On Gugu Badhun Country, there is a need for environmentally friendly pest and weed management, addressing concerns about inhumane practices and advocating for sustainable solutions to protect native species.
Video transcript
Richard Hoolihan (Gugu Badhun Traditional Owner)
“Good afternoon everyone, I’m Richard Hoolihan. I am a Gugu Badhun person and we’re currently on Gugu Badhun Country down on the Burdekin River.
One of the things that we really are conscious of is the pests and the weeds. As far as we are concerned, there should be less chemicals used and more environmentally friendly ways of dealing with different things whether it be pests and animals or whether it’s weeds and that sort of stuff.
For example using cultural burning to get rid of say parthenium or other weeds that they want to get rid of there are ways of dealing with different pests.”
Whitney Rassip (Girringun Aboriginal Corporation and Djiru Traditional Owner)
“The dingo is a very culturally significant animal to many of our Traditional Owner groups. It appears in our stories, in our songlines, dingoes are classed as a native animal within national parks.
Once they step outside a national park, they are then declared as an invasive pest species and some of the concerns that were coming through from our Elders was the inhumane trapping, the mass shooting and one of the biggest issues was the inappropriate use of 1080 poison being a management tool for the feral pig.
With concerns in regards to how that affects our dingo as well as our cassowary, but many other species on Country too.”
Michael George (Girringun Aboriginal Corporation and Warrgamay Traditional Owner)
“Girringun has nine TO (Traditional Owner) groups that we look after. We’ve come across a lot of invasive species, particularly the feral pig. They’re getting into places where they shouldn’t be, they’re ripping up riverbeds, cultural sites trying to get a hold of them and get their numbers down because their numbers have exploded over the last couple of years.
So we’re trying to use this bait called HOGGONE. Actually has no collateral damage to other species and he targets the feral pigs safely and humanely.”
Richard Hoolihan
“We are very conscious about what is applied in Country and hopefully get the collaboration of everybody who lives in the Country to just use less poisons and do things a better way.”