Elder Preston Thomas joined us on the road this time – both a privilege and a car karaoke marathon! Despite the long, corrugated gravel roads between Laverton and Kanpa, a 22-hour offline playlist and towing a large trailer loaded with mattresses, equipment, food and fuel, we made it safely to Kanpa. The crew warmly welcomed us and, of course, the growing puppies we met in March. (March visit blog click here).
Ready to hit the road
A big trip wouldn’t be complete without a few wobbles. Preston’s brother fell unwell, delaying our departure by a week. Matt’s wife Atheleen, and their children Jaiden and Nicolie were called to Esperance for an emergency, and with them, the Perth-bound trailer ended up for days in the wrong direction! Thankfully, it was rerouted via roadtrain and arrived in Perth the night before we left, meaning we packed well into the night. Never a dull moment!
The generosity of those supporting this project continues to surprise us with the impact on this Community beyond words.
Bedshed in Osborne Park kindly donated four mattresses, which have been a lifesaver for this community. We all appreciate a good night’s sleep and the community has been in dire need of good mattresses!
We also received a donation from Bunnings which included metal posts that are required to mark out trial sites and last for years, but they didn’t arrive in time to make this trip. As an interim, we needed to gather makeshift material from the sheds and around the township – old fencing posts, pipes, tent pegs, anything that we could tie a marker to until the posts arrive in Kanpa. The posts have since been freighted to Kanpa, a reminder that logistics are half the battle out here.
Trip number two
Most of the equipment is now purchased, donated, or borrowed: snake gaiters, gloves, power tools, a sledgehammer and so much more. This allows the Field Technicians to continue marking the one-hectare trial sites – eight in total as part of the scientific research and baseline studies.
Our objectives: finalise site marking, collect soil samples for analysis, continue micro-pitting and record observations. Flat tyres and car trouble remain real challenges, especially when moving gear and visiting the remote trial sites.
So excited to see a healthy Bilby and at the same location, a dingo curiously nuzzled the camera.
Collecting soil samples, with them labelled and stored, the team also spent time setting several trail cameras. Jeremiah, the youngest of Matt’s sons is a whiz with the cameras, reviewing footage and checking details, making the collective team’s most treasured discovery – a very healthy bilby!
Some of the SIM cards purchased for the cameras and one or two of the trail cameras were faulty, meaning we thought we’d missed out on seeing some important animal activity at night – Matt finding some areas with lots of digging, and surprised that images had been taken of these critically important marsupials. Everyone is excited to know there are healthy bilby populations.
We learned that snake gaiters protect not only from snakes but also the brutally prickly spinifex. Extracting compacted, hydrophobic soil from a dig stick feels like Michelangelo chiselling marble—equal parts strength, focus and finesse. Knee pads are essential, and tarps (which tear more often than we’d like) are non-negotiable, serving as ground cover and trailer dust guards.
Holding the project vision
Project PanGaia’s vision is to help nature restore herself, to rehabilitate degraded land until it can sustain life independently. More than 50 years have passed since Hunt Oil carried out seismic surveys in Kanpa and much of that compacted, hydrophobic soil still hasn’t recovered. It needs our help.
With the government continuing geosurveys and encouraging mining expansion, time is of the essence. We must demonstrate the project’s value to both the land and the Community.
Relationships
Our visits are about relationships: with ourselves, our team, our partners—but above all, with the land and wildlife. As Preston often reminds us, “Wildlife knows the answers, you just have to listen.”
On this trip, we were gifted sightings of camels, stunning birdlife and dingos. We also deepened our relationship with the stars. With no city lights to dim the view, the night sky becomes a guide. Under a new moon, ancient constellations whispered their wisdom, continuing to guide us through Project PanGaia.
The Seasons
The Seven Sisters, visible in the sky during the May visit have been used to predict seasonal changes for time immemorial. In Kanpa, they mark the passage of seasons and are used to track animal behaviour. The Seven Sisters were used to determine the dingo breeding season.
Our trip coincided with the May Flower Full Moon, associated with fertility, growth, and potential. A perfect match, as the foundation work began in March and this trip marked the completion of the trial site setup.
With weekly updates coming in and our weekly Zoom calls with the Kanpa crew, the notes, photographs, WhatsApp messages, make us eager to see the transformation ourselves. The feeling of potential fuels us. We’re already seeing changes: leaf litter gathering in pits, tiny critters making burrows in the pits, scat at trial sites and technicians noticing all sorts of detail. Even the town is changing with Uncle Bobby’s landscaping efforts, bringing new life to Kanpa. The land is responding. The township has a heartbeat again.
We know the micropits are doing what they’re meant to. We discovered a nearby area teeming with small digging animals, nature’s own bioturbation crew. It reaffirmed what we’ve felt all along: this works. Witnessing nature thrive is a gift. We can’t wait to return in August for a desert winter.
