Macca's Meanderings

Hi Since arriving at Croker Island in September 2020, a number of my posts have talked about the marine litter that washes up onto the beaches here - from very small plastic items to huge sections of ghost net. This is not a problem confined to Croker Island. When I first came here I was shocked by how this problem had grown, after having spent some years in central Australia.  Today, finally one of the major media organisations have pickup this story. The link below relates to north east Arnhem Land - an area Nancy and I have lived and worked in for many years.  In the article a number of Yolngu people are mentioned. One of them - Djawa Timmy Burarrwanga I know, and he is passionate and very active in caring for his country.  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-23/plastic-waste-growing-on-arnhem-land-beaches-indigenous-rangers/101254974 Apart from some individuals and small groups with limited resources not a lot is being done about this huge and growing issue. For government and indu

 Hello for windy Croker island Part of the local ranger's work is to be the 'eyes and ears' for Fisheries Officers and the Water Police looking for illegal fishing and/or illegal entry to Aboriginal land. To assist in this work we use motion sensing cameras like the one in the photo below. They can take photos or videos - day or night, when they sense something moving in front of them. Also photographed, are all manner of wildlife from pigs to crocodiles to birds.  On the main floodplain we have a fenced area or exclusion zone. This helps to monitor the impacts of the large numbers of feral horses and pigs. As you can see the area inside the fence is not as eaten and/or trampled down. At the beginning of last wet season the grass inside the fence responded much quicker to the early rains. Through the middle of the year the dominant winds are the south east trade winds. Yachties use these favourable winds to sail up the east coast and across the top to western Australia or u

Greetings from Croker Island, NT. Recently we have experienced some very high tides around Croker Island. Numerous elders have commented to the rangers that they do not recall the sea water ever being as high. Below - a photo of a casuarina tree with most of its roots exposed. The floodplain mentioned later in this post is just just on the other side of the trees on the left of this photo.  At the southern tip of Croker Island is an abandoned pearl farm. The high tides have entered the work area and have eroded the sand from around the front line of posts. In the north of the island a sign fell over after the sand it stood in was wash away. Smaller casuarina trees have died and toppled into the water. Others are close to toppling.  It was rather timely that we had a visit this week from a scientist wanting to research areas that may have been covered by salt water in the past when sea levels were higher than they are today. The Google Earth image below shows the main floodplain area on

 Hi again Recently Garngi rangers conducted a patrol to Cape Croker. We took along with us an old man from the traditional owning clan. He really enjoyed the day out.  Below, a section of the east coast of Croker Island just south of Cape Croker. Through the dry season we experience many windy days - the south east trade winds.  Behind the sand dunes along this beach there is a swamp. We inspected our mimosa weed control work in this area from before the last wet season. Dead mimosa can be seem below. This is just one part of the treated mimosa. Some quite thick infestations are located in amongst the paperbark in the background.  There is still work to do however - see the green juvenile mimosa below.  Feral pigs live around swamps. They help to spread weeds.  And they also dig up the country as can be seen in the photo below. Driving over this is very rough and very slow.  The recent strong easterly winds had blown a ghost net onto this beach. Disposing of ghost nets continues to be

 Hello from the Top End Being only 11 degrees from the equator Croker Island is not familiar to cold weather. Recently the temperature has been so cold (19 degrees minimum) the air conditioners have not run for three weeks and even the ceiling fans have not had much use. The local residences are complaining bitterly about this situation. One ranger was saying that it was freezing, until I showed him some photos of snow and frost taken in southern Australia. Currently there is a lot of fuel reduction burning happening in the Top End. At Croker Island our burning season is a little later than the adjacent mainland due to more late wet season showers here on the islands. Spear grass is a very common grass here. It grows to 2-3 meters tall and results in large amounts of fuel when it dries out.  The screenshot below shows some the satellite technology we use for monitoring fire and also recording what areas have been burnt and what areas have been missed. The coloured symbols show where a