Framlingham Aboriginal Trust weed management for Indigenous Protected Areas
First Peoples Agriculture Services (FPAS) partnered with the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust rangers to provide weed management information for their Indigenous Protected Areas and farmland.
Valerie:
Thanks everybody for having us. My name's Valerie Little. I work for Agriculture Victoria's First Peoples Agriculture Service and we're excited to be here today to provide this learning opportunity.
Text on screen:
Agriculture Victoria has partnered with Framlingham Aboriginal Trust to run Caring for Country workshops.
Michael:
The Framingham Aboriginal Trust has asked us to be here to help them with
their weed management and weed identification issues and to help them better manage their land through the prevention of spread of weeds.
Ad lib dialogue:
It's got small seed pods, they've got lots of little hooks on them, Velcro on them.
Jess:
Caring for Country is important for me because deep down inside with our Aboriginal culture it has always been a thing where we care for
Country. It's a respectful thing as well and it's also a great job to have because you get to go out on Country, you get to see all the plant life, all the animals and you get to look at the waterways as well. So it's really great to be a part of this job. So weed control is a big part of our job as we are trying to contain all the weeds that we can so we can get our land back into the natural ways how it was.
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The workshops offer expert advice on how to identify and manage weeds on Country.
Michael:
We went into the forest and got a look around at some of the weeds that were down on the river floats to get a good idea of what was there and that allowed us then to discuss their management, their identification at different growth stages so that they can then better identify and manage them in the future.
Lionel:
Going up to the forest and talking about some of the weeds with Michael was pretty helpful to help understand a bit more about them. So, the training was really, really good.
Jess:
I actually learnt some of the weeds that I didn't know that we had here and it's been a really great privilege to actually learn and to know how to get rid of these weeds as well and how to keep controlling them as well. So, it's been really great.
Michael:
If we do, do this process and build on that knowledge and help the community develop those strategies and that knowledge, we're going to achieve a much stronger and better environment which has benefit for all of us.
The workshop combined practical weed identification with useful discussion about weed management and vehicle hygiene.
Rangers say they will use what they learned in their day-to-day work by planning carefully, helping prevent weed spread, and keeping vehicles and equipment clean.
They also valued the mix of classroom and field-based learning.