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Pastoral and Livestock Management Program

The Pastoral and Livestock Program continued to operate again without direct funding. It is a unique program in that it is the only program that must raise its own capital. This is achieved by undertaking limited contracts for a diverse range of activities. In some ways this is counter-productive as it reduces the time and resources available to directly service Anangu aspirations for their own pastoral and livestock work. However, it has created some unique employment opportunities for Anangu such as road maintenance and shed construction. Capacity Building Pastoral Development Licenses Since 2005, APY has embarked on an ambitious program of normalizing pastoral business practices and establishing new Anangu pastoral businesses.  These are legal Anangu businesses, operating under the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act 1981, and require a pastoral development licence endorsed by the traditional owners and the Executive Board. There are now six operating pastoral development licences, and more have been approved by the traditional owners.  It is anticipated these will be signed-off in the next 12 months. The licences contain schedules of compliance to ensure business sustainability and best practice natural resource management and is monitored by APY. Compliance includes capacity building and requires education and training of both pastoral business managers and pastoral workers. Last year’s drought conditions resulted in de-stocking of the Lands however cattle are being reintroduced to some areas as a result of summer rains. Horse Breaking Training Stage II The professional development of the pastoral workers is a priority for capacity building within the pastoral and livestock industry. Horse Breaking Training Stage I, completed in 2008 was followed by a four week training program in late June 2009. The accredited training was again provided by Charles Darwin University (CDU) in units from the Certificate II and Certificate III Agriculture (Beef Production). Since the commencement of the program in 2008, Gateways for Youth have furthered the training objectives and supported training of APY youth by CDU at their rural colleges in the NT. The ongoing involvement of CDU trainers has established relationships between participants and trainers, and increased the familiarity of the participants, their skill levels, and the capacity building objectives of APY. The Double Tank yards have been developed as a pastoral training facility. It is a central location in the APY Lands, endorsed by the elders, and provides the opportunity for family to call in to observe and support participants. Partners involved in the program with APY are TAFE SA, Charles Darwin University, Gateways for Youth, Bungala Aboriginal Corporation, Indigenous Land Corporation, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), and Nganampa Health.  Funding for the 4 week program was provided by the NT Dept of Education, Employment and Training, Bungala, and the DEEWR Indigenous Employment Program. In 2009/2010, it is anticipated that a small number of participants will complete their Certificates and participate in formal graduation procedures at Charles Darwin University next year. Feral Animal Control Feral Camel Management APYLM is part of the successful tender for a national feral camel management program auspiced by Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre. The planning for this program continues into 2009/2010. In anticipation of the on-going impacts of camels, APYLM continued to develop the West Bore Yards near Fregon with the Stevens family, the Amata yards, and the Angatja yards with Sammy Lyons to increase capacity to control camels. Camels were mustered from around West Bore and Watarru and sent to abattoirs at Peterborough, SA. Feral Horse Management During the drought, feral horses congregated on a significant spring near Watinuma. These were trapped and nearly 500 horses in poor condition were trucked to abattoirs. There are more horses to be removed from Watarru and Angatja in 2009/2010. Anilayla Horse Management The Anilayla Homelands horse management project funded through Bungala Aboriginal Corporation was very successful in trapping and removing 100 horses from Turkey Bore, Black Hills and Pukatja area and employed over 10 CDEP workers. These un-managed horses were impacting on the homelands in many ways: Damage to infrastructure Road safety hazard Animal ethic issues relating to water supply, injured animals, dog attacks Environmental health issues re dust mitigation in and around homelands Community health relating to dust and faeces Uncontrolled and unmanaged breeding and population growth Natural resource management of grazing pressure on surrounding pastures Many of the fences and paddocks associated with the Homelands are ineffective in controlling the horses because of gaps. This project also enabled erection of some fencing around some of the homelands to link in to the general paddock infrastructure and to block the horse movements. Feral Donkey Management Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara policy remains firm on the management of donkeys and that donkeys can be mustered and removed but not shot on the Lands. There is no market for donkeys. They will only be handled by an abattoir when paddocked in numbers of at least 1000 - 1300 head and then provided free of charge. The cost of mustering and handling cannot be recovered. Donkeys are an increasing problem in communities in the east. This project protects one community and five (5) homelands from damage caused by donkeys. It directly links in with the Land Management pastoral development work that has already fenced along the main roads and created paddocks for the cattle industry. Two double grids have been placed on the main Umuwa-Pukatja road and two single grids on the Umuwa-Kenmore Rd. A further two (2) double grids will be located in the near future. This will complete the infrastructure to protect the five (5) homelands and Umuwa community. Pukatja Community declined to participate and donkeys still have access to that community. Protection of Homeland Bore Infrastructure Throughout the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands there are frequent problems with feral animals encroaching on communities in search of water. The planning and design phases for community infrastructure have never considered the protection of infrastructure from feral animals as an issue to be managed. Consequently community infrastructure, ranging from homeland bores and orchards to community taps, air-conditioning and reticulation are regularly damaged by horses, donkeys and camels. The impacts of these feral animals cost communities and service providers thousands of dollars annually. AP Services contracted APY LM to protect ten (10) Homeland bore sites from the impacts of feral animals. Six (6) were fenced to prevent the impacts of cattle, horses and donkeys. Four (4) remain to be completed to restrict camel impacts. Labour is provided by CDEP workers and regular casual Anangu staff. Double Tank Game Meat Processing Plant The concreting of the foundations, erection of the Processing Shed and installation of the cool rooms has been a major advance in the development of the Game Meat Processing Plant. The refrigeration will be installed shortly. APY LM is working with SA Meat Hygiene (PIRSA) regulatory services to ensure the construction and processing procedures are to food safety standards for human consumption. The development of the facility will be funded, slowly, through the sale of camels unless additional funding can be sourced.