Bostock back in Indigenous hands

By Lachlan Ellis

A 54-hectare section of land at Bostock Reservoir is back in the hands of Traditional Owners, with plans ongoing to put the land to both recreational and productive use.

Barwon Water sold the land, which lies just a short distance from the Ballan township and in the heart of Wadawurrung Country, to the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (WTOAC) in August 2019.

WTOAC CEO Paul Davis said the sale was a significant moment for the Wadawurrung people.

“The area of the Wadawurrung Registered Aboriginal Party is over a million hectares. Up until the purchase of that land, all that the Corporation owned on their behalf was 800 square metres in Ballarat,” Mr Davis told the Moorabool News.

“Without wanting to sound like I’m speaking for them, the views that have been expressed to me are that they’re glad they’ve got something back. Somewhere they can go to and have free use of.

“What they’ve decided they want to do, is make the land available for Traditional Owners to spend time at, whether that be camping or other ways to spend time with one another. Also, they have views around setting up a small enterprise in natural resource management. They started to do that from around June to July last year, they’re working gradually to build that up.”

Managing Director at Barwon Water, Tracey Slatter, said the land was not needed by the company, and its sale to Wadawurrung supported reconciliation efforts.

To read the full story – Simply click on the following link

https://issuu.com/themooraboolnews/docs/mn_2022-04-26/9

in the 26 April 2022 edition
OR
pick up a paper around your town.