Glenrock Lagoon Cultural Landscape Conservation Management and Cultural Tourism Plan NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Volume 1 - Main Report Chapters 1-6 Assessment of Significance Griffin nrm In conjunction with National Heritage Consultants January 2003 Glenrock Lagoon Cultural Landscape Conservation Management and Cultural Tourism Plan NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service January 2003 Volume 1 – Main Report Chapters 1 – 6 Assessment of Significance Tracy Ireland for Griffin nrm and in conjunction with National Heritage Consultants with contributions from Richard Baker Aedeen Cremin Johan Kamminga Roger Parris Neil Urwin Griffin nrm, P.O.Box 3521, Manuka ACT 2603 Telephone 0262368171 Table of Contents Volume 1 Executive Summary 1.0 Introduction 1.1 1.1 Background 1.1 1.2 Report Objectives and Outcomes 1.2 1.3 Location Plans and Site Plans 1.2 1.4 Scope of CMTP 1.3 1.5 Authorship 1.3 1.6 Sources 1.3 1.7 Limitations 1.4 1.8 Abbreviations 1.5 1.9 Acknowledgements 1.5 2.0 Glenrock: Place, Landscape, Context 2.1 3.0 Historical Overview 3.1 3.1 Overview: Glenrock, A Cultural Landscape 3.1 3.2 A Land of Plenty: the Pre-Colonial Aboriginal Cultural Landscape 3.2 3.3 The Valley of Palms: Colonial Natural History at Glenrock 3.5 3.4 The Land Beneath the Land 3.7 3.5 A Shared Land 3.8 3.6 An Awabakal Man 3.11 3.7 Awabakal Life around Colonial Newcastle 3.12 3.8 Passages and Encounters 1820s 3.14 3.9 Martial Law and its Consequences 1824-1838 3.15 3.10 The Impact of Settlement: Changing Relations 3.17 3.11 1840s: New People, New Attitudes 3.20 3.12 Taking Coals to Newcastle 3.23 3.13 Seams and Tunnels: Coal Mines in the 1850s 3.25 3.14 Death and Resurrection: From Burwood to Merewether 3.27 3.15 Under the Lagoon 3.28 3.16 The Gallant Little Engine 3.31 3.17 Dwelling in Glenrock 3.32 3.18 Life Beyond Glenrock 3.34 3.19 Orchards in Glenrock 3.37 3.20 The Pollution of Northern Glenrock 3.38 3.21 Scouting in Glenrock 3.39 3.22 Aboriginal People around Newcastle in the late 19th and 20th Centuries 3.40 3.23 John Grothen, Historian of Glenrock: Romancing the Stones 3.41 3.24 Creating the Glenrock SRA 3.43 4.0 Landscape Analysis 4.1 4.1 Introduction 4.1 4.2 Natural Heritage 4.1 4.3 Pre and Post Contact Aboriginal Heritage 4.13 4.4 Historic Heritage 4.28 4.5 Summary and Conclusions 4.37 5.0 Contemporary Social Values 5.1 5.1 Introduction 5.1 5.2 Consultation 5.1 5.3 Results of Consultation 5.4 5.4 Conclusions: Contemporary Social Values Associated with Glenrock 5.8 6.0 Assessment of Significance 6.1 6.1 Introduction: Criteria, Approach and Methodology 6.1 6.2 Historic Themes 6.4 6.3 Comparison with other Places 6.11 6.4 Analysis of Heritage Significance 6.16 6.5 Previous Statements of Significance 6.23 6.6 Table of Significance for Component Parts 6.24 6.7 Statement of Significance 6.30 Volume 2 7.0 Policy Formulation 7.1 7.1 Introduction 7.1 7.2 Opportunities and Constraints 7.1 7.3 Statutory Compliance 7.4 7.4 Non-Statutory Considerations 7.6 7.5 NPWS Policy and Management 7.7 7.6 Stakeholder Concerns 7.10 7.7 Conservation Issues: Natural Heritage 7.12 7.8 Conservation Issues – Aboriginal Heritage 7.18 7.9 Conservation Issues – Historic Heritage 7.20 7.10 Conservation Issues – Social or Community Values 7.25 7.11 Public Liability and risk management 7.26 7.12 Review of Existing Visitor Facilities 7.28 8.0 Conservation Policies and Guidelines 8.1 8.1 Head Policy 8.1 8.2 Key Features of the Management of heritage Significance 8.2 8.3 Compliance with NPWS Policy 8.4 8.4 Conservation Policy – Natural Heritage 8.5 8.5 Conservation Policy – Historic Heritage 8.7 8.6 Conservation Policy – Aboriginal Heritage 8.10 8.7 Conservation Policy – Social Values 8.10 8.8 Review and Implementation 8.11 9.0 Interpretation and Cultural Tourism 9.1 9.1 Introduction 9.1 9.2 Interpretation Policy 9.2 9.3 Interpretive Themes 9.3 9.4 The Regional Cultural Tourism Context 9 6 9.5 Target Visitor Groups 9.12 9.6 Heritage Trails 9.14 9.7 Interpretive Methods and Media 9.15 10.0 Implementation Strategy 10.1 (Table Format) 11.0 References Ref.1 Appendices Appendix 1 Consultation Appendix 2 Godden and Associates Historic Sites Inventory Appendix 3 Vegetation Control Procedures Appendix 4 Historic Sites Inventory Appendix 5 Archaeological Management Guidelines Executive Summary The Glenrock Lagoon cultural landscape is of State, Regional and Local significance because of its rich combination of attributes of historical, archaeological, social and natural significance. Today Glenrock is the site of strong attachments in both the indigenous and non-indigenous communities. Awabakal people maintain links with this area and other local Aboriginal people value it as evidence of the Aboriginal history of this region. Community groups participate in caring for Glenrock through bush re-generation and other activities. The Scouting Association has had a base in Glenrock since 1932 and has developed an historical attachment with the place. Glenrock is treasured and respected as an important recreational, scientific, cultural and environmental resource for the community’s future. The cultural landscape encompasses significant biodiversity and geodiversity. It contains the entire formation of the lower Newcastle coal measures, laid down in the Permian period. Their exposure by marine erosion along the beaches of the SRA shows a detailed geological history. The Permian sediments which separate the coal seams include fossil- bearing shales and, in the Dudley headland rock platform, fossilised tree trunks can be seen. This geological diversity is overlain by a rich mosaic of plant and animal habitats. The fauna of the region has been irrevocably altered by settlement but the vegetation communities reflect not only this most recent history but also the pre-contact environment. Aboriginal people have been present in this landscape for over 10,000 years and probably since the earliest phases of the colonisation of the continent, over 40,000 years ago. They exploited the marine and geological resources of the region and used the beach as an important route of communication to the north and south. They shared their knowledge of this place with a succession of European travelers, explorers, the people of the early settlement of Newcastle, the missionary Threlkeld and others. Geology once again shaped the 19th and 20th century history of Glenrock and the landscape is dominated by the relics, works, tunnels and shafts of coal mining. This coal mining phase brought Glenrock into the global context of empire, capitalism and the processes of Glenrock Lagoon CMCTP January 2003 Executive Summary ii industialisation and migration. The exhaustion of the coal seams and the growth of Newcastle as an urban centre saw the industrial landscape replaced by a landscape of recreation and urban services. The mission of this CMCTP is to provide NPWS and the community with a creative, sustainable and achievable management approach to the Glenrock cultural landscape. This management approach is based on the integrated assessment of values, community involvement and consultation, creative interpretation and the identification of active management priorities. Key strategies developed to achieve this mission are: S The identification of an active management zone as a focus for interpretation, cultural tourism opportunities and for conservation actions. S An Interpretation Plan which provides for the enhanced understanding of Glenrock’s integrated values; for access and involvement for the Indigenous and non-indigenous communities; and for the promotion of cultural tourism. S A structure for community management partnerships to suit the different groups of stakeholders. S A focus on long term conservation objectives based on the integrated assessment of natural, historic, Aboriginal and community heritage values. 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Background This Conservation Management and Cultural Tourism Plan (CMCTP) for the Glenrock Lagoon Cultural Landscape was commissioned by the NSW NPWS. The NPWS engaged a consultant team from Griffin nrm, in association with National Heritage Consultants, to prepare the plan. This team was fortunate to have access to a broad array of research carried out over the past few decades. This included expert reports in the fields of Aboriginal archaeology, vegetation studies, history and historical archaeology, all of which will be acknowledged in full below. Heritage and heritage management are dynamic fields where aims and interests change to reflect changing interests in the broader community. In view of this, the present CMCTP aims to address a number of issues which are of present concern, but have not been dealt with in past research. The issues can be summarised as: S A holistic approach to landscape: today cultural heritage research has moved away from lists of different types of ‘sites’ and is endeavouring to develop more holistic approaches to landscapes as webs of cultural and environmental interactions; S Understanding heritage as culturally constructed or ‘socially grounded’ (Byrne et al 2001: 140): after several decades of ‘professionalising’ heritage, today heritage researchers are seeking ways to understand and acknowledge that heritage is constructed in the hearts and minds of people; S Landscapes of memory: understanding that heritage is something built in people’s minds means that sometimes there will be little or no physical reminders of what places mean to different individuals or groups.