Indigenous interests in tropical rivers

The report was requested by Land and Water Australia (LWA) as a scoping study to provide information to the new Tropical Rivers Program.

The report aims to provide an overview of the key river management and research issues of concern to Indigenous people in the tropical rivers program area. This area covers the northern regions of Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. When LWA talks about a river they include groundwater and surface water, and all the parts of a river, including the river mouth.

The authors of the report (Sue Jackson and Patrick O’Leary of CSIRO) interviewed representatives of Indigenous land management agencies as well as Indigenous people from the region. The authors also read reports that had been written about Indigenous interests in rivers.

The scoping report provides a survey of the issues of greatest interest to Indigenous people. It also identifies areas for further research and makes recommendations to improve the relevance of tropical rivers research to Indigenous communities. It also discusses the importance of partnerships and between researchers and Indigenous people, suggesting a number of ways that LWA can contribute to improvements in this area.