Background: This presentation describes the qualitative evaluation of an engagement-based safety training program, undertaken by the Bunya People’s Aboriginal Corporation (BPAC) Indigenous Rangers, over a three-year period (beginning in 2020) at the Bunya Mountains in SE Queensland. Safety whilst working in a changeable outdoor environment is vital, and safety procedures for factories and more structured outdoor work (e.g., road construction, mining) may not be applicable to the dynamic situations encountered by the rangers. This presentation will show how training led to novel ranger-designed safe work statements (SWSs), enhanced situational awareness, and in doing so, strengthened the culturally important role of Indigenous Rangers in fire management.
Methods: Using a longitudinal, qualitative design, focus groups (FGs) were conducted in August 2022 (T1, n=9) and February 2023 (T2, n=7), separately for senior and junior rangers. All staff answered the same questions at both time points, exploring the training, and developing and using new SWSs. FGs were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis.
Results: All rangers contributed to new SWSs, and these had become more engrained from T1 to T2, as “they come from us, built from us, that’s how we do it”, “it’s our plain language”. Interestingly, working together on the chainsaw SWS led to the novel and subsequently widely used “Judgement Call” SWS, in which ambiguity/uncertainty could be identified and resolved, enabling spontaneous solutions to multifaceted and multi-layered problems. The “Walking on Country” SWS provided an action plan for situational awareness, structuring the observations, communication, and management of hazards. Observations of the environment then underpinned the “Right Fire” SWS, to track seasonal change and readiness for appropriate fire management using “cool” burns (i.e., low intensity fires).
Discussion: Engagement-based safety training successfully built skills that rangers used to formalise cultural traditions of caring for country and highlight the importance of bottom-up design, as the joint, collaborative design of safety procedures had ensured their successful uptake and acceptability. The rangers expressed great pride in what they had achieved and were strongly committed to new procedures. The novel and very successful Judgement Call ensured that safe work solutions could be easily found in dynamic or uncertain situations. Situational awareness kept rangers safe from immediate hazards and built knowledge of the yearly cycles and current state of the forest. Intimate knowledge of seasonal change increases preparedness for cool burning, which has cultural significance of providing appropriate care for the bush and its wildlife.

1 To understand the benefits for safety and engagement which occur when employees design their own safety procedures,
2 To understand how the workplace safety training can build employee engagement as well as lead to fit-for-purpose safety procedures for changeable and dynamic outdoor work situations,
3 To celebrate the innovation of the Indigenous Rangers in solving the safety issues in their workplace.