Aboriginal land management: Transport hazard protection

iMOVE’s Aboriginal Cultural Landscape Management for transport resilience project has been completed, and its final report is available for download below. The project led by Transport for NSW (TfNSW), involved research conducted by La Trobe University’s Gabra Biik Wurruwila Wutja Indigenous Research Centre.

The aim of the research was to determine how traditional and cultural land management can be used to enhance network resilience, support vegetation management and Aboriginal communities in their endeavours to Care for Country.

The work stemmed from two specific recommendations from the NSW Bushfire Inquiry (2020).

Resilience is defined as:

The ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management.

From the New South Wales State Disaster Mitigation Plan

Project objectives

1. Identify if and how traditional and cultural land and water management can be used to build resilience into the transport network, and to natural hazards;
2. Enhance understanding and approach to adopting traditional and cultural land and water management to support vegetation management;
3. Identify, demonstrate or illustrate the opportunities, benefits, and tension in co-designing, accompanying and supporting Aboriginal people and communities in this work; and
4. Identify opportunities, structures, investment, and collaboration required for a future initiative within TfNSW in developing a draft framework.

Methodology

Fieldwork for the research took place over a two-year period in 2024-2025, and involved three Aboriginal communities in NSW; Batemans Bay, Coonabarabran and Western Bundjalung.

The research took a two-step approach:

1. Explore community aspirations for the advancement of Aboriginal cultural land management and land management, specifically vegetation management on State Road transport corridors.
2. Incorporate Aboriginal cultural land management and a new framework to incorporate and embed cultural practice into vegetation management practices on State Roads.

La Trobe conducted an extensive literature review, interviews and focus groups with Aboriginal community members and relevant stakeholders. The interviews included subject matter exerts including Elders, from Transport, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Reconstruction NSW, Regional NSW and local councils.

From the work, a framework was developed, outlining practical steps and procedures for integrating Aboriginal cultural landscapes management strategies into TfNSW transport (specifically roads) and resilience initiatives.

Key findings from the three pilot sites

Based on discussions with Elders, community members and key knowledge holders in Batemans Bay, Coonabarabran and Western Bundjalung, the following key themes emerged:

• In Aboriginal cultural land management, fire and cultural burning are the most significant practices essential for healthy country.
• Aboriginal rangers are the bridge for building networks between the community and the government.
• There is a need to protect cultural heritage sites and traditional knowledge for building resilience and recovering from the impacts of natural hazards.
• The preferred ways of working is a Two-way approach: “Whole to part”, “Part to whole” in government initiatives – these concepts are presented in full in the final report.

All three communities want to see a more culturally sensitive approach to managing and maintaining roads and responding to natural hazards like fire.

If we can set up corridors along the highway so that there’s no risk of the bigger fires coming through and jumping the highways. That’s our job done.

Framework

Proposing a framework that connects Aboriginal cultural land and water management with resilience in transport networks is ambitious, as such a framework has not been identified to exist elsewhere and therefore no precedent can be found.

No precedent may have been found, but a framework was developed all the same. The proposed framework is designed to embed research findings within TfNSW’s existing paradigms of Opportunities, Structures, and Collaborations.

It is structured as follows:

• Opportunity
• Necessary collaborations
• Implementation indicators
• Evidence from research findings

The framework does not offer direct recommendations for implementing Aboriginal cultural land and water management, rather it demonstrates the significant potential that exists by engaging and developing opportunities between transport jurisdictions, with Aboriginal communities and how research findings can be disseminated to connect community and government priorities.

Expected project impacts

This project has demonstrated the potential for transport agencies to engage with Aboriginal people and build resilience to natural hazards. Transport for NSW will use the research to inform directions for building resilience and restoring reliability in an environment where natural hazards continue to impact communities and the economy.

Rebel Thomson, Senior Manager Network Resilience – Natural Disasters and Resilience, Transport for NSW

Download the final report

Click the button beelow to download a copy of Aboriginal Cultural Landscape Project – Final report.