Katarapko: Images from interview with Eric (John) Aston
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/2645' target='_blank'>Boats</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/5361' target='_blank'>Fishing nets</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/6010' target='_blank'>Family histories</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/1455' target='_blank'>Fishing industry</a>
Historical images of the Aston family, three generations of professional fishermen in the Renmark region. John held a commercial licence between 1956 and 1997. His grandfather was also a boat maker.
Images provided by John Aston during his oral history interview with the Talking Fish research team.
Heather Goodall
Jodi Frawley
University of Technology, Sydney
2010-09-29
Murray-Darling Basin Authority
NSW Department of Primary Industries - NSW Fisheries
All rights reserved
image/jpeg
Katarapko: Oral History of Eric (John) Aston
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85048775' target='_blank'>Fishes--Identification</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/2650' target='_blank'>Fishing boats</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85048694' target='_blank'>Fishing regulations</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85076763.html' target='_blank'>Licenses</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85145461' target='_blank'>Water--Law and legislation</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/5361' target='_blank'>Fishing nets</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/6010' target='_blank'>Family histories</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/665' target='_blank'>Family life</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/832' target='_blank'>Irrigation</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/973' target='_blank'>Water quality</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://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85048782' target='_blank'>Fishes--Migration</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/4994' target='_blank'>Salinity</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85048621' target='_blank'>Fishes--Breeding</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/6270' target='_blank'>Floodplains</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/1455' target='_blank'>Fishing industry</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/3312' target='_blank'>Environmental flows</a>
An interview in seven parts with Eric ‘John’ Aston.
Born in 1942, John held a commercial licence between 1956 and 1997. He discusses his family history in commercial fishing since 1918, three generations. His grandfather was also a boat maker. He tells the story of how ‘Squabbily Creek’ at Murtho Forest came to be named by his father Raymond Charles ‘John’ Aston. In those days, buying a fishing reach meant buying good will, not the water. John talks extensively about professional fishing as a family business, and gives a sense of the long hours of labour the whole family put into making fishing nets and boats. Professional fishing has an important memory status amongst people who live along the river.
John talks about: fishing licenses, and the licence system introduced in 1922; fishing equipment; fishing practices, since 1920s; changes in fishing materials and the introduction of synthetics, 1960s; changes in water levels from irrigation; impact of Dartmouth Dam on River Murray flow; Hume Dam levels; flows from the Darling; water colour and clarity; three distinct water colours (in the Murray, Lachlan/Murrumbidgee, Darling); changes to water levels with the building of weirs and locks, late 1920s; objects he has found in the guts of Murray Cod; 1956 flood; 1992 flood – ‘a complete change of fish’; Chowilla Floodplain, 1991-1993; movement of wildlife in floods; salt from irrigation. (Mention of 'bream' fish, unspecified).
Heather Goodall
Jodi Frawley
University of Technology, Sydney
2010-09-29
Murray-Darling Basin Authority
NSW Department of Primary Industries - NSW Fisheries
Copyright University of Technology, Sydney
application/msword
audio/mpeg
image/jpeg
English
Katarapko: Oral History of Kingsley Abdulla
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008120678' target='_blank'>Fishing--Australia</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/4994' target='_blank'>Salinity</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/9113' target='_blank'>Indigenous medicine</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/2955' target='_blank'>Burial sites</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/5257' target='_blank'>Wetlands</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85039493' target='_blank'>Dredging</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh96006425' target='_blank'>Introduced fishes</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/5366' target='_blank'>Droughts</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2007102025' target='_blank'>Birds--Identification</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85048775' target='_blank'>Fishes--Identification</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85048753' target='_blank'>Fishes--effect of water levels on</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/5397' target='_blank'>Erosion</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001008903' target='_blank'>Spawning</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2003006652' target='_blank'>Traditional ecological knowledge</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/973' target='_blank'>Water quality</a>
An interview in three parts with Kingsley Abdulla.
Kingsley is from the Gerard Aboriginal community in South Australia. Born in 1971, he has always lived on the river; camping with family and extended family, a time for Elders to educate the younger generations about Country. Kingsley shares his knowledge of a changing and interconnected landscape.
Kingsley talks about: teaching family to swim and fish; yabbying methods; a period when Catfish species were rare; salinity (water and ground table) issues and low water levels; lack of ‘decent’ floods; Aboriginal grave sites and culture, native bushes, and native vegetables impacted by environmental degradation (e.g. traditional medicinal methods); the role of wetlands and back creeks (backwaters) as nurseries for all animals; the impact of Willow tree removal on Murray Cod and Callop; different types of soil in the area; changes observed in water colour; hybrid knowledge systems (incorporating Western into Aboriginal), and the desire to learn from each other. Also mentioned: snake species; water birds; vegetation; Crown Land.
Indigenous terms for fish species discussed:
Murray cod - Gadu, Pondi’s Gadu;
Yellowbelly - Thaigai; Pilaki
Catfish - Gaigai;
Bony bream: Thukeri
Silver Bream - Tookaree;
Silver Perch - Bungi.
One of the images in the collection includes a book called 'Tucker' by Ian Abdulla (1947-2011). It is a children's illustrated book about an Aboriginal boy who grows up along the Murray River, when bush tucker was plentiful.
Heather Goodall
Jodi Frawley
University of Technology, Sydney
2010-10-30
Murray-Darling Basin Authority
NSW Department of Primary Industries - NSW Fisheries
Copyright University of Technology, Sydney
Book image attribution: Abdulla, Ian W. (1994). Tucker. Norwood, South Australia Omnibus Books <a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/11404164">see details...</a>
application/msword
audio/mpeg
image/jpeg
English
Katarapko Creek
The data from this study region includes 8 oral histories (audio as mp3s, and transcripts) and 5 image galleries, as well as a georeferenced hand-drawn map of the area.
Once known as Crabb’s Creek, Katarapko Creek is a small anabranch of the Murray River, located between the towns of Berri and Loxton in the Riverland region of South Australia. Its 9,000 hectare grey clay floodplain is covered with blackbox, saltbush and lignum. The creek’s horseshoe lagoons,
marshes and islands are the traditional lands of the Meru peoples.
Today, Katarapko’s red gum and river coobahͲlined waters leave the Murray near Lock and Weir 4, rejoining the river 16km later. Katarapko has seen many changes as its waters were blocked, floodplains grazed, and surrounding irrigation districts flourished. Berri Evaporation Basin and Katarapko Island Disposal Basin have both taken a toll as they collected salty irrigation drainage water.
(Source: Frawley, J., Nichols, S., Goodall, H. and Baker, E. 2011. Katarapko: 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). Katarapko: 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/0019/411742/Katarapko_FINAL_Jan-2013-for-web.pdf">View or download from publisher...</a>
<a href="http://geonode.research.uts.edu.au/layers/geonode%3Afrawley2012page038">http://geonode.research.uts.edu.au/layers/geonode%3Afrawley2012page038</a>
Eng
Dataset
14a66f02-0ff1-11e5-8eb9-005056a4d06a
POLYGON((140.45 -34.45999999911936,140.45 -34.26999999912163,140.65 -34.26999999912163,140.65 -34.45999999911936,140.45 -34.45999999911936))