Decisions sit with the community
Nothing proceeds without the YAC Board and a community meeting. Elders decide what is shared and with whom, and YAC can stop or change the pathway after any cycle.
School-to-Ranger Pathway: a clear path from Junior Ranger to Ranger
A four-stage mentoring and employment pathway that helps Lama Lama Elders and Rangers pass cultural and land management knowledge to Junior Rangers, delivered with local high schools.
Junior Rangers · intergenerational knowledge · on-Country learning · employment pathway · Lama Lama · Cape York · mentoring · seasonal planning
- Design area
- Design Area 4: Augmenting the Ranger Program
- Project opportunity
- 4.4 Knowledge transfer and databases for Rangers: sharing cultural and land management knowledge between Elders, Rangers and Junior Rangers
- Group
- David’s Friends, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), 31265 Communication for IT Professionals (31265_SPR_U_1_S)
- Tutorial
- Tut1, Activity 02, Friday 17:00, CB02.07.150, City campus
- Tutor
- Jannat Gohar
How might we help Elders and Rangers pass cultural and land management knowledge to Junior Rangers?
Proposal summary
Proposal summary
The project addresses the limited time Elders, Rangers and Junior Rangers have together on Country through a four-stage pathway that sequences activities the Junior Ranger program already runs. Each stage has three core tasks and a finish point signed by a Ranger and an Elder (a Ranger and the Yintjingga Aboriginal Corporation [YAC] at Stage 4), held on a printed record that needs no power or internet. The pathway ends in a route toward Ranger work, subject to approval by YAC and partner organisations.
Overview of design
Overview of design
The School-to-Ranger Pathway makes progress visible and culturally authorised by arranging existing school-holiday activities into four named stages (Discover, Learn, Practise and Transition) that a Junior Ranger moves through over one or more dry seasons. Each participant is paired with a Ranger mentor, and each stage closes with a Ranger’s sign-off, co-signed by an Elder in Stages 1 to 3 and by YAC at Stage 4, so progress is visible and culturally authorised.
It is supported by the schools Junior Rangers attend, which recognise their on-Country learning, and by the Ranger Work Plan, which supplies mentoring in-kind. The physical components are a printed one-page calendar and progress record and an A3 cohort tracker kept at the Ranger base: Junior Rangers see where they are, mentors record sign-offs, and YAC uses the completed records to review each cycle.
Key considerations
Key considerations
What YAC and Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) would need to weigh before any part of this proposal proceeds, together with the assumptions the team made.
Nothing is promised
Training credit and work trials depend on a provider and employers agreeing, so both are shown as pending throughout and never promised.
Mentor capacity is the limit
Cohort size is capped by how many Rangers and Elders are available. The team could not determine that number and has assumed a small pilot cohort; this must be set locally.
Built for the seasons
The pilot runs in one dry-season school holiday with backup dates, because access closes from mid-November to April (EWB, 2026, p. 28) and cyclone recovery can reset the year (National Indigenous Australians Agency [NIAA], 2022, p. 29).
Builds on what already runs
The pathway adds no new program: it sequences activities the Junior Ranger program already runs, and most of the cash cost is paid to Elders for their time.
Where materials come from
The printed records, sleeves and tracker are bought from Officeworks rather than sourced locally, so reprints need to be ordered ahead of each dry-season block. Vehicles and camping gear come from existing Ranger operations.
Upkeep is light
Nothing is constructed, so nothing needs repair. Maintenance is reprinting the record each cycle, a half-day mentor briefing by a senior Ranger, and keeping the tracker at the Ranger base. YAC’s Junior Ranger Working Group owns the template and can change it after any cycle.
Assumptions made
That a local high school will partner; that mentoring time can come from the existing Work Plan; and that a printed record suits learning out on Country and between holidays better than an app. This is not an assumption about digital skills: the Ranger bases have reliable internet, so a digital copy can be added later if YAC chooses.
Still to validate
The prototype has been tested only by team members standing in for Junior Rangers, and Elder availability and protocols for gender-specific activities are unconfirmed.
Materials and cost
Proposed materials and cost summary
Port Stewart is in Queensland, so all figures are in Australian dollars (AUD).
Purchased materials
Printed one-page progress records (30 A4 colour sheets at $0.77, $23), a pack of 50 sheet protectors so each of the 15 Junior Rangers has a sleeve, with spares ($17), and one A3 colour cohort tracker ($1.54), all at Officeworks retail prices (Officeworks, n.d.-a, n.d.-b).
Other materials
Diesel for two vehicles over one five-day block, about $360 to $820. Camping for 21 people over four nights, about $357 at the Queensland national park rate for educational groups (Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service [QPWS], n.d.), and meals for the five days, about $1,525 at the cost of a healthy diet in very remote Queensland (University of Queensland School of Public Health [UQ SPH], 2020, p. 2). Vehicles are assumed to come from existing Ranger operations, and camping and meals fall away if YAC’s Junior Ranger camps already cover them.
Labour
About 20 Ranger-days of mentoring and a 2 Ranger-day mentor briefing, valued at $7,050 to $7,787 and contributed in-kind from the Ranger Work Plan, and 10 Elder sessions at the Queensland First Nations rate, $3,757 to $7,515 including YAC’s administration fee, with the final rate set by YAC.
Estimated total cost
About $6,000 to $10,300 AUD in cash for one pilot cycle, most of it paid to Elders, within a total value of $13,100 to $18,000 once in-kind Ranger time is counted. Certificate II costs school students nothing through VET (vocational education and training) in Schools (Department of Trade, Employment and Training [DTET], 2026b).
A full bill of materials and sourcing is given in the cost analysis. Costings are drawn from the sources listed on the references page.
Acknowledgement
About this proposal
This website is student work prepared by David’s Friends at UTS for the EWB Challenge 2026. It is a proposal only. It has not been reviewed or endorsed by YAC or the Lama Lama Land Trust.