WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

in May 1978, led directly to the formation of the Kimberley Language Resource
Centre (1984), the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre (1984), and
Magabala Books (1987).
The Noonkanbah dispute is one in a series of important steps in the national struggle
of Aboriginal people to have their rights to practice traditional law and culture
recognised. In 2007, the determination of native title in favour of the Yungngora
people over the Noonkanbah pastoral lease conferred on them many of the rights they
had sought nearly thirty years before.
The Kimberley today
In 2010, many Aboriginal people in the Kimberley continue to identify as 'station
people'. Pastoral leases cover 50 per cent of the region, and well over a quarter of
these leases are Aboriginal-owned and managed (Australian Natural Resources Atlas
Kimberley Profile 2009). The Bunuba people, Traditional Owners of Leopold Downs
and Fairfield Stations near Fitzroy Crossing, have a vision for their land which has
been the guiding principle in all that they do: 'To develop a sustainable and
prosperous cattle business that respects Bunuba culture and protects the environment
for all Bunuba People to enjoy now and in the future'. The cattle herd on these two
properties has grown to nearly 20,000 head. The Bunuba people are fiercely
independent and proud of their success in managing their cattle stations, without
government assistance, in the commercial world (McCord 2010). One of the main
differences between Aboriginal-run stations and traditional pastoral stations is that on
many Aboriginal-run stations there are communities of more than 200 people who
choose to live on the stations because they regard them as their traditional homelands
(Schultz 1999).
The cattle grazing industry is today the main user and manager of land in the
Kimberley savanna country, as it has been since the early twentieth century. Both
Indigenous and non-Indigenous pastoral owners and managers are proud of their
connections to a heritage of struggle and perseverance under difficult conditions.
They continue to live and work in an environment that is very isolated from the
population centres where most Australians live and work.
A large area of the west Kimberley is recognised for its near-pristine condition. In
comparison with south-eastern Australia, much of its landscape and ecology is
relatively intact (ANRA 2009). In the central Kimberley, land that was once a pastoral
lease is now one of Australia's largest non-government protected areas. Mornington
Sanctuary, purchased and managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, covers
more than 3,000 square kilometres, including the upper catchment of the Fitzroy river,
and sections of the rugged King Leopold Ranges. Within its bounds there are a range
of ecosystems associated with northern Australia's tropical savanna, including open
eucalypt woodlands, savanna grasslands, rocky, spinifex-clad ranges, and fireprotected
wet gullies. As well as being managed for conservation values, the site is
the focus of comprehensive monitoring and research programs, providing a rare
opportunity to conduct large-scale, long-term research on critical environmental
issues that are important across the northern tropical savanna, such as fire
management and the impacts of cattle grazing on flora and fauna (AWC 2010).
Similar fire management programs are also run by Traditional Owner ranger groups
throughout the Kimberley, utilising traditional and western scientific knowledge to
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