On Tasmania's far north-west tip, you'll find a rugged, ancient landscape.
Preminghana is sacred, home to Aboriginal rock art and middens from thousands of years ago.
It sits close to the Arthur-Pieman Conservation Area — which is also recognised by all levels of government as heritage that needs to be protected, history in need of urgent preservation.
But the Aboriginal rangers who patrol it say it's being destroyed, little by little, by four-wheel drivers and bikers who stray from the tracks and venture onto the nearby sites.
Pakana rangers Brendan Lowery and Victor Ralph have long known it has been happening, but now using drones and GPS, they can prove it.
"We have a main base system, which goes in the middle and then we lay out the GPS and map out the area, which will sync into the drone," Mr Lowery said.
The hundreds of images taken on the drone are then overlaid with the GPS coordinates to create a detailed map of the area.
"We can get really, really accurate imagery, [we can] see if a 10-cent coin has been moved from 12 months ago," Mr Lowery said.
The mapping has been done annually since 2018, and the results have been stark, frustrating and disheartening.
"Recently we found someone's drove over Ordinance Point with a quad bike, they've come in through the back way, ignored any fencing and anything like that," Mr Ralph said.
"Yeah, not good at all."
"Especially over Christmas and Easter, we have a pretty big impact with all the people coming down along our cultural heritage areas and driving over middens, living sites," Mr Lowery said.
Four-wheel drive tracks traverse the landscape and are popular with drivers and bikers, but Mr Lowery said it was clear people were not sticking to the permitted areas.
"They go off-track to try to push themselves to see how far they can go, but in doing so they do a lot of cultural destruction," he said.
Mapping reveals extent of damage
Back in the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre's (TAC) Burnie office, the mapping echoed what the rangers saw on the ground.
It showed dozens of new tracks every year, all illegal, and many running directly over culturally significant sites.
"You can see the impact for four wheel-drives over the years," TAC's land management coordinator Mr Lowery explained.
The red lines show tracks, like scribbles superimposed over the land, created by quad bikes.
"This is physical proof of the damage that's being done on our cultural heritage sites on the west coast," Mr Lowery said.
Calls to return the land to traditional owners
The Tasmanian government returned Preminghana to Aboriginal people in 1999, with it now an Indigenous Protected Area.
It remains one of few land hand-backs in Tasmania's history.
While the rangers own and manage Preminghana, land management responsibility for the rest of the Arthur Pieman Conservation Area sits with Parks and Wildlife (PWS).
The rangers say their evidence shows damage throughout the area and Aboriginal people should be given control to take care of it better.
"These cultural heritage areas need to be given back to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community so we can look after it the way it should be," Mr Lowery said.
"It's our culture, our heritage, we should be doing it."
He said they're not funded to do a lot of the work they do outside Preminghana, but do it anyway out of love of the land.
Mr Ralph said the community needed funding to look after returned land.
"If we don't get it now, they keep putting it off, keep putting it off, the cultural destruction keeps going, the middens get lower and lower, there won't be anything in the future," he said.
Land returns 'a priority'
Roger Jaensch, who is both parks minister and Aboriginal affairs minister, said in a statement that returning more land to Tasmanian Aboriginal people is "a priority for the Rockliff Liberal government".
"We will soon be finalising our review into the model for returning land, which aims to identify the barriers to returning land and explore options to improve the land return process," he said.
He said PWS work with partner agencies to conduct surveillance and compliance operations in and around the Arthur-Pieman Conservation Area.
Mr Jaensch outlined a recent operation which resulted in several defect notices and infringements being issued for unregistered vehicles and drink driving.
Several cautions were made for failing to hold the required permit for driving vehicles in the reserve.
"This activity is deliberately intended to ensure the protection of cultural and natural values and to deter antisocial behaviour including potential vandalism," he said.
Mr Jaensch said in "recognition of the importance of Tasmania's Aboriginal cultural heritage to Tasmanian Aboriginal people, and all Tasmanians" the Tasmanian government was "committed to developing a new, stronger, Tasmanian Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act as a priority".
"Last year, we released a consultation paper presenting the government's position on key elements of new Aboriginal heritage legislation," he said.
"Feedback from that process is informing a draft exposure bill that will go out for consultation later this year, ahead of its introduction to parliament."
