Indigenous Rangers Program (IRP)

About

The Indigenous Rangers Program (IRP) assists First Nations people in managing Country according to Traditional Owners’ objectives. Indigenous rangers use traditional knowledge and cultural practices, combined with Western science, to manage land, river and sea Country and deliver environmental, cultural, social and economic development outcomes.

Through the IRP, the Australian Government acknowledges and supports First Nations peoples’ unique, critical and continuing role in managing and protecting Australia’s natural and cultural heritage and is increasing investment in programs.

The government has committed to a national expansion of the IRP through a grant opportunity and by developing an Indigenous Ranger Sector Strategy to guide the future growth and empowerment of Indigenous ranger organisations across Australia.

Groups are formed to deliver on Country activities including:

• engaging with community and Traditional Owners to plan land and water management activities
• fire management - cultural burning and bushfire mitigation
• biodiversity conservation - habitat and threatened species management, invasive species management, freshwater and sea Country management
• strengthening First Nations language and culture
• cultural heritage protection and maintenance
• intergenerational knowledge transfer, education, training and capability development
• biosecurity monitoring
• partnerships with research, education, philanthropic and commercial organisations
• building and retaining employment in the Indigenous Land and Water Management sector.

Indigenous Rangers Program 2021-28 extension

127 Indigenous ranger groups from 78 organisations are currently being funded to deliver on-Country activities from 2021-28. You can find the list of current IRP providers and Ranger groups below (as at 1 September 2025).

A short description of each of the NIAA-funded IRPs and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) funded Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) are on the interactive project map.

You can see the locations of the IPAs and IRP funded groups in this PDF map (1.31 MB).

Indigenous Rangers Program expansion round one grant opportunity

The IRP is currently being expanded through competitive grant rounds focussing on the priorities of expanding the IRP footprint, increasing the number of women Indigenous rangers and increasing the number of Indigenous rangers on dedicated IPAs.

Round one of the expansion delivered on these priorities. The round was highly competitive, with 111 projects from 105 organisations approved for funding from 2024-2028; this includes 80 new ranger organisations.

The new ranger projects from round one have dedicated women ranger groups or employ women and up to 770 of the positions will be awarded to First Nations women. 18 IPAs without IRP rangers have been funded for new ranger groups.

You can view the list of the new Indigenous ranger providers and groups which have finalised the funding agreement (as at 1 September 2025) below.

Details of the grants for these organisations can be accessed through the Grant Awards: GrantConnect website.

Indigenous Rangers Program expansion round two grant opportunity

This grant opportunity has now closed and applications are currently being assessed.

Applicants should direct enquiries to IndigenousRangersGrants@niaa.gov.au.

Indigenous Rangers Program expansion round two consultation

The NIAA sought feedback on key elements of the second round of the IRP Expansion, which aims to deliver over 800 new Indigenous ranger jobs across the country. The consultation involved two parts:

• Workshops conducted with key sector stakeholders
• An online survey published on the NIAA website and distributed to Ranger networks (open from December 2024 to January 2025)

The consultation is now complete. Thank you for your submissions. Your feedback assisted the design of the Indigenous Ranger Program (Round 2) Grant Opportunity Guidelines. A summary of the consultation feedback is available online: 

• Indigenous Rangers Program Expansion Round 2 Consultation Summary (DOCX 219KB) (PDF 286KB).

Junior Rangers

The Junior Rangers program, which supports on Country learning for school-aged children and youth, is also increasing its footprint. The Junior Rangers grant opportunity has now closed. You can find out more on the Junior Ranger activities on the NIAA website.