The collaborative partnership between Anindilyakwa Land & Sea Rangers and South32 GEMCO has provided a valuable opportunity to protect the social, cultural, environmental and economic values of the Groote Archipelago and more broadly northern Australia from invasive and introduced pest species, which it delivers on, to the highest industry standard

To protect this unique Island community, the Anindilyakwa Land & Sea Rangers and South32 GEMCO have closely aligned their environmental, social and cultural values, with the result being high level sustainable land management practices, and the ongoing exclusion of cane toads on the third largest island in Australia- no ordinary feat.”

The Anindilyakwa Land Council Land (ALC) and South32’s Groote Eylandt Mining Company have collaborated to develop a Quarantine and Biosecurity Program for the Anindilyakwa Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) covering 10,000 square kms of land and sea country off the East Arnhem Land coast in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The Anindilyakwa IPA is home to many threatened and endangered species, leading the program to appoint a full-time Biosecurity Coordinator and a specially trained cane toad odour-detection dog who work within the Anindilyakwa Land Councils Land and Sea Ranger team.

The successful collaboration aims to protect the economic, environmental, social and cultural values of the Groote Archipelago. The Anindilyakwa IPA is one of the last island groups in northern Australia that is cane toad free, and the number of cane toads arriving on Groote has dropped since the program’s implementation, demonstrating that the multi-layered, multi-stakeholder approach to managing the ongoing threat from this invasive species is working.