Darling River - Bourke to Brewarrina
The data from this study region includes 7 oral histories (audio as mp3s, and transcripts) and 3 image galleries, as well as a georeferenced hand-drawn map of the area.
Bourke was once the end of the line for most of the paddlesteamers that made their way up the muddy Darling. They sometimes had to wait for months before the waters became navigable and when the rains didn’t come, the channel dried to a series of pools.
Since the coming of Europeans, the health of the river and its fish have degraded. The paddlesteamer trade, grazing, and irrigation, all changed the rivers. Weirs were constructed, reaches desnagged, water extracted, foreign animals and plants introduced and new ways to catch fish also had an impact. These changes mean there are now a lot less fish than there were. Before the turn of the twentieth century there are stories of catching great numbers of silver perch, Murray cod, catfish and yellowbelly - and no tales of carp.
These are the traditional lands of the Ngiyampaa, Murawari and Yuwalaraay peoples. They have seen great changes to the river and surrounding waterways where they fished and hunted the wetlands.
(Source: Frawley, J., Nichols, S., Goodall, H. and Baker, E. 2011. Darling ‐ Brewarrina to Bourke: Talking fish, making connections with the rivers of the Murray‐Darling Basin. Murray‐Darling Basin Authority, Canberra.)
<span>Map image attribution: Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Talking Fish Project </span><a href="http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/442140/FINAL-Talking-Fish-booklet-compilation-Jan-2013_for-web.pdf">see details...</a>
2015-06-10
Frawley, J., Nichols, S., Goodall, H. and Baker, E. (2011). Darling ‐ Brewarrina to Bourke: Talking fish, making connections with the rivers of the Murray‐Darling Basin. Murray‐Darling Basin Authority, Canberra. <a href="http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/457036/Up-DarlingB2B_FINAL_Jan-2013-for-web.pdf">View or download from publisher...</a>
<a href="http://geonode.research.uts.edu.au/layers/geonode%3Afrawley2012page178">http://geonode.research.uts.edu.au/layers/geonode%3Afrawley2012page178</a>
Eng
Dataset
0d87a57e-0ff1-11e5-8eb9-005056a4d06a
POLYGON((145.72 -30.199999999179187,145.72 -29.739999999186768,147.09 -29.739999999186768,147.09 -30.199999999179187,145.72 -30.199999999179187))
Culgoa - Balonne: Oral History of Michael Anderson
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85048775' target='_blank'>Fishes--Identification</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/15435' target='_blank'>Connection to Country</a>
<a href='http://dharmae.research.uts.edu.au/items/show/397' target='_blank'>Cultural flows</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/260' target='_blank'>Dreaming (Spiritual)</a>
<a href='http://dharmae.research.uts.edu.au/items/show/400' target='_blank'>Aboriginal kinship systems</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2003006648' target='_blank'>Riparian areas--Management</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/6272' target='_blank'>Floods</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/3313' target='_blank'>Dams</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85145985' target='_blank'>Weirs</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/4510' target='_blank'>Cotton</a>
<a href='http://dharmae.research.uts.edu.au/items/show/402' target='_blank'>Water allocations</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85048782' target='_blank'>Fishes--Migration</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001000758' target='_blank'>Fishes--Cannibalism</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2003006652' target='_blank'>Traditional ecological knowledge</a>
<a href='http://indigenous.sl.nsw.gov.au/communities/yuwaalaraay-euahlayi-yuwaaliyaay' target='_blank'>Yuwaalaraay / Euahlayi / Yuwaaliyaay language </a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/3312' target='_blank'>Environmental flows</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/1049' target='_blank'>Ecological sustainability</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/260' target='_blank'>Aboriginal spirituality</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008008351' target='_blank'>Water--Symbolic aspects</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/8796' target='_blank'>Siltation</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/5257' target='_blank'>Wetlands</a>
Station-owner and Ualarai man Michael Anderson provides a rich and in-depth interview on his personal experience with the Murray-Darling Basin from his current base by the Bokhara River. As an executive member of the Northern Basins Aboriginal Nations (NBAN) group, Michael is concerned about the health of the basin and wetlands and attributes much of the basin's issues on poor water flows, poor management of available water and the siltation caused as a result. He urges that the wetlands be registered with an international treaty: the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, in order to help ensure its survival.
Michael explains the cultural and spiritual importance of the river systems to Indigenous peoples, delving into the history, language and stories of his Ualarai people. The changes in the fish population, and the traditional practices of his people that were implicit in the flourishing of the basin prior to colonisation.
Mentioned: water rat, mud crab.
Heather Goodall
Jodi Frawley
Hamish Sewell
University of Technology, Sydney
2010-10-13
Murray-Darling Basin Authority
NSW Department of Primary Industries - NSW Fisheries
Copyright University of Technology, Sydney
application/msword
audio/mpeg
image/tiff
English