Disaster Resilience and Climate Solutions stories
Central Western Queensland communities thrive with the power of music and performance
Iningai Country
For years, Central Western Queensland has been heavily impacted by the economic, environmental, and social effects of a prolonged drought. Topology, a grassroots community arts organisation, decided to tackle these impacts and empower their communities with the power of music and performance.
Through our Tackling Tough Times Together program, Topology received a $10,000 grant, funded by the Tim Fairfax Family Foundation, as well as securing support from the Building Better Regions Fund. This money funded Top Up Central Western Queensland, an initiative designed to strengthen social connectedness and remind rural Queensland communities of their resilience and their ability to thrive through tough times together.
The project consisted of a series of workshops and a four-day bootcamp that culminated in a free community performance in Longreach attended by 2,000 people.
“The feelings of self-accomplishment and pride achieved by the participants is a real and invaluable outcome of this program.”
Staying connected, protecting the desert
Ngaanyatjarra Country
Indigenous Rangers play a critical role in protecting the environment and managing country. In most places where they operate, they manage threatened species, manage the land using cool burns and fire and control feral animals – alongside developing tourism and cultural heritage activities.
The Indigenous Desert Alliance (IDA) runs an annual conference to bring together ranger groups from across the remote Southern Deserts to build Indigenous-led networks, leadership confidence and capability, increase skills relevant to Ranger groups and build advocacy for Indigenous land management. These rangers collectively manage an area approximately the size of Victoria.
Due to travel restrictions, the 2020 Southern Desert Rangers Forum and their Annual Conference were held online. The $25,000 grant IDA received from FRRR’s Strengthening Rural Communities program, funded by the Baxter Charitable Foundation, was originally intended to assist with the transport costs to bring five emergent remote ranger groups to Warakurna for the Forum. Instead, IDA used the funds to set up dedicated studios in Perth to run the events, with full technical support. IDA also purchased video conferencing equipment to enable the remote teams to participate in the events.
Despite meeting over Zoom, there was active participation and over 150 people in attandance. Sessions included practical training components for rangers using GIS mapping software; co-design of education resources for weed eradication in the desert (developed in both Aboriginal language and in English); a presentation from the Threatened Species Commissioner; as well as open discussions around traditional knowledge of burning in the desert and implications for bushfires in populous coastal regions. Importantly, the highly-valued ‘Ranger to Ranger’ sessions still ran, where rangers develop and inform the priorities of the Indigenous Desert Alliance.
Emmanual Hondras, IDA Coordinator, said that there were unexpected outcomes from the online delivery, including greater engagement between participants, which he attributed to their increased comfort from being able to remain On Country.
“Despite many people thinking it couldn’t be done, we managed to ‘keep the desert connected’ during a pandemic and during travel restrictions. It was a landmark event for Indigenous desert rangers in regional and remote communities,” he said.
Heritage Hotspot
Ngadjuri Country
The small drought-impacted town of Orroroo in South Australia has spent the last few years hard at work restoring the locally-famed Black Rock Woolpress – a circa 1850s piece of manual machinery used to press bales of wool, which may be the only one of its kind in existence.
Thanks to an initial grant of $20,000 from FRRR’s Tackling Tough Times Together (TTTT) program to confirm the feasibility of the Heritage Hub project, along with another TTTT grant of $143,252 contributing to its development, both funded by the Australian Government, a stone and glass rotunda now houses the historic woolpress, as part of a landscaped Heritage trail in the town’s centre. This new attraction has seen more tourists flock to the area, and is helping to boost the local economy.
“We have already had so many locals and visitors stop to comment how impressive the building is. It’s been such a huge success to date, a great story of local volunteers who have remained involved in the planning right the way through to highlight some of our early pioneer history.”
Jodie Boully, District Council of Orroroo Carrieton community project officer
