Ansell said if the pilot program was expanded to other indigenous communities it would give Customs a cost-effective way of protecting Australia’s vast northern coastline.
“There’s the potential there to create a web of surveillance right across the remote north,” he said.
It also gives local Aborigines such as Dion Cooper full-time work in an area where jobs are scarce and allows them to protect waters their ancestors have fished for thousands of years.
“I get to go out on patrol and after we do that I sometimes have time for fishing,” he said. “It’s the best job in the world and I get to do it every day.”
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