Indigenous wisdom meets ag innovation at evoke^AG. 2025

The World-Heritage listed Cape York peninsula is famed for its untamed landscapes – but it’s not immune to pests and weeds?

Everyone assumes Cape York is a pristine savannah, rainforest environment; it’s not. We might not be as damaged as the rest of Australia, but we’ve still got the impact of the last 150 years to navigate.

And to me, prevention is better is cure.

Did opening up Cape York accelerate the pest and weed problem?

Yes. We had no roads when I was growing up. We grew our own food. Everything else was delivered by ferry.

Of course, we had the same segregation laws as the rest of Australia – but the people conveniently ignored it, because the country was too hard to live in to be worried about us and them. We had to work together.

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It’s only in the last 30 years that we’ve had supplied coming in from the cities. Roads, telecommunications, energy utilities – contractors spread weeds in places we’d never had them. There was no Sicklepod on roadsides. Now, it’s everywhere.

Trevor Meldrum, evokeᴬᴳ⋅ 2025 speaker.

What feral animals is the region dealing with?

Largely, we get same feral animals as the rest of Australia. Deer are everywhere now, especially on the eastern coast where the bush is thick. And pigs, although we get far more Asian feral pigs than the European one’s you get down south.

And with feral animals come the constant threat of production diseases: foot and mouth, lumpy skin, brucellosis, tuberculosis.

With the number of feral animals up here now, it’s only through sheer good luck rather than good management that we don’t have disease in our production systems.

So, you’ve pulled together a group of producers to start tackling the problem?

We’ve got about 40 Indigenous and non-Indigenous producers, on and off. Some cattlemen, but mainly horticulture – including emerging industries like dragon fruit, finger limes, jackfruit, and breadfruit.

Are you using Indigenous approaches that we don’t do in other parts of the country?

Yes – we do things by the season. We listen to the country. We talk to ancestors to gain permission before we do anything. That stuff is often discounted in non-Indigenous communities.

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Is that because we tend not to understand the wisdom that sits behind Indigenous practices?

Science’ is what’s taught in university – and it is seen as gospel.

We have some non-Indigenous producers that think the same way, and behaviour change to embrace more Indigenous practices can be a bit daunting for them.

That’s where the blending of innovation and culture comes in: proving that we can use age-old practices alongside modern technology.

What does that look like on the ground?

We had the boys from InFarm as part of an AgriFutures Australia Producer Technology Uptake Program (PTUP) come up to do trials on AI weed spraying technology. We worked in a paddock with a fair bit of weed coverage in it; about 80% I suppose.

Our Indigenous producers were convinced the machine’s camera would miss too much.

While we were standing there talking, it started to spray this patch of ground, and the producer said, ‘Look! That thing’s broken down already!’ But it had recognised a weed he’d never seen. And he looked at us and said, “Well, I’ll be buggered.”

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He was still determined to prove he could do it better, though. So, he went to the paddock next door and did a trial using just his own eye and a boom spray. And when we compared the results, he said, ‘You guys were right. That machine saw far more than I could ever see.’

So, Indigenous practice and innovation can be married together if done properly.

But you need the resources to do it, and for Cape York, we need a lot more resources. This is because we are not seen up here.

You touched upon talking to ancestors, can you share more on that?

You can’t do anything without asking ancestors. It’s not your country, it’s theirs, so it’s about respect.

Imagine how rude it would be if I just came into your house and sat on your lounge and ate your popcorn.

You would kick me out. Instead, I stand at the door and ask permission.

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Looking after land as well as people is a foundational tenant of so many religions. But as we’ve pursued economic growth, do you think the West seems to have forsaken the land element?

People think the country is a machine, or a commodity. It’s not. It is a living, breathing being.

Scientists have a bit to answer for here. They think of the land and water and animals as separate from each other. We don’t. We can’t. The land and sea are our mother and father.

But what we can do is blend white man innovation with Indigenous practices to do a better job of managing country.

To hear more, join Trevor Meldrum at evoke^AG. 2025 in ‘Yarning up with Trevor Meldrum’ where he’ll call out the possibilities, the innovation, the real-life challenges and the uncomfortable truths.

Be ready to question your own perspective, to ask how we value country – and how might we enable more potential, particularly in places like Cape York.