Cultural values
Lichen covered rocks amongst the vegetation at Monjebup Reserve. Photo Amanda Keesing.
Survey work at Monjebup indicates that Aboriginal people used the area for a wide variety of activities, including gathering raw materials, food processing, hunting, gathering, camping, stone tool manufacture and seasonal movement.
When a bunch of city Noongar kids were taken out of Perth to help map Monjebup's Aboriginal heritage, they were returning to a land their ancestors had walked for thousands of years.
Working with Noongar man Eugene Eades and local tribal elders, they spent five days searching for Aboriginal artefacts and other clues about how the land was used by their ancestors and found artefacts up to 3,000 years old.
What we're doing on the properties
A Tammar Wallaby captured on sensor camera at Monjebup.
In 2009, one of 20 infra-red cameras dotted across the area caught a species once thought nearly extinct in the region, a Tammar Wallaby.
This was a heartening find, and we've since been working to significantly enhance the prospects for the recovery of Tammar Wallabies in the area by controlling feral animals and restoring the landscape.
Michael Tichbon Field Station
The Michael Tichbon Field Station. Photo Lee Griffith Photography.
In 2019 the opening of the Michael Tichbon Field Station heralded a new era for field research in the region. For more than a decade, staff and volunteers faced long drives and no accommodation when accessing the reserves – taking time away from their work.
“When we just had a couple of days' work to do, it really wasn't worth putting a tent up for one night, so we used to do a lot of day trips. But then three hours of the day was spent traveling and you got less done”.
– Ecologist Angela Sanders
The new station has transformed the way our staff, researchers, volunteers and partners work by enabling them to stay out in the field longer. Already we've already been able to attract a lot of volunteers and there are new opportunities for community engagement and research with this base to work from.