The Minister for Tourism, the Hon Martin Ferguson AM MP, today spoke with rangers at the Kimberley Ranger Forum at Home Valley Station in Kununurra, Western Australia.
The Australian Government's Working on Country Program is investing $229 million over five years to create 660 Indigenous ranger positions across the country.
In the Kimberley, $20 million has been provided to fund 65 ranger positions in eight communities through to 2013.
Minister Ferguson said: "The Kimberley Land Council, led by Wayne Bergmann, is facilitating the Program and I congratulate the KLC for holding the Ranger Forum to share information and provide professional development and training opportunities.
"Indigenous rangers play an important role in protecting and preserving Australia's pristine land and sea environments, which attract tourists from all over the world.
"The ranger initiative is unique in bringing together traditional knowledge and science to maintain the natural and cultural values that attract people to the region.
"Visitors to the region also want an experience that respects Indigenous culture and heritage.
"Having rangers on country not only creates valuable jobs for people in remote areas, it generates opportunities for the transmission of cultural knowledge from elders to younger people.
"Through these experiences, rangers are building the skills to interpret Indigenous culture and resource management practices for a non-Indigenous audience.
"In the longer term this combination of cultural knowledge and cross-cultural skills will create important opportunities for the establishment of sustainable Indigenous tourism enterprises."
In destinations like the Kimberley, rangers work hand in hand with local tourism operators to showcase the natural beauty of the landscape, while using their traditional knowledge of the country as well as science to minimise the impact of visitors and protect the environment.
"These jobs are building on the synergies between tourism and the protection and promotion of both the natural environment and Indigenous culture and heritage," Minister Ferguson said.
"Tourism has great potential to provide the sorts of job and business opportunities that can deliver economic independence for regional Indigenous communities, particularly here in the Kimberley which has the highest concentration of Indigenous tourism experiences on offer anywhere in Australia.
"Grasping those opportunities is the key to closing the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and the ranger initiative is helping move us closer to that outcome."
Tourism contributes $3 billion to the Western Australian economy each year and directly employs more than 45,000 people.
Nation-wide tourism is a $40 billion industry, employing nearly 500,000 Australians and contributing nearly 4 per cent to annual GDP.