For Yalata ranger Tyson Edwards, seeing his Country from above has fostered a new sense of connection — but he never imagined it would uncover an ancient water source. Rangers from this Aboriginal community on South Australia's remote west coast are now using drones to care for their land, which is about the size of 200,000 AFL fields. "It's very helpful, because the cars can't really get in through the bushes and all that, so the drone just has an eagle-eye view of the land," Edwards told SBS News.
The investment in drone technology has led them to a new or long-forgotten ancient rock hole. "We didn’t really know that there were rock holes out there,” he said. "But the drone found it for us.
" The rangers discovered the site north of Yalata on the track to the abandoned Ooldea settlement, where their families lived after colonisation. The Yalata Anangu people were forced off their land and moved to a mission in Yalata when the British government began using Maralinga With agreement from the Australian government, the people living on Maralinga Tjarutja lands were relocated and told they could not return. Edwards said Maralinga was still home, and Yalata was "a home away from home".
"[Nuclear testing] pushed us out from there, to the outer lands further away from the bomb," he said. Source: Supplied / Andrew Alderson Sources of fresh water were vital to the survival of their desert-dwelling ancestors. So, the rock hole discovery has excited the whole community.
"Rock hol.