Joint Management Plan For the Dja Dja Wurrung Parks

Manyangu ngulumbara dhelkunya djandak murrup
'We meet together to return good health to country and spirit'

Our Plan

The major role of the Dhelkunya Dja Land Management Board is to enable the knowledge and culture of the Dja Dja Wurrung People to be recognised and incorporated into the management of the Dja Dja Wurrung Parks (DDW Parks). The Board is developing a Joint Management Plan (JMP) for the six parks that make up the ‘Appointed Lands’.

The Board is working in collaboration with our partner organisations to develop a JMP that empowers Dja Dja Wurrung People in the landscape to look after Country in a way that maintains and respects their connection to the land and leads to the sustainable management of the DDW Parks generating social, cultural and economic benefits for Dja Dja Wurrung People and broader community. This is will have fidelity to the goals set between the State of Victoria and the DDWCAC in the Recognition and Settlement Agreement 2013.

Our Partners

The Board is working with the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation Trading As DJAARA , Djandak, Parks Victoria and the Victorian government.

CSIRO leads the consortium and brings a highly skilled team of staff with an outstanding track record of innovative joint park planning, stakeholder engagement, and extensive skills and commitment to capacity exchange with Indigenous organisations. The Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation provides specialist services in facilitating consultation with Dja Dja Wurrung People; Djandak is an Indigenous business partner with a strong and growing set of relevant skills, knowledge of the context and existing relationships of trust and respect with Dja Dja Wurrung people and other stakeholders in the region; Parks Victoria is providing significant operational support to the project and Conservation Management have assisted in further skills-exchange related to conservation planning and stakeholder engagement.

About Joint Management

Joint Management is a term used to describe a formal partnership arrangement between the Traditional Owners of land and the State, where both share their knowledge to manage specific national parks and other protected areas. Joint Management is recognising that the Traditional Owners, the Dja Dja Wurrung People, have a significant connection to their Country, and with that, have inherited certain rights and responsibilities to care for that Country. The goal of Joint Management is to enable the Traditional Owner knowledge and connection to Country to be expressed in the planning and management of the six DDW Parks.

What makes up a Joint Management Plan?

The JMP will articulate the vision, goals, outcomes, measures and long-term strategies for parks within planning areas. Management plans have a 15-year time frame and adopt a landscape-wide approach, and will consider things bordering the park that influence how a park operates. JMPs are prepared in accordance with both the Conservation Forests and Land Act 1987 (Part 8A, Division 5A) and the Traditional Owner Land Management Agreement, and will have strategies including but not limited to:

1. The conservation of natural values and cultural values (including heritage protection);
2. Managing threatened species
3. The recognition and utilisation of traditional Dja Dja Wurrung knowledge and customs.
4. Attracting and managing visitors, and identifying opportunities for benefits flowing from enhanced park experiences for visitors, the Dja Dja Wurrung People and the wider community.
5. Connection with broader Dja Dja Wurrung Country.
6. Consequent economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits for Dja Dja Wurrung People and the wider community.

Public access to existing parks and reserves will continue in accordance with applicable legislation.