The largely native timbered 482 square kilometre Cotter River catchment west of Canberra, ACT, with its Ramsar-listed alpine Sphagnum bogs and fens, small sub-alpine creeks and the stone cobble-based Cotter River, is home to numerous endangered species including the Macquarie Perch, the Northern Corroboree Frog and the Spotted Tail Quoll.  Since the 2003 Canberra bush fires, the Cotter River catchment wilderness areas are returning to their largely pristine, pre-fire condition through natural regeneration and a huge volunteer tree planting effort by the Canberra community over the last eight years is transforming former pine plantations into natural areas.

Team members maintaining plants at the Greeing Australia Nursery

In March 2011, the effort to restore and protect the catchment of this precious High Conservation Value Aquatic Ecosystem, which drains into the Upper Murrumbidgee catchment, took another step forward with the employment of a team of four Aboriginal trainees to undertake environmental restoration in the catchment.  The Council’s Caring for the Cotter Catchment project is being funded to the tune of $877,000 by the Australian Government’s Caring for our Country program.

This funding has enabled the employment of the Yurung Dhaura team (Strong Earth - so named by the United Ngunnawal  Elders Council), for two years to restore at least 76ha of high conservation ecosystems and protect at least 6.4km of streambank in the catchment. The team is dealing with pest plants and animals, planting native trees, controlling erosion and fencing sensitive areas.  The team is also monitoring water quality, pest animal activities, native fauna and flora and collecting native tree seeds as well as propagating tree seedlings for environmental restoration. The team has already exceeded some of their restoration targets – they have laid pig baits over an area covering more than 100ha; they have completed more than eight hectares of dense pine wildling removal in an area of  Xanthoria (grass trees) in the catchment and planted one hectare of bare ground to native trees and shrubs.

Removing pine wildings
 

The Yurung Dhaura team is also working with the Ngunnawal people to document their Traditional Ecological Knowledge and apply this knowledge, where permission is given, to biodiversity conservation in the catchment. The first step in this is process was a three-day workshop the team had with the Ngunnawal people in August 2011.

The Caring for the Cotter project has attracted many partners and supporters, including the ACT Government, which is employing the team through its Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate and is hosting the team in its Territory and Municipal Services Directorate. Other partners and supporters include the United Ngunnawal Elders Council, Canberra Institute of Technology, ACT Health Directorate, the Board of the Ngunnawal Healing Farm, ActewAGL, Greening Australia, the Southern ACT Catchment Group Waterwatch program and the local Aboriginal community.

The Caring for the Cotter Catchment project aims to make a real difference to the health of the catchment and its bogs, fens and streams, by addressing the fundamental problems that continue to beset the catchment – pest plants and animals, soil erosion and restoration of vegetation in those areas where trees have not regenerated. In addition the team will apply local Traditional Ecological Knowledge to the management and restoration of the catchment, as a result of their work with the Ngunnawal people. The extensive monitoring the team will be doing over the life of the project will add to the knowledge of the catchment and hopefully demonstrate value of the work of the Yurung Dhaura team.

Monitoring revegetation

One of the goals of the project is to skill more Aboriginal people up to work on country in biodiversity conservation and land management.

Water quality monitoring