Gumbaynggirr Good Koala Country Plan

Seasonal Calendar & Text Source: Dr Chels Marshall Flying Fish Blue PTY LTD

Indigenous biocultural monitoring

Over thousands of years, Aboriginal people have been monitoring the seasonal and cyclical changes in animals and plants and how they interact within the landscape. Biocultural monitoring involves caring for and responding to biodiversity on Country using indicators based on traditional ecological knowledge (TEK).

The Gumbaynggirr Good Koala Plan offers an outstanding example of using TEK to develop management and monitoring approaches to the koala in Northern NSW. The project uses the Gumbaynggirr koala creation story, that tells of Dungirr gagu (Koala brothers) and is a reminder, a warning and a solution to changes in the landscape, now accelerated due to climate change. This project  has a strong focus on cultural protocol and law that protects Dungirr (koalas) and their habitats, alongside other important cultural species. Cultural knowledge workshops determined how Indigenous knowledge and practices should be used to manage Country for the benefit of the koala. The project uses biocultural monitoring, along with western scientific principles, to enhance and protect the biodiversity on their Jagun (Country).

In the past, Gumbaynggirr directly observed koala behaviour using sight, sounds and signs. They now also use additional methods such as camera traps and heat-sensing drones. They also use seasonal calendars to collect and pass on information about the koala behaviour and other important cultural species to the next generation.

The Gumbaynggirr Koala monitoring also uses photo points, camera traps and plant surveys to monitor the impact of climate change and wildfire on cultural places and koala movement. These impacts not only affect traditional resources (foods, medicines and cultural practice) but also restrict where koalas can live.