Seed collection and nursery work with Gooniyandi rangers

On a recent trip, Holly worked with the Gooniyandi Rangers to complete setting up the native plant nursery at Bayulu Remote Community School, about 15 kilometres south of Fitzroy Crossing. North Regional TAFE staff previously worked with the rangers to install a shade-house with a water supply. After cutting back the greenery amassed over the wet season, we levelled the soil, laid weed-proof flooring, and delivered the benches welded by the rangers last year. Next, we installed the reticulation and solenoid wiring and eventually got the system up and running.

Cody Taylor and Kaunell Shaw propagating in the new nursery.

This nursery will house native Gooniyandi and Walmajarri plants, which will be grown from seed collected by the rangers and other Traditional Owners. The rangers hope to work with Bayulu school and use the nursery to conduct activities around propagation, plant identification and language knowledge (watch this space).

Cynthia Cox planting Girndi seeds

For our first propagation activity, we went out and collected some bush fruits: Girndi Vitex glabrata (black plum) and Goonanggi Ficus racemosa (cluster fig), as well as Wajarri Adansonia gregorii (boab). We soaked and cleaned the seeds, and these are the first trays of seeds planted in the nursery. We expect to see seedlings emerge over the next month. We also took some cuttings of Gooroo Barringtonia acutangula (freshwater mangrove) and propagated these with the help of some hormone powder. Having a native plant nursery will allow the Gooniyandi Rangers to grow plants for use in bush medicines, for revegetation work, education and training activities, and to landscape the proposed new ranger base. The rangers, with the help of Gooniyandi elders, are increasing their knowledge of plant occurrences, seasonality, language names and uses. They hope to create an updated plant-knowledge resource to help preserve this important information for future generations.

Goonanggi (cluster fig) 

This work forms part of a larger project, the Gooniyandi Flood Recovery program, funded by the Western Australian Government’s State NRM Program. During 2025 EK will be working closely with the Gooniyandi Rangers and the Kimberley Land Council to continue the on-country, rehabilitation work following the Fitzroy River flood event in 2023. Other activities will focus on wetland health (monitoring and management), increasing Traditional Owners’ access to country, use of new technologies to record knowledge, threatened species surveys and the management of invasive species.

- Holly Timperley