Winyama team delivers IMW training to remote communities in the Kimberley
Across three weeks in July, Winyama team members Staf, Marty and Tim travelled to remote locations in the Kimberley to deliver training to Indigenous ranger groups as part of its Regional Indigenous Mapping Workshop (IMW) in collaboration with the Kimberley Land Council. Thousands of kilometres were covered during the trip where the Winyama team met with four ranger groups, undertaking a huge effort to reach the far and wide expanse of country in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.
We spoke with the team to get a first-hand account of how the IMW went.
Gooniyandi and Ngurrara rangers
The first stop on the trip was Fitzroy Crossing, visiting the Gooniyandi and Ngurrara ranger groups. Winyama’s IT Coordinator, Tim Cable, joined head trainer Staf Smith to deliver Fulcrum and drone training to 11 rangers from the two groups. The training was focussed on drone mapping with Fulcrum data collection and pulling it all together in Google Earth Pro.
To begin the drone training, the rangers learnt important skills for using drones in the field; such as how to plan a flight with Drone Deploy and other considerations including equipment checklists and airspace regulations. With these skills, they took to the field to collect data with the drones, taking turns to fly both manually and autonomously (using a flight plan). The aerial images captured were later used in photogrammetry processing. After processing, rangers imported complete orthomosaics into Google Earth Pro to create a basemap.
Rangers then used Fulcrum, a no-code, on-demand field collection software to help capture survey information about events on country; such as; weed infestations, sacred site management or endangered species monitoring. The Winyama team showed rangers how to operate mobile tablets for efficient data capture and transform that information into data that can be mapped in Google Earth Pro.
The trainers found the drone training gained great feedback from the rangers. In regional areas, outdated and poor satellite imagery quality is a common challenge; therefore it is useful for these groups to gather their own high-resolution drone imagery to manage the vast and remote areas they are responsible for.
Nyul Nyul and Bardi Jawi rangers
Next, the Winyama team travelled to Beagle Bay and Ardyaloon on the Dampier peninsula to deliver training to a further two ranger groups. Trainers Marty and Staf met with the Nyul Nyul rangers in the beginning of the week, and later Bardi Jawi. The two ranger groups are collectively responsible for managing over 500,000 hectares of lands and waters.
Similarly to week one of the trip, trainers covered more advanced use of the Fulcrum software and also how to use drones for mapping practices. To begin, rangers worked on improving their drone flying skills by undertaking a hands-on exercise including the drone flight plan, good set-up and flying practices and how to export the imagery for later use. These skills were then put into practice with Fulcrum, effectively utilising the tools to plan, coordinate and carry out some of their ranger responsibilities.
Training delivered by the Winyama team is intended to make impactful and meaningful differences to the rangers daily tasks. When asked what was the most noticeable improvement, Marty said; ‘the rangers were keen and excited to put Fulcrum and their drones to better use. There were a few of the younger rangers who were really excited by the possibilities of applying drone mapping and aerial surveying to land management and Country care.’
Winyama runs the Indigenous Mapping Workshop Australia, a program designed to deliver training and resources that improve the skills and capacity of Indigenous Ranger groups all across Australia. The ‘Regional IMW’ is a new initiative in 2021, born out of inability to hold the annual IMW Australia in Melbourne last year. The Winyama team hopes to continue holding Regional IMW’s for the remainder of this year and is working towards longer term solutions for future IMW Australia events.
In addition to our in-person events, we also offer an on-demand learning platform called IMW Australia On-Demand. The free platform allows learners to guide themselves through online courses at their own leisure and gain valuable geospatial skills, supported by both desktop and virtual labs connectivity. Courses available are suitable for all ability levels and are tailored to guide the learner in the sequence that is right for them. With IMW Australia On-Demand you will have access to software such as Google Earth Pro, ArcGIS Pro, QGIS and more.
Reach out to us at Winyama if you would like any further information on our training offering or to talk about how we can assist you in your mapping projects.