Indigenous Rangers

About

The Indigenous Rangers Program (Rangers Program) assists First Nations people in managing Country according to Traditional Owners’ objectives. Indigenous rangers use traditional knowledge and cultural practices, combined with Western science, to manage land, river and sea Country and deliver environmental, cultural, social and economic development outcomes.

Through the Rangers Program, the Australian Government acknowledges and supports First Nations peoples’ unique, critical and continuing role in managing and protecting Australia’s natural and cultural heritage and is increasing investment in programs.

The government has committed to a national expansion of the Rangers Program through a grant opportunity and by developing an Indigenous Ranger Sector Strategy to guide the future growth and empowerment of Indigenous ranger organisations across Australia.

Groups are formed to deliver on Country activities including:

• engaging with community and Traditional Owners to plan land and water management activities
• fire management - cultural burning and bushfire mitigation
• biodiversity conservation - habitat and threatened species management, invasive species management, freshwater and sea Country management
• strengthening First Nations language and culture
• cultural heritage protection and maintenance
• intergenerational knowledge transfer, education, training and capability development
• biosecurity monitoring
• partnerships with research, education, philanthropic and commercial organisations
• building and retaining employment in the Indigenous Land and Water Management sector.

You can find a short description of each of the NIAA funded Indigenous Ranger projects (IRPs) and Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water funded Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) on the interactive project map.

You can see the locations of the IPAs and IRP funded groups in this PDF map (1.31 MB).

Grant opportunity

As part of the Rangers Program expansion, the Australian Government has provided a grant opportunity for new organisations to join the IRP, focusing on three priorities:

• expanding the Rangers Program footprint into places without existing ranger programs;
• increasing the number of women rangers;
• increasing the number of Indigenous rangers working on Indigenous Protected Areas, particularly those without rangers already.
• The Rangers Program expansion grants closed on Monday 26 February 2024.
• On 31 October 2024 Minister McCarthy announced the outcomes of the Indigenous Rangers Program grant round. Successful and unsuccessful applicants will be informed of the outcome of their application by an Agency representative by 8 November 2024. Applicants looking to follow up after this date should direct enquiries to IndigenousRangersGrants@niaa.gov.au or womenrangersgrants@niaa.gov.au.

Have your say on the Indigenous Rangers Program Expansion

The Australian Government is seeking feedback on key elements of the second round of the Indigenous Rangers Program Expansion, which aims to deliver over 800 new Indigenous ranger jobs across the country.

This is part of the Government’s commitment to double the number of Indigenous Rangers to 3,800 by the end of the decade.

Your feedback and the lessons learned from the first Rangers Expansion round will assist the design of the Indigenous Ranger Program (Round 2) Grant Opportunity Guidelines, expected to open in 2025.

You can provide feedback by completing the Indigenous Rangers Program Expansion Round 2 Survey by 10 January 2025.

Take the survey

The Junior Rangers program, which supports on Country learning for school aged students, is also increasing its footprint. Further information about the Junior Rangers grant round will be published on GrantConnect in early 2025.

Women only ranger groups

We value the important contribution that First Nations women bring to managing Country.

Women rangers are vital in using traditional knowledge to keep Country and Culture healthy and strong. We must invest in women working on Country to ensure sacred women’s sites, Law/Lore, knowledge and songs are maintained and protected.

Currently, Indigenous women represent around a third of those employed as rangers.  This is why the government want us to prioritise applications from groups that plan to employ more women rangers or start new ‘women only’ ranger groups.

To help, we’ve set up a women’s only phone line and mailbox to provide information and answer questions about the expansion:

• Dedicated Women Rangers phone line +612 6152 3889
• Dedicated mailbox: WomenRangersGrants@niaa.gov.au.

The women’s phone line and mailbox are staffed and managed by women only. All enquiries will be kept confidential.