A Glorious Summer, But Returning To A Town In Chaos

This is my fifth article from the Australian outback.

In October 2020 the ranger coordinator resigned in Lajamanu. My boss brought the ranger group under my supervision till a replacement could be appointed. I used this to my advantage and ran the ship (to use a naval reference) my way, getting things done and using the crew to ensure that the conservation work continued uninterrupted. The ranger team had been somewhat lax when it came to discipline and a good work ethic - they probably felt they got more than their fair share of both under my leadership! Conservation is hard, often thankless work, but can yield results if approached with diligence and commitment. It was rather frustrating for me to get the ranger team moving to get the respective jobs done, needing to provide constant supervision like a parent watching over toddlers. It feels weird for me as the youngest one in the office and here I am, ‘parenting’ parents and grand-parents to get their tasks done.

My first major project was to liaise with and provide on-ground support for an aerial cull of feral (non-native animals which were once domesticated, but have now gone wild) herbivores in the IPA. Two trained Northern territory government shooters carried out the cull in October by helicopter. Our target species were camels, horses, donkeys and cattle. Over 1100 animals were culled with the majority of the animals being camels. The operation took a week to complete. Culling these species is essential as the Australian ecosystems were not made for hooved animals. These species were introduced by the British when they colonise Australia (these animals are not supposed to be in the wild in Australia). Due to their overabundant numbers and lack of predators to keep the population under control they pollute waterbodies, cause erosion, spread weeds and decimate native vegetation resulting in loss of habitat for native Australian species. This results in further decline of threatened native fauna and flora.

My second project was to carry out a site assessment for Newmont mine to check if there were any important cultural artifacts and critical habitats around two proposed sites where a Satellite tower was to be erected to improve communication capabilities in the area. By mid-October the climate is too hot to be working outdoors and temperatures begin to hit 40 degrees Celsius. However, since the job had been delayed long enough, I took my best ranger Silas with me on an overnight trip to complete the job. The mine refused to let us spend the night in their accommodation due to their COVID-19 restrictions, so we camped out. In order to prevent us getting heat stroke during the day we only spent 15 minutes maximum at each site in 41 degree heat. It was so hot that not only was our vehicle boiling once we got in, but our GPS devices shut down due to the heat. It was a good lesson to never do field work in the outback as you approach summer.

My third and final project for the year 2020 was to attend the annual Warlu (Warlpiri word for fire) meeting which had been rescheduled from earlier and was held in late November. Henry attended as a representative of the IPA committee and I took along Dione and Silas. The meeting was held at Tennant Creek over two days where we discussed and agreed on the locations where protective burns were to be carried out over the next calendar year in the IPA. We had 8 ranger groups attend the workshop which was lots of fun, good company and exceptional food.

In late November my boss appointed Shane as the temporary ranger coordinator for 6 weeks. Shane is an indigenous man who has lived his whole life in Alice Springs. He was an absolute delight to work with, an excellent cook and kept me in fits of laughter during his short tenure with his sense of humour and outspoken ways. I have never seen rangers actively hide from a ranger coordinator as he led the ranger team with strict discipline which had been long lacking. I was very glad to see him continue the strict discipline and work ethic I had started on.

Due to Lajamanu being too hot and all roads getting flooded during summer I spent the summer in good old Alice Springs. I am now classed as a Territorian since during my time in Alice Springs the Todd River flowed and in line with the local legend, if an individual sees the river flow thrice during their time in Alice Springs they are considered a local. As per my experience in February 2020 when I first arrived in Alice Springs, everyone in town was out to see the river actually flow like a river and the dogs enjoyed a swim.

I also joined a weekly Zumba class since I love Latin American music and dancing. It initially started off as a joke when I attended the first class with two friends, but I enjoyed it so much that I started attending it on a regular basis. The instructor, who is originally from Colombia, commented that she doesn’t see many men enjoy dancing and I was very amused to find that I was the only male in the class.

I enjoyed my time in Alice Springs eating at all the restaurants, catching up with friends, being able to play the organ at church every Sunday and the weekly Saturday swims at the town pool.

In February I read for the ‘Work Place Snake Catching Course’ at the Alice Springs Reptile Centre with my work buddy Scotty. It was absolutely amazing learning to catch and release dangerous snakes. The venomous species I trained with included Mulga and Brown snakes.

I returned to Lajamanu in March. My garden looked like a rainforest with all the vegetation completely overgrown. It took me a week to get the garden back to a neat and tidy state. The town has very few of the local residents left and it has been so since then. However the youth crime in town has increased significantly. Many houses were broken into over the summer in Lajamanu and it continues, with fuel also being stolen from vehicles. Fortunately my residence remained untouched. Most of the town’s rubbish bins had been stolen, including mine and set ablaze by kids using them for light while they swam in the running creek at night. The town itself has got worse with lack of respect for elders, teachers and a major decline in work ethic with every organisation in Lajamanu being short staffed since the locals don’t turn up for work. The ranger team has dwindled to three rangers who hardly show up for work. It has become very challenging to carry on working and undertake any conservation work in the IPA thus far. I will never cease to be saddened by the lack of care for protected land by its very owners.

In April my close friend Andrew was appointed as the ranger coordinator and the both of us are ploughing through all the obstacles placed before us. Together we undertook protective burns around town which was a lot of fun. It was such a stress reliever to set things ablaze, chucking matches. Responsibly, of course! Andrew, a former soldier, has been a blessing and a joy to work with and get up to mischief with. We often joke that our rangers are unicorns and are in the process of redesigning the ranger logo to portray a unicorn since we work with such mythical and rare creatures.

I attended the Tanami Biodiversity Monitoring workshop in Alice Springs in April. The objective of this workshop was to implement a monitoring programme for wildlife in the Tanami Desert to evaluate the effects caused by mining in the region. We had representatives from 10 organisations and the workshop was very successful with all parties contributing equally and participating in a civil manner. The second tracking project workshop was held the following week at the Alice Springs Desert Park. The best part of the workshop was getting to visit the nocturnal animal enclosure with Mala’s, Bettongs, Bandicoots and Echidna’s running around you.

A few of our friends decided to go camping to Sambo Rockhole one weekend so that Andrew could do some fishing. Luckily I had the forethought to take some dinner with us as Andrew failed to catch a single thing for our dinner that night. We had loads of fun swimming and driving through difficult terrain and playing with the two dogs who accompanied us.

Since my snake handling course I am the only one in Lajamanu who is trained and brave enough to catch snakes. Since March I have had 10 call outs in town with Andrew being my handy sidekick and media man to capture and publicise my new skill. Two of those callouts ended up being legless lizards, four for Black-headed Pythons, one callout each for a Mulga Snake, Western Brown, a Whip Snake and a Stimson’s Python. Although pythons aren’t venomous they have a very nasty bite which if not treated properly can result in terrible infections. The snakes are caught using a pinner and tong and placed in a bin lined with paper towels so that the snake can hide. This reduces the chance of the snake sneaking out the bin before it can be closed. The snake is then released 5km out of town away from roads into the wild. The whole process always involves two people just in case the snake catcher (which is me in this case) gets bitten. Catching and releasing snakes is one of the favourite tasks of my job which I enjoy immensely. My brother, who always had a thing for snakes, is very envious.

Since joining the Northern Territory Emergency Services last year as a volunteer member I have had so much fun with the Lajamanu crew. Our unit currently comprises of Mick (Unit Officer), Louisa, Angela, Andrew and myself. We work under the Northern Territory Police and have a ball on callouts especially with our local cop Matt. Due to COVID-19 restrictions I was only able to be formally trained in April this year. I am now the proud owner of a certificate and emergency services uniform. To date I have had to undertake a search and rescue operation for a missing person in the desert, and have had to put out 6 car fires using a fire engine, both of which had a happy ending. Whilst it can be stressful in the midst of an operation, the team really makes the experiences worth it, enjoyable and good lessons in crisis handling.

Our last major conservation operation for the financial year was to carry out aerial protective burns with staff from 10 Deserts (based in Perth). We spent one week dropping fire bombs in both the Northern and Southern Tanami IPAs to reduce the fuel load for major bushfires. The bombs are dropped from a machine called ‘Raindance’ where capsules are dropped based on a set timer. Due to the range of the flight we had to relocate to Tennant Creek from Lajamanu to carry out the operation in the Southern Tanami IPA. The team involved Gareth and Hannah (10 Deserts), Harrison (Pilot), Henry and Jasper (traditional owners) and Ross, Andrew, Dione, Clayton, Floyd and myself (CLC staff). It was my first time flying in a small plane and the last 30 minutes were excruciating as I was trying so hard not to throw up despite taking travel sickness medication. Fortunately I didn’t throw up, but learnt the hard way that flying on small aircrafts is not for me. We decided to celebrate our successful operation by attending a trivia game in Tennant Creek. Since the trophy was a plane we were determined to win it and so we did along with a 200 dollar voucher for food and drinks. We learnt after we were declared the winners that this was the annual trivia competition for Tennant Creek and we as tourists had just walked away with the prize. The trophy is now with the 10 Deserts crew in Perth as a reminder of our joyous time together. As an added bonus we ended up being photographed and featured in the Tennant Creek newspaper.

Andrew and I were joined by the Tennant Creek rangers in June to aid us to clean-up rubbish which has been continually dumped in the IPA by a group of stakeholders in Lajamanu due to a variety of ridiculous reasons. The Tennant Creek rangers were fantastic in their attitude and work ethic. It was a privilege to work with them as they were hardworking and showed initiative. After 15 months of trying to end it through diplomacy I was able to stop the practice of dumping garbage in protected areas only by using the threat of legal action. I was disgusted and saddened that this practice of desecrating a protected reserve has been going on for so long. I never thought I would be cleaning rubbish up in a protected area in Australia.

A non-existent ranger team, youth out of control, an increased crime rate, elders giving up on trying to pass on their cultural knowledge, over consumption of alcohol (despite a strict alcohol ban), drugs, arson, isolation and unsavoury characters in town make life in Lajamanu extremely challenging. However, the wildlife, conservation work and the friends I have made here make the experience bearable and my circle of friends is the most precious gift Lajamanu has bestowed on me. I am holding onto the happy memories and pressing on with what needs to be done, till I embark on my next adventure.