Our Environment

Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council is dedicated to the protection and preservation of the precious environment of our region. We also take on systemic and regional issues that affect community and region. Kowanyama’s environment is constructed from three different knowledge bases outlined below.

Cultural Landscape knowledge on clan groups and estates; ceremony and trading; sites of significance; archaeology; Kokoberra language names for places, landforms, birds, animals, vegetation; traditional harvest of aquatic resources surrounding wetlands; the contemporary history of European settlement; and cultural renewal and maintenance through connections to country and resources.

Physical Landscape knowledge on landform creation in dreamtime; traditional landform classification; geomorphic classification of the Mitchell River Fan-Delta; freshwater hydrology of the Delta; wetland distribution and type; sea level and landform changes along the delta coast; future climate change and cyclone impacts.

Biological Landscape knowledge on vegetation within wetlands and ridges; weeds; ethnobotany; wetland bird species and abundance; terrestrial animal biodiversity; bush tucker; small mammal decline; freshwater and saltwater fish and animal diversity; wetland ecology and food webs; wetland water quality and health assessments; cattle and feral pig populations on wetlands;