Kardiya Values

Added by Central Land Council

Description Underpinning the significance of the Northern Tanami IPA to Kardiya are its remoteness and the vast scale of the area’s relatively intact landscapes in which desert and tropical ecosystems are juxtaposed.
The IPA is a refuge for desert species at the northern extent of their range, such as the nationally iconic walpajirri (bilby – Macrotis lagotis) and other nationally threatened species such jajina (brush-tailed mulgara– Dasycercus blythi) and pujarr-pujarrpa (southern marsupial mole – Notoryctes typhlops). The IPA also includes the southern limit of the distribution of the nationally endangered Gouldian finch (Erythrura gouldiae), a strikingly beautiful bird that once foraged across northern Australia in flocks of many hundreds, but is now reduced to scattered remnant populations at favoured waterholes in savanna grasslands mainly in Western Australia and the Top End of the Northern Territory. The occurrence of other near-threatened species such as wampana (spectacled hare-wallaby– Lagorchestes conspicillatus) and western chestnut mouse (Pseudomys nanus) within the IPA represent the southern extent of these species’ ranges in the Northern Territory.
The wetlands of the Northern Tanami IPA are significant to Kardiya for their ecological and aesthetic values. The conservation value of Wilson Creek Floodout, Kamira and the Lake Buck – Spider Lake complex has been recognised at a bioregional level, while the Lake Surprise and Lander River floodout system that extends into the IPA from the adjoining Southern Tanami IPA is listed as a conservation site of national significance.
The region remains relatively poorly surveyed in terms of its ecological wealth. However, a snapshot of the ecological importance of the IPA is available due to survey work undertaken by Parks and Wildlife Commission staff across the former Tanami Wildlife Sanctuary (which encompassed large parts of both the current Southern and Northern Tanami IPAs) in the 1970s and 1980s, combined with a small number of more recent surveys undertaken by scientists and consultant biologists working alongside traditional owners. The IPA is known to support:
• five nationally threatened animal species
• 12 animals listed as near-threatened in the Northern Territory
• nine species of plants listed as near-threatened in the Northern Territory
• part of one site of international conservation significance (South-west Tanami) and part of one site of national conservation significance (Lake Surprise and Lander River Floodout swamps)
• one site of national botanical significance and four sites of bioregional botanical significance.
Despite being an important ecological refuge for many plants and animals, the Tanami region as a whole is also significant for being a hotspot for mammal species declines since European settlement, contributing to the world record that Australia holds for mammal extinctions (29 species).
The gold mining history of the region is also of significance to Kardiya. Some 114 years after the original discovery of gold at Jarnami (Tanami) on the southern boundary of the current day IPA, new areas are still being explored for their potential mineral resources.
Since the 1980s, gold mining across the Tanami has also provided some economic benefit back to Warlpiri traditional owners through royalty payments by mining companies and through the creation of limited local employment opportunities at mine sites.

Northern Tanami Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) committee members directed the CLC to re-imagine their IPA Plan of Management, an English-heavy guide book for looking after the IPA. The brief was to create a lush digital resource using spoken Warlpiri that could be accessed both online and offline to mirror the content of the management plan and be navigated through voice commands. The CLC’s hope is that the IPA digital storybooks will help all Warlpiri – from elders to school children – to better understand and support the work to keep country healthy and culture strong. The CLC has made digital storybooks for both the Southern Tanami and the Northern Tanami IPAs. See www.ngurra.org and www.walyalku.org.au