Normanby Aboriginal Corporation (NAC) own and manage Normanby Station west of Cooktown on Cape York Peninsula.  Normanby Station Cape York is a remote, Indigenous-owned cattle station located in the traditional homelands of the Balnggarrawarra.  This country is rimmed by escarpments containing remarkable rock art which tumbles to river flats, open Savannah country, riverain rainforests, eucalypt forests, wetlands lagoons and catchments that feed into Princess Charlotte Bay. 

Normanby have been exploring direct sales of meat through their Bush Beef initiative. Bush Beef is part of a comprehensive cultural economic and environmental plan developed by the Traditional Owners-Balnggarrawarra.  This imitative aims to remove wild cattle from environmentally sensitive areas, increasing species diversity and restoring water quality through erosion control to improve water quality inflows to The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage area.

Mimal Land Management have been managing the threats from feral animals for many years. 

Better management of ferals will reduce the threats of erosion, damage to fresh water areas and the spread of weeds. There are no simple and effective solutions, but our rangers are developing the knowledge and skills to use tools that are available to map where most damage is occurring and target places of most concern. Because the problem is so big, we focus on the worst affected areas. Freshwater places where we have springs, creeks and wetlands areas are most affected by the pests and removing ferals is an important part of our project to improve our freshwater. We are growing our skills in building and managing animal traps and using safe baiting techniques. Until we know more about how to control feral animals more efficiently, we are also investing in training our rangers to be skilled and qualified marksmen.

Many national parks and conservation NGOs try to get rid of all big, grass-eating herd animals. However, more than 20 years catching ferals like buffalo has created seasonal jobs and royalty money for some clans. That’s good for our local economy. We’re working to find ways we can work with landowners and commercial companies so we can continue to get economic benefits while improving management and reducing damage. Mimal wants to help landowners get the right balance between caring for country, making money and creating more jobs on country.

The Space Cows project is a partnership between CSIRO, North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA), Normanby Aboriginal Corporation, Mimal Land Management and Aak Puul Ngantam (APN).

The project has spent the past few years developing and testing new technology and building capacity and knowledge to manage feral cattle and buffalo in Cape York (Qld) and Arnhem Land (NT).

APN Cape York works towards the empowerment of Wik people on Wik Country. Socially. Culturally. Economically. Sustainably. Part of the Southern Wik clans' aspiration for their future has been the maintenance of their proud history as cattle men and women in Northern Australia whilst building local skills and opportunities for their young people in sustainable and diverse land use management for place-based prosperity. The APN Cape York partnership with NAILSMA and CSIRO has been building capability in current cattle management whilst also building awareness and capability in future cattle management skills like remote sensing monitoring to inform future diverse landscape management strategies.