Publications
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Prescribed burning benefits threatened mammals in northern Australia
Ian J. Radford, Leigh-Ann Woolley, Ben Corey, Tom Vigilante, Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation, Ed Hatherley, Richard Fairman, Karin Carnes & Antony N. Start
Despite substantial investment in prescribed burning for biodiversity conservation there has been surprisingly little demonstration of its efficacy in achieving intended conservation aims for fauna. In the case of northern Australia’s threatened mammal fauna, most studies have reported negative responses to fire. We used satellite-derived fire scar imagery and small mammal survey data to compare fire regimes and threatened mammal abundance before and after implementation of broad-scale prescribed burning in north-western Australia. Specifically, we tested: (1) whether prescribed burning was effective in changing fire regimes; (2) whether all mammal species and functional groups responded to prescribed burning; and (3) what regional fire and environmental variables explained changes in mammal status…
Article in Austral Ecology, Mar 2020
Angela M. Reid, Brett P. Murphy, Tom Vigilante, David M. J. S. Bowman
Australian mammals have exhibited exceptionally high rates of decline since European settlement 230 years ago with much focus on small mammals in northern tropical savannas. In these systems, little scientific attention has been given to the suite of grazing macropods, family Macropodidae, (common wallaroo (Osphranter robustus), antilopine wallaroo…
Article in Austral Ecology, Nov 2019
Angela M. Reid, Brett P. Murphy, Tom Vigilante, David M.J.S. Bowman
Australian savannas lack native megaherbivores (>500 kg body mass), but since the commencement of European colonisation in the 19th century bovine livestock, such as cattle (Bos sp.) and water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), have established large feral populations that continue to geographically expand. The largest extant native herbivores are marsupia…
Article in Land 6(4):68 · Oct 2017
Tom Vigilante, Stefania Ondei, Catherine Goonack, David M. J. S. Bowman
Indigenous groups are increasingly combining traditional ecological knowledge and Western scientific approaches to inform the management of their lands. We report the outcomes of a collaborative research project focused on key ecological questions associated with monsoon vine thickets in Wunambal Gaambera country (Kimberley region, Western Australi…
Article in Journal of Biogeography 44(10) · Jun 2017
Stefania Ondei, Lynda D. Prior, Tom Vigilante, David M.J.S. Bowman
Aims To detect changes in area and vegetation dynamics of monsoon rain forests in relation to disturbance and an observed wetting trend. Location The Mitchell Plateau and the Bougainville Peninsula (north Kimberley, Australia). Methods Geo‐rectified aerial photographs acquired in 1949 and 1969 and a pre‐existing map from 2005 were used to detect…
Article in Ecological Management & Restoration 18(2):124-133 · May 2017
Beau Austin, Tom Vigilante, Stuart Cowell, Zerika Clement
The importance of Indigenous peoples’ and their ancestral estates for the maintenance and protection of biodiversity, ecosystem function, threatened species and cultural diversity is clear. Due to their nature, processes and tools to measure the impact of intercultural Indigenous land and sea management partnerships need to be innovative and adapta…
Ecology and Evolution 7(5) · Feb 2017
Stefania Ondei, Lynda D. Prior, Grant James Williamson, David M. J. S. Bowman
The small rainforest fragments found in savanna landscapes are powerful, yet often overlooked, model systems to understand the controls of these contrasting ecosystems. We analyzed the relative effect of climatic variables on rainforest density at a subcontinental level, and employed high-resolution, regional-level analyses to assess the importance…
Plant Ecology 217(6) · Oct 2015
Stefania Ondei, Lynda D. Prior, Tom Vigilante, David M. J. S. Bowman
In tropical areas where climatic conditions support both rainforests and savannas, fire is considered one of the main factors determining their distribution, particularly in environments where growth rates are limited by water availability. The observed expansion of some rainforests into savannas suggests that rainforest saplings could have traits…
Technical Report · Jan 2015
Micha Jackson, Peter Bayliss, Waina N, Rod Kennett
The Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation, its Uunguu Rangers, NAILSMA and CSIRO are working together to develop a new method for monitoring marine turtles (Mangguru) and dugongs (Balguja). The collaborative research supports the Wunambal Gaambera Healthy Country Plan, which sets out the aspirations of Traditional Owners to manage and maintain t…
Conferance paper · Aug 2014
Micha Jackson, Peter Bayliss, Rod Kennett, Tom Vigilante
Although boat-based surveys are not currently used to monitor the distribution and abundance of marine turtles over extensive areas in Australia, there are significant advantages in doing so at local and regional scales. For example, local feeding populations in Wunambal Gaambera country comprise primarily green turtles and, in contrast, most local…
Jan 2013
Tom Vigilante, J. Toohey, A. Gorring, Kim Doohan
Aug 2012
Micha Jackson, Peter Bayliss, Rod Kennett, Tom Vigilante
Indigenous communities have increasingly been expressing their aspirations for the management of their marine and coastal environments through a process known as sea country planning. The Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation, representing the Traditional Owner community associated with the Uunguu Native Title Determination, has chosen to create…
Article in Ecological Management & Restoration 13(1):51 – 57 · Jan 2012
James A. Fitzsimons, Jeremy Russell‐Smith, Glenn James, Michael Looker
Summary Much of northern Australia’s tropical savannas are subject to annual intense and extensive late dry season wildfires, much of this occurring on Aboriginal land. Based on the successful West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (WALFA) model, which has resulted in significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions, fire abatement programmes are planned fo…
Chapter from book Tropical Fire Ecology (pp.143-167)Jan 2009
Tom Vigilante, Brett P. Murphy, David M. J. S. Bowman, Mark A. Cochrane
Aboriginal people share a consistent landscape-burning practice across the vast Northern Australian savanna region. The practice is spatially and seasonally diverse and has been widely applied to manage important animal and plant resources and to bring about health y and amenable landscape states. The burning practices of Aboriginal people and thei…
Article in Journal of Biogeography 31(8):1317 – 1333 · Jul 2004
Tom Vigilante, David M. J. S. Bowman, Rohan P Fisher, Cameron Yates
Aim This study of contemporary landscape burning patterns in the North Kimberley aims to determine the relative influences of environmental factors and compare the management regimes occurring on Aboriginal lands, pastoral leases, national park and crown land. Location The study area is defined at the largest scale by Landsat Scene 108–70 that cove…
Article in Australian Journal of Botany 52(3) · Jan 2004
Tom Vigilante, David M. J. S. Bowman
This study used a number of landscape-scale natural experiments to investigate the influence of individual fire events on the reproductive output of key fruit-bearing woody species [Buchanania obovata Engl. (two leaf forms), Persoonia falcata R.Br., Planchonia careya (F.Muell.) Knuth, Syzygium eucalyptoides (F.Muell.) B.Hyland, Syzygium suborbicula…
Article in Australian Journal of Botany 52(3) · Jan 2004
Tom Vigilante, David M. J. S. Bowman
Indigenous landscape burning is practiced around remote communities in the Kimberleys but has been replaced by wildfires across uninhabited areas. A landscape-scale natural experiment was established to investigate the effects of these different fire histories (derived from a 10-year Landsat remote-sensing sequence) on the floristic structure and c…
Article in International Journal of Wildland Fire 12(4) · Jan 2003
Rohan P Fisher, Tom Vigilante, Cameron Yates, Jeremy Russell-Smith
The paper reports on the development of a decadal fire history, 1990–1999, derived from Landsat imagery, and associated assessment of landscape-scale patterns, in a remote, sparsely human-populated region of the high rainfall zone of monsoonal north-western Australia. The assembled fire history confirms observations, derived from coarser-scale imag…
Article in Australian Geographical Studies 39(2):135 – 155 · Dec 2002
Tom Vigilante
The accounts of explorers and colonists in the Kimberley region of Western Australia were searched to find records of landscape burning by Aborigines. Analyses of these records provide estimates of the spatial and temporal patterns of fire across the region in historic times.The seasonality of fire varied across the region. In northern parts of the…