A heartfelt cry from the Kununurra Community to the Nation. We will Stop the Cane Toads getting into WA! |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|---|
KIMBERLEY SPECIALISTS Volunteer CANE TOAD Training & Toad Busting NEWSLETTER No.11
WWW.CANE TOADS.COM.AU The Cane Toad is a Key Threatening Process to the Australian Nation. Federal Government 12 April 2005 IF EVERYONE WAS A TOADBUSTER www.kimberleyspecialists.com.au www.kimberleyspecialists@westnet.com.au This Newsletter is really a ‘report’ and ‘history’ of the Kimberley Toad Busters. The objective to bring everyone up to-date on what the Kimberley Toad Busters is all about, how we came about and what makes us probably one of the biggest volunteer groups located in the Kimberley! It also provides general information on those individuals and businesses that have financially supported the volunteer effort and an up to-date list of businesses and various individuals who have assisted towards making Kimberley Toad Busters the sustainable volunteer organisation it is today. Who are the Kimberley Toad Busters! Kimberley Toad Busters is the only Western Australian Toad Busting volunteer organisation actually working on the ground with the objective to try and stop the cane toad from crossing into Western Australia . It is an organisation based in Kununurra (not to be mistaken with the Stop The Toad Foundation based in Perth ) and is made up of individual volunteers and groups from the Kununurra, Wyndham , Turkey Creek (Wurman) and Halls Creek Communities. It is currently in the process of incorporating as a Community Group. Kimberley Toad Busters is totally run by volunteers and has no paid member’s. In fact many of its member’s personally contribute substantially towards the running costs of the Kimberley Toad Buster volunteer toad busting activities. The people behind the organisation and facilitation of the Kimberley Toad Busters have been Lee Scott-Virtue and Dean Goodgame (Kimberley Specialists in Research) and Sarah Brett (Kimberley Wildlife Rescue and Kimberley Vet Centre) and more recently a growing number of people represented by volunteer Solicitor Sandra Boulter, Ronnie Atkins Warrangari Aboriginal Corporation, Chris Spur, Kimberley TAFE, Kununurra, Dave Woods, Kununurra Speleologists, Del Collins Kununurra Hospital. Lee Scott-Virtue and Dean Goodgame have also set up, and continue to administer at their own expense and time the Kimberley Toad Busters web site www.canetoads.com.au set up in December 2004. (CALM contributed $5000 towards the running costs of the website in November 2005). Kimberley Toad Busters recently formed an agreement with Biodiversity Protection WA, as our primary commercial fundraiser. This gives Biodiversity Protection WA the sole rights to the use of our work, results, name, logo and slogan for commercial fundraising purposes. This will assist the KTB to meet as much of the running expenses involving taking volunteers to the cane toad front as they can. (CALM is the only organisation that has contributed funding outside of community effort (2005-$10,000). Community business and individual donations continue to flow to mitigate ongoing on-ground expenses. Federal Funding of $79,000 is still to come. |
Simply put the Kimberley Toad Busters are a multi-cultural independent unpaid volunteer group of individuals and local (Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal) groups located in the East Kimberley (primarily from the town of Kununurra and now registering over 700 members) who decided to spend volunteer time attempting to not only ‘try’ and stop the cane toad from crossing into the Kimberley, but also to study and collect any information that might provide more insight into the behavioural patterns of the cane toad. As part of the process of formalising Kimberley Toad Busters as an incorporated community non-profit group Kimberley Toad Busters has established 8 working groups to undertake the task of continuing the ‘infrastructure’ already set up by Kimberley Specialists in Research. These include-
The ‘Research Advisory’ group under the leadership of Ade Meredith has been set up within the management structure of Kimberley Toad Busters to collate all data collected in the field. Ade has contacted several leading scientists and put in place data recording forms that optimise the information our volunteer group collect in the field. It also ensures that the Kimberley Toad Busters are collecting data that can be used by members of the scientific fraternity. Kimberley Toad Busters has also been approached by several post graduate students work with KTB’s on cane toad related research projects More recently Kimberley Toad Busters has been approached by over-sea’s volunteer student organisations to become involved in the actual field exercises for periods of up to ten days. The first of these will take place in September 2006. As a volunteer group we are still evolving but the dedication of the Kimberley community ensures that the Kimberley Toad Busters fight against the cane toad will sustain. At present our community membership comprises just on 180 trained toad buster leaders (Aboriginal and non Aboriginal) and over 400 members who have put up their hands to join the volunteer fight at the cane toad front. On-going reports from these groups will be produced on the Community website and in the Kimberley Toad Buster Newsletters. Kimberley Toad Busters is becoming Incorporated! Why? Kimberley Toad Busters is now a registered community group and is currently in the process of incorporating. The decision to incorporate was made on the basis that the volunteer people actually fighting on the ground need to raise funding that could be channeled directly to the toad busters to cover field running costs and equipment. We have been disappointed in the lack of funding coming from the Government funded body and from State and Federal bodies. At present Kimberley Toad Busters is largely funded by Kimberley Specialists and by other private business and individuals. Recent Federal funding of $79,000 (still to come) and a previous contribution of $15,000 from the state institution Conservation and Land Management is the only funding received by the Kimberley Toad Busters other than that received from local business and individuals. $47,000 of safety equipment and trap materials from Biodiversity Protection Inc based in Perth has enabled the volunteers to work more efficiently and safely in the field. With the incorporation of the Kimberley Toad Busters volunteer group we are hoping to be able to attract a lot more funding as well as sponsorship to assist in the fight against the cane toad. In order to make the Kimberley Toad Busters volunteer group and its toad busting activities sustainable for the long term funding is urgently required to cover simple things such as fuel and food. Biodiversity Protection has just recently contributed $10,000 to meet fuel and food costs. This is the first funding contribution outside of state government) that has actually addressed the problem of moving volunteers over 600 km (round trip) into the field to fight the cane toad problem and helping to assist in the actual fuel and food costs. All volunteers are dedicated to donating their own time however having to travel over 600 kilometers every weekend to fight the cane toad is costing the Kimberley Toad Busters around $2,500 to $4,000 a month in food and fuel. Kimberley Toad Busters need help (directly) to assist us to meet the expenses incurred in fighting the cane toad. If you would like to become a member of the Kimberley Toad Busters or would like to become involved in some of the other activities (fund raising as an example) please contact Lee Scott-Virtue or Sarah Brett for further information. See www.canetoads.com.au To see how you can direct funding to the on-ground fight to keep the cane toad out of Western Australia. Federal Govt. Funding! The announcement of a $79,000 funding grant to Kimberley Toad Busters by the Federal Government is a welcome acknowledgement of the East Kimberley’s dedication to keep the cane toad out of Western Australia. For the Kimberley Toad Busters, Many of whom have been contributing out of their own pockets to maintain the toad busting momentum, the announcement has come at a critical moment. State funding towards our cause continues to be slow in coming. However the generosity of local community business and members such as Kimberley Specialists in Research, Triple J, Alligator Airways, Biodiversity Protection, Kimberley Diamond Company and Rogers Machinery and various community individuals has been instrumental in keeping the momentum going. Donations of Equipment/time/funding to the Kimberley Toad Busters! Where has this come from? Without the assistance of the following local people and organisations the volunteer Toad Busters would not have been able to achieve half of what they have accomplished.
Nobody is too young or too old in this fight to stop the cane toad from crossing into Western Australia . If you don’t have a vehicle we can always find a seat on the Triple J Toad Busting Bus. IF EVERYONE BECAME A TOAD BUSTER. THE TOADS WOULD BE BUSTED! Kimberley Specialists@westnet.com.au or Lee or Dean 91682576 Or contact Sarah Brett 0407691229 |