Uluru rangers
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park rangers perform a huge range of activities to manage, preserve and uphold the park’s natural and cultural values.
They work alongside Anangu Traditional Owners and Mutitjulu community rangers as part of the park’s joint management approach.
“Anangu are teaching rangers and scientists about the animals and plants of the park. Showing them where to look, telling them about animals and the kind of burrows they have, what they eat, everything.”
—Traditional Owner
Some of the programs our rangers are involved in are:
- feral animal and weed control
- sacred site conservation
- winter patch burning
- fauna surveys
- protecting threatened species
- general park maintenance and operations
- designing interpretation and education programs
- running our ranger-guided activities
- providing general information to visitors.
Natural and cultural resource management
Recording local wildlife during a fauna survey
Rangers oversee and develop scientific research and environmental management projects in the park.
Natural resource management includes fire and weed mapping and tracking and caring for populations of threatened species in the park, such as the mala (rufous hare-wallaby) and tjakura (great desert skink).
They are also responsible for cultural heritage management, including rock-hole and sacred site maintenance, rock art and records management.
Cultural site management system
Anangu Traditional Owners have worked with rangers and other park staff to document and conserve 80 rock art sites that were threatened by visitors and environmental factors such as wasp nests, water damage, dust and animals.
This project has grown into an interactive multimedia database that records the rich heritage handed down in Anangu songs, dances, stories and relationships.
It’s a simple and intuitive system that observes all Anangu cultural protocols and uses icons and graphics to remove any language barriers.
Fire management
Anangu, park rangers and Mutitjulu rangers collaborate on controlled patch burning activities that combine modern science with traditional land management techniques.
You can find out more on our conservation page.
Mala paddock
Mala enclosure. Photo: Shannon Wharton
The mala (rufous-hare wallaby) once inhabited spinifex grass country throughout Central Australia. Today they are extinct in the wild, driven out by European settlement, changing fire regimes and feral predators.
Since 2005, we’ve been running a mala reintroduction program inside our park and have constructed a 170-hectare feral-proof enclosure to house these threatened mammals
