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  5. Monitoring biodiversity at Rick Farley Reserve

A local approach to monitoring biodiversity at Rick Farley Reserve

Our scientists worked with local Aboriginal communities to co-create an app that captures biodiversity and cultural information.

Cultural burning activity at Rick Farley Nature Reserve

The Rick Farley Reserve occurs adjacent to Mungo National Park in the far west of NSW.

In this ancient landscape, a ground-breaking citizen science project that integrates cultural knowledge with Western science is delivering benefits to the local community and biodiversity.

The challenge

Aboriginal cultural knowledge, practice and management, such as cultural burning, health and wellbeing, has not been well integrated into our biodiversity science and policy.

We have limited ways to:

  • track ecological change associated with Aboriginal cultural burning
  • gather diverse knowledge sets into a central database
  • apply the concept of ‘essential biodiversity variables’ in local community-based monitoring and management of biodiversity.

The Rick Farley Reserve biodiversity monitoring program set out to address this by working with the community, scientists, policymakers and others.

A place-based biodiversity monitoring program at Rick Farley Reserve began to be implemented in 2018. Work began by looking at how to include local communities and actively combine scientific practices and knowledge with Aboriginal knowledge.

Mulga parrot (Psephotus varius)

Our scientists met with leaders and members of local Aboriginal land management agencies. We wanted to understand how we could support their land management and cultural activities.

This led to the development of an app using CyberTracker software to help community members develop skills and knowledge in biodiversity monitoring. The program was co-designed and tested by Aboriginal communities and our scientists.

The app includes animal sounds and tracks, photos and maps of species previously recorded in the reserve as well as the functionality to capture new data. This rich historical data was important to engage the community in monitoring. It also provided a resource for people to work with and improve the accuracy of data already collected.

This project would not have been possible without our partners:

  • the Mothers Ancestral Guardians Indigenous Corporation
  • Elders, Auntie Beryl Carmichael and Uncle Mick Kelly
  • Ngiyampaa, Mutthi Mutthi and Barkindji/Paakantyi peoples
  • Environmental Trust’s Protecting our Places Program
  • the Steering Committee of the Environmental Trust Project
  • DPE scientists and project officers from multiple teams and divisions.

This project has delivered significant results and impacts at the Rick Farley Reserve. These include:

  • setting a comprehensive biodiversity baseline with more than 3,000 animal sightings – including 78 bird species, 34 reptile species and 11 mammal species
  • the discovery of 3 threatened reptiles and 3 threatened birds not previously recorded
  • improved land management, such as agreed cultural burning, management of invasive species and grazing management protocols
  • social benefits such as a greater number of people, including our youth, reconnected with country, employment opportunities and increased well-being
  • improvements in biodiversity, for example 17 threatened species populations are now more secure and better conditions have been established for threatened ecological communities
  • improved awareness and understanding of the biodiversity and condition of the area.

Project data and records are progressively being uploaded to databases such as BioNet and the Atlas of Living Australia.

Sand goanna (Varanus gouldii)

This project has opened up new opportunities for community-based monitoring involving local communities.

Over 20 new CyberTracker apps have been developed to support locally based biodiversity monitoring programs across NSW. These programs involve diverse local stakeholders including National Parks and Wildlife Service, landholders of grazing properties across rangelands in western NSW, schools in western NSW, Local Land Services and Landcare.

We hope to support community groups with biodiversity monitoring technology in the future.

Contact us

Department of Planning and Environment

This project has broken new ground for NSW in combining social and environmental objectives and Aboriginal knowledge with Western science.
Combining 2 different knowledge systems has been incredibly valuable. It shows how much you can achieve through being open-minded to different forms of knowledge and land management approaches.
Dr Eren Turak, project leader
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