Thursday, 26 June 2025
Stories and events of the Kaurareg homeland of Kaiwalagal, the Torres Strait homeland and Cape York homelands of the Anggamuthi, Atambaya, Wuthathi, Yadhaykenu and Gudang Peoples.
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Celebrating female rangers Strong women, strong communities: Alice Manas, Ethel Anau and Tanya Anau from TSRA’s ranger program. Pic supplied.
This year’s World Female Ranger Week is cause for celebrating the amazing women in Australia’s northernmost ranger program the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) says. Here in the nation’s remote far north, 18 female Torres Strait Islander rangers are inspiring generations of girls and women – proving that caring for land and sea is everyone’s responsibility.
Ranger Alice Manas, 35, is living her dream and excelling in the traditionally male-dominated field. Ten years ago, she started boots-on-ground as a ranger on Boigu before rising the ranks to senior ranger and cluster supervisor. These days the acting ranger operations manager proudly oversees 60 staff scattered across 13 islands north of Thursday
Island up to the outer islands neighbouring PNG. Rangers undertake activities including pest and weed control, marine debris removal, dugong and turtle management, seagrass monitoring, cultural heritage site protection and preserving traditional ecological knowledge. “TSRA’s ranger program is special, you won’t find our culture and unique life experiences outside of the Torres Strait,” Ms Manas said.
“In the ranger team I am supported to do meaningful work with our communities every day and grow my career up here in the Torres Strait. “We are helping bridge the gap between traditional knowledge and Western science to give Traditional Owners a full picture about land and sea management. “Our female ranger group is like a family. We work across many islands but we live, breathe
and strive to achieve the same dream, for our environment to be here for future generations.” The TSRA Rangers started in 2009 with one ranger group on Mabuiag and has grown to 13 ranger groups across 14 Torres Strait communities (13 islands). Today, female rangers work across the majority of TSRA’s ranger teams. Story continued + pics PAGE 4 N
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