Tens of millions of ‘pests’ degrade lands and waters in Australia alone – pigs, goats, camels, buffalos, donkeys. Cruel, wasteful, expensive, mostly futile and often counter-productive culling programs are no solution. But what if it didn’t have to be this way? What if some of those large wild herbivores could be harnessed towards regeneration?

This is the story of a family that has regenerated an incredible patch of country, and for 20 years that has incorporated and relied on wild donkeys. The bond these animals share with this Station family is clear. But the state department recently ordered the family to gun them down. It’s a painful flashpoint. One of the great stories of regeneration is on the line, and by extension, the potential for next generations to build on it, further restoring landscapes at scale for all our benefit.

Chris Henggeler and his family manage Kachana Station in a remote pocket of the East Kimberley, only accessible by foot or air. They took responsibility for this desertified and abandoned country, and have achieved so much. Yet with still vast lands desertifying around them, and so much opportunity to build on models like Kachana, Chris gave a presentation earlier this year called ‘Wanted Land Doctors’. It was a powerful invitation for the next generations to join the fray, and how rest of us can help them do it.

The model areas at Kachana feel like an oasis. But imagine this being the norm.  As Judith Schwartz, renowned author of The Reindeer Chronicles, says: we could be a world leader off the back of developments like this.

My family spent a couple of days here back in 2018, and felt transformed. We spent ten days this time, to delve more deeply and see for myself whether the donkey shoot order is a necessary evil, or as Chris argues, an enormous error in regeneration, at a time when we can least afford it.

We start here heading out in the old Cessna light plane, before a short evening stroll on arrival &, come morning, an extended walk in the gorge behind the homestead.

This episode was recorded at Kachana Station in the East Kimberley, in the far north east of Western Australia, throughout the week of 13 September 2021.

Title slide: Chris Henggeler on our gorge walk at Kachana Station (pic: Anthony James). See more photos on the episode web page.

Music:
The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.

The tune with the intro is by Jeremiah Johnson.

Find more:
Tune in to the special Extra out shortly, and the closing chapter to our time at Kachana

Send us a text

Pre-roll music: Heartland Rebel, by Steven Beddall (sourced from Artlist).

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