by woppaburra
2024-25 saw continued growth for the TUMRA with the appointment of our experienced Finance Officer Amy Druery. She has the experience to assist WTAC to build strong financial governance frameworks as we continue to rapidly grow. We are particularly pleased to build our in-house capacity so that we can train Woppaburra individuals to move into positions in finance and admin. Our TUMRA Steering Committee, who are also the board members, meet regularly.
Pre- Summer Workshop
The 2024 Pre-Summer Workshop for Reef health was held on 4 December 2024 at The Brewery Banquet Centre in Townsville and was attended by Director Meaghan Cummins and TUMRA Coordinator Shelly McArdle.
Each year the workshop is held to bring together management partners, scientists, Traditional Owners, and marine park users to assess summer forecast models, survey plans, and discuss appropriate management responses by the Reef Authority and our partners.
The main objectives of the workshop are:
- To summarise the impact on the Reef from the previous summer’s mass coral bleaching event and other stressors and put these into an historical context.
- To consider summer forecasts, climate drivers, and the risk of a mass coral bleaching event occurring this upcoming summer.
- To coordinate monitoring activities across all potential contributors to maximise efficiency and cost effectiveness.
- To discuss how the Reef Authority will communicate about a potential bleaching event to various stakeholders and the media, including using standardised terminology; and
- To discuss appropriate management responses by the Reef Authority and our partners.
Cultural Heritage Training
In August 2024 Associate Professor Mike Rowland and Dr Sonny Van Issum facilitated a workshop on conducting on ground cultural heritage assessments. This training took participants through understanding the legislation, how to recognise items and sites of cultural significance and how to record your findings.
Accreditation
Our ten-year TUMRA agreement was due to expire in 2024 and WTAC received an extension until June 2025 to allow more time to consult with Woppaburra and conduct due diligence research to inform the content of our application.
A recent meeting in March 2025 saw several Woppaburra representatives including elders, Aunty Francis Gala, Aunty Linette Russ, Aunty Glenice Croft, Uncle Fred Saunders and Aunty Valmai Smith come together to develop a comprehensive application with supporting documents for TUMRA re-accreditation to the Reef Authority.
We hope to be in a position to share a positive outcome with members in the near future.
See below excerpt from our Sea Country Aspirations Statement
As Saltwater Traditional Owners we will continue to enjoy our customary rights in relation to our sea country and the resources gathered there. However, we know that protected species and specifically mammals including turtles and dugongs are badly affected by noise levels of motorised sea craft, poaching, boat strike, destruction of seagrass habitat and other impacts. We will work with the Reef Authority, QPWS and other marine management agencies to instigate measures to reduce this impact. Having said this, we have the knowledge, as Traditional Owners, to manage our own hunting of turtle and dugong within our sea without denying our customary or traditional rights.
We have come together as a saltwater Traditional Owner group of the Woppaburra country to decide to voluntarily control our take of turtle, dugong and other marine species under this agreement. Our decision also bans the hunting of these marine species in our sea country by other people who are not covered by this agreement.
We also care deeply about sea country’s water quality and will work towards limiting any further land or sea development and desire this to have no impact across our entire sea country including all marine life.
It is critical that Traditional Owners have recognised responsibilities and lead any management roles for Country, that we are active out on sea-country and that we can access traditional foods on country into the future. It is vital that government management agencies actively support Traditional Owners in creating real, meaningful management roles to allow Traditional Owners to undertake our customary responsibilities for sea-Country. This includes but is not limited to support for sea rangers, training or employment which will improve the management of our sea country.
To this end, we welcome this approach by the Reef Authority to assist us, the Saltwater Traditional Owners of the Woppaburra TUMRA region, to lead management of our sea country in partnership with GBRMPA & QPWS.