“Grants of up to $75,000 per project are available to successful applicants to support important work in conserving the environment and cultural heritage on country, which can include traditional fire management practices, pest, weed and animal control, cultural heritage mapping and data collection, and development of country management plans.”

The member for Cook, Cythia Lui, who said the projects also create employment in communities, has also championed the grants.

“This program also provides opportunities for local employment and skills development, partnership development and the sharing of intergenerational knowledge,” she said.

Olkola Aboriginal Corporation received a total $218,000 from these grants for various projects, including identifying significant heritage features for conservation, threatened species habitat protection and identifying sacred sites and important species.

Olkola Elder, Mike Ross, said the funding provided opportunities to employ people and have more people developing their skills by working on country.

“We used the funding to undergo a cultural and knowledge transfer by mapping the Mjoberg Trail, which helped us retrace the steps of our ancestors,” he said.

“There are five rivers that run through Olkola country and we used a grant to conduct a water testing program to establish how pristine the water is.

“We test the water quality three times a year and check the results against a data base and that allows us to learn what type of runoff is influences the quality of water in our rivers.