UNEARTHED SECRETS: Cultural project reveals Barwon River history

A COLLABORATIVE research project has shed new light on part of the Barwon River’s history as a saltmarsh and previously undocumented cultural burning near Geelong from Traditional Owners.

Barwon Water and Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (WTOAC) have received findings of a scientific study commissioned as part of a plan to turn a 66-hectare Breakwater site into a new cultural precinct.

Plans to stabilise and remove parts of the area’s heritage-listed Ovoid Sewer Aqueduct are also progressing, which would reopen the river to its full length for the first time this century.

The plans all form part of the Porronggitj Karrong (Place of the Brolga) project between the water authority and First Nations body.

The study analysed sediment from up to 6m below the surface of the Barwon River bed to understand how the area has changed since colonisation and up to 9,500 years ago.

It found that until very recently in its history, Porronggitj Karrong was an estuarine environment surrounded by different areas of native vegetation.

“You can see in the 1800s with the construction of the breakwater upstream and the tidal barrage downstream, Porronggitj Karrong changed and became a freshwater wetland environment,” WTOAC Caring for Country general manager Greg Robinson said.

Another significant changed occurred during the Gold Rush when heavy metals washed downstream and were deposited.

Despite little evidence of burning in the immediate area, a higher prevalence of charcoal at increased depth also indicated a history of Wadawurrung cultural burns within the wider landscape – a practice Mr =Robinson said WTOAC was keen to reintroduce in small sections.

WTOAC will use new information and date to develop a place-based healthy country plan, as it works with Barwon Water to create a new cultural, recreational and community precinct for the site.

“It’s about listening and learning from Country, working out how the vegetation responds to fire, and how this cultural practice might be used going forward,” Mr Robinson said.

“We are connected to our land, our skies, our waterways, and our coastal areas. Keeping them healthy keeps our people and culture healthy.”

Interim Barwon Water managing director Shaun Cumming said he was excited with the First Nations involvement in the project.

He also said a community reference group was continuing to provide advice on the Porronggitj Karrong project.

“We have diverse representation on the committee which makes for robust discussions at times. We’re very grateful to have a broad range of voices helping to shape the project and help us to realise our vision for a new cultural, recreational and community precinct on the site.”

Meanwhile, Barwon Water has indicated it will begin work to remove four of the 14 spans of the Ovoid Sewer Aqueduct next year, with a view to reopening the stretch of river in 2025.

It would mark the first time since the early 1990s that the full length of the river would be accessible to the public.

The remaining 10 spans will remain for community viewing.

Eco Logical Australia’s Principal Ecologist James Garden co-ordinated research, with input from diatom expert Peter Gell and experts from La Trobe University, including Rebekah Kurpiel, Matthew Meredith-Williams and Georgia Stannard.