SPOTTING NGUNBA: THE MOMENT RANGERS JUMPED FOR JOY

Djabugay Bulmba Rangers in Far North Queensland jumped out of their chairs and yelled with excitement when they saw the unmistakable shape of a platypus.

The rangers had set up trail cameras – focused on Flaggy Creek and surrounding waterways north west of Kuranda – to search for a species of special significance.

In the Djabugay language a platypus is “ngunba” and Kuranda is “Ngunbay” which means place of the platypus.

Across their range in Australia, platypus are becoming harder to find. The Kuranda region is no different. They had not been seen in Flaggy Creek for decades. No-one knew if they were still there, especially after Cyclone Jasper – the wettest cyclone in Australian recorded history – caused intense flooding in December 2023.

On top of that, there were 400,000 images to trawl through. It was shaping up as a needle-in-a-hay-stack mission.

But within the first hour, there on the screen, was a platypus. In fact, there were four images of the same ngunba swimming at the edge of the creek.

“It was very exciting. I saw all these hands going up, the rangers were jumping up and saying ‘yeah we found one’. It’s meaningful because it shows ngunba is out there. Seeing everyone so happy made me even happier,” said Dennis Hunter, Cultural Development Officer, Djabugay Aboriginal Corporations.

The platypus search was part of ‘Eyes on Country’, a First Nations-led project established by the World Wide Fund for Nature-Australia with funding support from Google.org.

“We are incredibly inspired by this Eyes on Country project and the Djabugay Bulmba Rangers' rediscovery of the platypus in Flaggy Creek. This is a powerful example of how technology can combine with traditional knowledge to help protect Australia's precious wildlife. We're proud that Google.org supported this important conservation effort,” said Marie Efstathiou, Scientific Advancement, Google.org.

In partnership with ‘Eyes on Country’, 11 Indigenous groups across Australia are designing monitoring programs that combine ancient knowledge with the latest technologies such as trail cameras, Wildlife Insights (which uses Artificial Intelligence to identify species in images), environmental DNA, and drones.

To look for platypus, rangers chose 10 monitoring points and set up two cameras at each location. One camera was focused on the water to check for ngunba, the other camera photographed wildlife in the surrounding forest.

Platypus were recorded at three of the monitoring sites. It was wonderful news for Aunty Rita Gutchen, a Djabugay Ewamian Elder. She had not seen a platypus for more than 60 years. Not since she and her friends would run down to the local swimming hole each afternoon after finishing school at the Mona Mona Mission.

“That’s the first time I saw a platypus. There was a splash and he was gone. The platypus probably thought ‘Oh here’s the noisy ones coming now’. It’s nice they survive. There’s probably more too. Hopefully they’re breeding,” said Aunty Rita with a laugh.

“The elders guided this project. They were getting worried because they had not seen a platypus in years. So we decided to take on that responsibility to go find platypus. It makes me feel good doing stuff the elders want done,” said Djabugay Bulmba Ranger Caesar Hunter.

Operating from June to October, the 20 cameras provided other good news aside from the discovery of platypus.

“The cassowary is the symbol of our people. We’re 40km outside of Kuranda. We didn’t know cassowaries were here. So to see juveniles on the camera, and know there’s a population is great.

“We can tell from their scats they’re relying on bush foods and fruits, not handouts from people, which is positive and bodes well for their future,” said Dennis Hunter.

The cameras also photographed other animals including bandicoots, giant white-tailed rats, rainforest dingoes, pademelons and feral pigs.

Knowing the location of feral pigs helps inform critical pig control programs. These pests dig up creek banks causing erosion and water turbidity. Such destruction makes it hard for platypus to dig burrows and too much sediment lowers the supply of the aquatic insects platypus rely on for food.

Emma Spencer, Eyes on Country coordinator, WWF-Australia, said the images from Flaggy Creek would be used to teach AI Models how to recognise platypus.

“But this is not just a project about conservation. It's also a project of culture and people. For the elders it’s incredibly important to know the species they remember growing up on the mission is still out there,” she said.