Irbmankara (Running Waters) is the largest spring fed waterhole on the Finke River in Central Australia. It holds great cultural significance to local Pertame (Southern Arrernte) people as well as regional ceremonial importance. This site and other culturally important springs and water holes on the Upper Finke River are threatened and in decline from bank erosion and in-filling with erosional sediments.

Deakin University Senior Research Associate Dr Jason Gibson and Research Associate Michael Cawthorn are working with Traditional Owners and the Tjuwanpa Aboriginal Rangers at Ntaria (Hermannsburg) Community to document their concerns and priorities for these culturally important springs and waterholes. In June Michael Cawthorn visited Irbmankara and other waterholes on the Upper Finke River with the Tjuwanpa Rangers, traditional owners, and scientists and attended a stakeholder workshop at the Alice Springs Desert Park. Traditional owners’ knowledge and oral histories will inform and be incorporated into a new rehabilitation and management plan being developed by water scientists from the Northern Territory Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security to protect the Upper Finke River. 

This project is funded by the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security, Northern Territory Government.