THE Mutawintji National Park Board of Management is working on a ground-breaking relocation project to translocate a population of South Australian Yellow-Footed Rock Wallabies to the national park to breed with the existing Mutawintji Yellow-Footed Rock Wallabies.
Chairperson of the Mutawintji Board of Management, Warlpa Thompson, said the project would hopefully help to stop genetic disorders caused by small population numbers.
“In drought our wallabies numbers get down as low as about 60,” he said.
“So they can have problems with genetics, their tails might be bent and things like that.”
Mr Thompson said currently Mutawintji’s Yellow-Footed Rock Wallaby population was about 400, thanks to targeted baiting and goat mustering initiatives put in place by the board.
He said the board have built an exclosure within the national park where approximately 30 South Australian wallabies from the Olary Ranges area will be relocated to, along with 10 local wallabies.
“The relocation is being organised between the two traditional owners groups, so it’s basically being led by blackfellas and then parks will fill in the gaps for us,” he said.
Mr Thompson said all steps of the project were being led by Traditional Owners.
“Currently we’ve got more blackfellas employed out there than any other point in the history of Mutawintji,” he said.
“The whole project is based around Aboriginal owners getting out and working on country. So our mob are helping build the fence, they’re helping with the relocation, doing the recording. It’s probably the only spot in the state being led by Traditional Owners, in other places National Parks is driving the conservation effort.”
Mr Thompson said that the funding for the fence being built around the exclosure was funded by money raised from mustered goats within the park.
He said the exclosure was a trial, but if it was successful he hoped the space could be used for other native fauna like bilbies and bettongs.
Mr Thompson said the plan was to release the relocated wallabies in the new exclosure at next year’s Mutawintji Cultural Festival.
