Qualla: Dhimurru Indigenous Protected Area

Dhimurru Indigenous Protected Area: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Each dry season a helicopter lifts off from near Nhulunbuy and flies low along the Arnhem Land coast, the rangers aboard scanning the surf for something heartbreakingly specific: a sea turtle tangled in a drifting net, drowning slowly in waters its kind has used for millennia. The turtle is miyapunu, and the people searching for it are Yolngu - rangers of the Dhimurru Indigenous Protected Area, looking after their own Country exactly as their law demands. This is some of the most beautiful coastline in Australia, and also some of the most polluted, and the two facts collide on Yolngu beaches every single year.

Dhimurru Indigenous Protected Area: Land and Sea Together

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Dhimurru wraps around roughly 5,500 square kilometres of Yolngu land and sea country in north-east Arnhem Land, near the township of Nhulunbuy on the Gove Peninsula. It is managed by the Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation, set up by Yolngu landowners, and worked by around thirteen r...

Dhimurru Indigenous Protected Area: The War on Ghost Nets

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The gravest threat drifts in from far beyond Yolngu waters. Abandoned commercial fishing nets - 'ghost nets' - wash down from international waters to the north and snag along some 70 kilometres of beach, in a region carrying among the highest densities of plastic pollution on Ear...

Dhimurru Indigenous Protected Area: A Living Sanctuary

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Country the rangers protect teems with life. Its beaches are nesting grounds for four species of marine turtle; its wetlands and bush shelter 54 kinds of migratory bird and at least 18 threatened species. The rangers manage feral animals and weeds, run controlled burns in the...

Dhimurru Indigenous Protected Area: Whose Country This Is

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Dhimurru's land takes in places of deep cultural meaning alongside spots that draw visitors from Nhulunbuy - fishing beaches, surf breaks, camping grounds. Balancing the two is part of the rangers' daily work, and so the corporation runs a permit system: outsiders apply to Dhimur...