‘I gotta work’: Hearing loss hasn’t held back thriving Wagiman Ranger

Hearing loss hasn’t stopped Arthur Muggleton from being one of the NLC’s most dedicated rangers. The 49-year-old has been working on Wagiman country for over a decade and has no plans to stop anytime soon.

“He can’t talk, but he can understand what we’re telling him, he can pick it up,” Theresa Bandison – Arthur’s mother – told Land Rights News.

“He understands what they are telling him he gotta do at work. And he work hard too.”

Theresa and Arthur were sitting side-by-side and going over maps of Wagiman country when Land Rights News caught up with the pair at the ranger base outside Pine Creek in the Katherine region.

Despite needing to attend numerous medical appointments due to his hearing loss, Arthur has only had one day off since the beginning of the year, Theresa explained.

 “Arthur loves coming to work. I say, ‘do you want a holiday?’ he say ‘no mum, I gotta work’.”

The Wagiman Rangers operate on the Wagiman Land Trust, which spans over 130,000 hectares – almost the size of Litchfield National Park. Work for the rangers includes weed and feral animal management, fencing for protection of culturally significant or sacred areas, and large-scale fire management.

While Arthur’s hearing impairment prevents him from speaking in the conventional sense, over the years he’s developed a system that allows him to communicate with family and his colleagues by using hand gestures, lip reading and short sentences.

Wagiman Ranger Daphne Huddleston says she’s enjoyed working closely with Arthur since he became a ranger over 10 years ago. 

“Arthur listens a lot. He understands what we’re saying, and he’s a good worker too,’’ said Daphne.

“When he is told to go cut the grass, he do it. He goes quick and gets whipper snipper, even he go on the ride-on mower, he’s really good at it.”

When asked what Arthur loves about his job he demonstrated weed spraying and putting safety equipment on his head.

Wagiman Ranger Coordinator Carl Joswig said Arthur enjoyed the chemical training that the group had completed a week ago.

“Chemicals – and fire – are dangerous for all of us. That’s why training is so important,” said Carl.

Arthur and his colleagues were trained in the handling, transporting and mixing of chemical herbicides for weed spraying. This training enables rangers to effectively treat different weed species that spread through Wagiman country, such as Gamba, Mimosa pigra and bellyache bush.

The Wagiman Rangers are also in the process of completing their Certificate II in Government (Ranger Compliance Support). This training course was developed by the NLC to give Aboriginal rangers the skills to effectively report non-compliant activity on their land such as illegal entry, hunting and ‘pet-meating’.

Rangers are often described as the ‘eyes and ears’ of country - they keep a watch out for non-compliant activity and report back to NLC if it needs to be investigated.

Besides compliance work, on a daily basis they also observe biodiversity and water quality and know when country is being impacted, for example, by erosion, ‘bad fire’, over hunting or pollution.

Carl said Arthur enjoys being on country and recalls a time when they were driving through the bush and came across a gorge, which they explored on foot.

“There were some beautiful waterfalls there… I took some pictures of Arthur looking around, I could tell that he loved being there in that bush.

“Then we were at the top of the big hill… and Arthur’s saying something and I’m going ‘what’s he saying?’

“He was pointing, trying to explain that looking that way it’s all Wagiman country and that he loves it.”