Kakadu National Park Rangers awarded

Pete Cotsell (Park Manager), Fred Hunter, Joseph May, David Brown, Timothy Henda and Anthony Mann. Not pictured is Calvin Murakami who is leading the team in the field.

A team of rangers at Kakadu National Park have been recognised for their efforts after winning the NT Ranger Award for Outstanding Environmental Achievement last month.

For more than 25 years the Kakadu National Park Integrated Ferals Team has worked hard at keeping the World Heritage Areas free of, what Local Ranger Fred Hunter, calls the smartest plant in Australia.

The team were formally recognised for their unwavering efforts in weed management, winning the NT Ranger Award for Outstanding Environmental Achievement.

Kakadu National Park Ranger Fred Hunter is what you could call a natural resource super sleuth.

He spends most days in crippling heat or pouring rain playing a game of ‘catch-me-if you-can’ with one of the world’s worst invasive species.

It has been ranked as the tenth most problematic weed in Australia and is listed on the Weeds of National Significance.

“Mimosa pigra is the smartest plant in Australia,” Mr Hunter said.

“Left unattended Mimosa pigra has the ability to choke wetlands with dense, thorny, impenetrable thickets that threaten Kakadu’s precious wildlife and world heritage biodiversity” Mr Hunter said.

The Integrated Ferals Team has been tackling this weed and maintaining a complete Mimosa pigra database across more than 120 sites in the park since 1983.

The database provides evidence of the efforts of the Integrated Ferals Team in largely containing the spread in the park. Thanks to the tenacious efforts of our rangers, no new outbreaks have been recorded in the past four years.

This involves tackling Mimosa pigra using helicopters, quad bikes or airboats across Kakadu’s vast wetlands to access outcrops of the weed.

“While this sounds exciting, it’s dangerous work because we have to hand pull the seed heads in remote wetlands that are home to some of our largest saltwater crocodiles. Not to mention the floodplains are often over 40 degrees with suffocating humidity,” Mr Hunter said.

Visitors to Kakadu National Park can help stop the spread of weeds by thoroughly checking their vehicles for weed seeds before entering the park, and by sticking to designated roads and camping areas.

It’s a good idea for road trippers coming to Kakadu to run their car through a car wash in Darwin or Katherine before heading out to the park.

Parks and Wildlife Commission Chief Executive Officer Andrew Bridges congratulated all the nominees and winners and said the awards recognised the contribution of rangers and support staff who provided outstanding work conserving and managing protected areas throughout the Territory.