.

The weekend succeeded in establishing four permanent 10x10m quadrants in areas indicated as being of cultural significance to Wadi Wadi people by Cain and ecological significance by Damien. Flora was recorded from each quadrant to establish baseline data from which future surveys will build. The long-term aim of the survey is to assist Wadi Wadi in their ability to strategically contribute to management strategies concerning the Nyah Vinifera Red Gum Park within their Joint Management agreement, the framework of which is currently being negotiated.

As well as the goal of beginning vegetative records for areas of cultural significance within the park, the project also aimed to create a sense of community engagement within the park and the joint management process. I would particularly like to thank Neil Macfarlane from the Mid Murray Field Naturalists Club for coming along on Sunday to participate in the surveys and for contributing his amazing personal knowledge and experience of local flora and ecology.

The Barmah Millewa Collective actively campaigns for and supports the processes of Joint Management and this project was a clear example of what can be achieved by joint management at a local community level. We would strongly support other activities of this nature and anyone wanting to be involved in learning more about the processes of Joint Management and how to build capacity for joint management should contact the Barmah Millewa Collective at FoE Melbourne's office. We have upcoming events planned for this year including returning to the park to do follow up surveys of the established quadrants and hopefully establishing more survey quadrant points.

There is also a platypus survey project currently being developed that may provide data as to the presence or not of platypus within the park. The platypus is a totem species for the Wadi Wadi and has not been seen within the park for many years. The return of this species to the park would be of strong cultural significance for Wadi Wadi people.

As well as achieving great outcomes for the survey aims the weekend also was great fun with swimming in the Murray, sunset beers and barbeque dinners at the Wadi Wadi homestead Tyntynder.

Web: melbourne.archive.foe.org.au/?q=bmc/news

Contact: Alyssa Vass, Barmah Millewa Collective Coordinator,  alyssa.vass@archive.foe.org.au, ph (03) 9419 8700