Joye Maddison – Landcare Facilitator / Coordinator Award

Project Profile

Issues

Joye Maddison has been involved in landcare in the Top End of the Northern Territory for over three decades. Hailing from a small timber-milling town in WA, Joye began her career in NRM in 1983 at Kakadu National Park as a coordinator for work-for-the-dole program CEEP. After 22 years in the Kakadu region, Joye moved into the role of Group Coordinator of Wangamaty (Lower Daly) Landcare and is leading a number of environmental and NRM projects across the region.

Project Detail

Nauiyu local Joye Maddison has been nominated for a National Landcare Award for her ongoing contribution to the Landcare network and commitment to working with communities to manage the Northern Territory’s natural resources.

Joye has been involved in landcare in the Top End of the Northern Territory for over three decades. Hailing from a small timber-milling town in WA, Joye began her career in NRM in 1983 at Kakadu National Park as a coordinator for work-for-the-dole program CEEP. After 22 years in the Kakadu region, Joye moved into the role of Group Coordinator of Wangamaty (Lower Daly) Landcare and is leading a number of environmental and NRM projects across the region.

In her work for the CEEP program, Joye introduced a number of protocols (such as vehicle wash-down) which are still in use today. One of her first projects saw Joye enlisting the help of Traditional Owners and buffalo hunters to collect and compile a database of mimosa records which has proven invaluable in the control and management of the invasive species in and around Kakadu.

Whilst in Kakadu, Joye worked in collaboration with the Mary River Landcare Group on a grassy weeds monitoring program on the western edge of Kakadu National Park and in 2005, decided to pursue her work with Landcare by commencing the Group Coordinator role with Wangamaty Landcare in the Lower Daly region.

Land tenure in the region is largely pastoral leasehold and Aboriginal freehold and Joye coordinates many hands on activities to address on-farm – and on-country – NRM issues.

In 2009, Joye was one of just two successful Northern Territory applicants to obtain Landcare funding through the 2009-10 Caring For Our Community grants. Joye received $150,000 to ‘Protect and manage biodiversity in the Lower Daly’.

Joye also collaborated with CSIRO to eradicate African big-headed ants from the Daly – the first project in the world to demonstrate ecological recovery of a system after eradication.

Joye is now focused on developing further partnerships with neighbouring Aboriginal ranger groups in Peppimenarti and Woodykupildiya, through a Natural Resource Management Board mimosa control project in the Daly.

Joye Maddison is one of 88 finalists in the National Landcare Awards to be announced in Canberra on 24 June 2010. Commencing in 1991, the Awards celebrate the achievements of individuals and groups that make a valuable contribution to the land and coast where they live and work.

Photography

Joye Maddison