An Aboriginal teenager from Far North Queensland is using the power of drone technology to preserve the history of the Wallara clan of the Koko-Muluridji people. 19-year-old James Cook University Bachelor of Science student, Gullara McInnes has combined her love of drones and mapping with her passion for her traditional country to give local Elders the opportunity to identify traditional Aboriginal sites from the sky. “There are big trees that surround the locations and restrict us from easily accessing them. That’s when I decided to use two drones—one to provide a bird’s eye view and the other to get under the canopy—to enable our local Elders to identify the different sites, all using modern drone technology.” “In Mareeba, there are a lot of non-native trees and grasses that threaten the important sites. By using geospatial mapping, we are able to use that data to safely burn these grasses without endangering the sites or any surrounding environments”.
