WA desert rangers find home away from home in Canberra

Almost 4000 kilometres from the Central Western Desert lands where he lives, the indigenous ranger and Martu traditional landowner was delighted to see familiar native plants growing in the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

"It's cool," he said. "It's looking a bit young. When you start growing it will look good."

Here in Canberra to speak to government officials and lobbying for long-term support for indigenous land management projects, Mr Wongawol knows how to spot a healthy arid landscape.

The Central Desert land and community program co-ordinates 30 male and female rangers from the Martu community, 10 of who have full-time employment.

The rangers work on various environmental projects across Birriliburu - a 6.6 million hectare stretch of protected indigenous desert land, near Wiluna.

Regenerating traditional lands after long mining or pastoral leases, monitoring native species and conducting strategic bush-burning are all part of an indigenous ranger's job.

General manager of the land and community program at the Central Desert Native Title Services Robert Thomas has worked with Mr Wongawol from the start of the program. It was rewarding to see the economic and social benefit of the environmental programs for remote communities such as the Martu, Mr Thomas said.

"We've gone from about 11 days of paid employment at the start to about 1400 days of paid employment,'' he said.

"It's only limited by the capacity to co-ordinate people and projects."

Wiluna could not be described as anything other than remote.

It is about 700 kilometres from the West Australian coast and as late as the 1960s Martu people living there had still not made contact with white people.

For Mr Wongawol the Central Desert land and community initiative presents another opportunity for community elders to hand down traditional knowledge so it can be put into action by the younger generations in their work ''on country''.

"It is a good feeling in the community," he said.

"If it wasn't for something like this they [Martu elders] would wonder what's going to happen, you know, and how we are going to pass on stories and all that down."

Central Desert land and community's Lindsay Langford said the opportunities the program offered were helping to build desert communities by connecting local people with training and jobs.

"People usually think of the desert as any empty place,'' he said.

"Programs like this fill it up full of life and opportunity. There's not been that many opportunities in a place like Wiluna, people have been pretty much disconnected from mainstream work experiences."

Two-way learning between indigenous and non-indigenous people was a priority for all projects. Mr Wongawol said he was happy to see young people getting qualifications they could take into future work.

"It gives them a chance to learn about country and to go out and look for work," he said. "We can teach them and they can teach us.''