MDBC 8572 6page brochure 3.3 12/6/03 9:15 AM Page 1

Advisory committee cultural heritage found at the Lake. formalises consultations The NSW NPWS granted the Consent, In 1996, the consultative process with the concluding that Lake Victoria could continue as a Aboriginal community and other stakeholders major water storage facility while minimising was formalised through the establishment of the potential damage to Aboriginal relics and to the Lake Victoria Advisory Committee (LVAC). The foreshore of the Lake. Committee’s main role is to provide input and Visiting Lake Victoria Codes of Behaviour advice on aspects of the management of Lake This would be possible by combining the Lake Victoria is an area of intense historic, While visitors are welcome to the Lake Victoria Victoria relating to protection of re-establishment and maintenance of vegetation environmental and engineering interest to a area, the Plan of Management insists on a cultural heritage. with strategic management of Lake water-levels wide variety of visitors. number of requirements to protect the fragile to minimise erosion. nature of the environment and its cultural The LVAC includes an independent chairperson At the viewing point over Lake Victoria, visitors heritage. For example: a special place and member with cultural heritage expertise, The establishment of native vegetation on the can experience the wonder at this desert oasis, 14 representatives of the Aboriginal community; lakeshore, where feasible, would contribute to the now a vital water supply, rich in •act respectfully towards the Aboriginal the Barkindji Elders Committee (BEC), one restoration of natural values and would constitute Aboriginal Heritage. heritage of the Lake and the rights, equipment

representative each from National Parks and more appropriate management of the Lake. It is produced and facilities of the landholders; Wildlife Service (NPWS), Department of Camping and fishing areas on the Rufus and •visitors in vehicles are required to stay on Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources The Cultural Landscape Murray Rivers are available to visitors. At the tracks and to abide by any other guidelines (DIPNR), South Water Corporation (SA Plan of Management Rufus River campsite adjacent to the Outlet from SA Water, NSW Forestry, NPWS or Water), MDBC, NSW Aboriginal Land Council The conditions of the Consent called for the Regulator, water, shade and toilets are landowners; and Dareton Local Aboriginal Land Council; two preparation of a Plan of Management available. The River Murray campsite is ‘bush • carry out all rubbish with you; landholder representatives; one representative that would: camping’ with no facilities. Turn off 100 m • try to leave everything as you found it. Do not Lake Victoria in south-western NSW is a from the local Catchment Management Board; • formalise the role of the Elders in decision- East of the Outlet Regulator, 3 km to Lock 7. disturb historic places, Aboriginal sites, plants, special cultural place and a key national and one representative from the broader making on protection and management of Boil all water. Refer map below. native animals and livestock; water resource. community of water users. their heritage at the Lake through the Lake •minimise use of firewood, do not cut standing Victoria Advisory Committee. trees, thoroughly extinguish fire before leaving; and It is an important cultural heritage site for • establish a communications strategy • Aboriginal and historic places/relics are protected The BEC is a group in its own right, whose the Aboriginal community and an actively involving both the Aboriginal by law. members are Aboriginal people with traditional indispensable environmental resource for and historic ties to Lake Victoria. They form the community and wider community interests a major part of the health of the River basis of the Aboriginal representation on the including landowners and water users who Murray, its plants, animals LVAC and provides a link to the broader benefit from the water supply provided and ecosystems. Barkindji community. from the Lake; •manage water levels within the Lake to In several important ways, Lake Victoria is The Section 90 Consent promote the establishment and maintenance of Because of the critical need to continue Lake native vegetation on the lakeshore so as to representative of the issues the Murray- Victoria water storage operations, the MDBC minimise potential damage to Aboriginal places Darling Basin Commission faces in applied to the Director-General of the NSW or relics or to the aesthetic value of the Lake as balancing the range of human, economic NPWS in April 1998 for consent to "destroy, a significant cultural landscape; and environmental interests of the Basin. deface or damage an Aboriginal relic/place •provide for the continued security of supply under Section 90 of the NSW National Parks and to water users in the Murray-Darling Basin It highlights the importance and the need Wildlife Act, 1974" and a Permit to disturb relics which results from operating the Lake as a to manage water resources in an under Section 87 of the Act. water storage; and integrated way that takes full account of •recognise that the MDBC will continue to cultural and environmental awareness. The Commission was not seeking to operate and manage the Lake in accordance intentionally damage Aboriginal places or relics, with the relevant NSW legislation and the being oxygen bleached virgin pulp. with 50% recycled fibre (15% post-consumer and 35% pre-consumer) with the balance (50%) The Lake provides a vital supply of water but it was recognised that this could occur as a Murray-Darling Basin Agreement. for people in , Victoria consequence of operating the Lake as a water A2+ gloss coated recycled paper. Recycled Paper: This brochure is printed on Monza Hi-Gloss Recycled, a new generation premium and particularly for the Lower Murray storage. The application did not seek permission The Plan of Management sets in place strict region and other major towns and cities to destroy, deface or damage any burials. guidelines that minimise environmental impacts throughout South Australia. and conserve and manage cultural and natural As part of the application for the Consent, the heritage values. Commission had to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The Statement sought to DESiGN provide a balance between the use of Lake Victoria as an important water storage in the GRAPHiC For more information Murray-Darling Basin system and the Manager Aboriginal Cultural Heritage management and protection of the significant SA Water, Lake Victoria

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03 Renmark SA 5341 Phone 03 5027 8218 Sunrise over Lake Victoria: courtesy of P. Mills MDBC Designed + Produced by TD Designed + Produced by www.mdbc.gov.au Frenchmans Islands - Lake Victoria: courtesy of Alf Richter MDBC 8572 6page brochure 3.3 12/6/03 9:15 AM Page 4

An ancient area The Europeans arrive Doubling the lake’s capacity But in 1994, when the Lake level was lowered for Lake Victoria is an ancient area set into the The arrival of the Europeans in the 1830s In 1919 the River Murray Commission maintenance, important Aboriginal human clays of the much older and vaster Lake disturbed and eventually shattered the approved the construction of the Lake remains and cultural artifacts were discovered. Bungunnia. About 10,000 years ago, the amount Aboriginal people’s pattern of life. The main Victoria Storage - 52 km of levee banks and The extensive remains were tangible evidence that of water flowing down the Murray reduced and impact was initially from overlanders moving three regulators - which doubled the natural Lake’s water capacity up to 680 dense populations of Aboriginal people had lived the Lake contracted to a small pond inside its herds of sheep and cattle along the gigalitres. The South Australian around the Lake for many thousands of years. bigger basin. River Murray. Government constructed this work for the Traditionally, the Lake was within the lands of the four Governments which constituted the Maraura people, a sub-group of the Barkindji Aboriginal people lived in the region from at The Aboriginal people known locally as the Commission and have managed the people, whose country extended north of least 45,000 years ago. Maraura, a sub–group of the Barkindji people, storage ever since. Wilcannia to the Murray-Darling junction and resisted strongly. They were no match for the west of the Darling to the Chowilla area. Before Lake Victoria was regulated, the superior firepower of the newcomers and the Landscape changes included rerouting vegetation around it included river red gum and deadly exotic diseases they brought. river channels and damming the southern The archaeological finds were a unique record of black box woodland, sedgeland and grassland. lakeshore with embankments. The Aboriginal lifestyle. There was evidence of intact Grindstones found on the Lakeshore: courtesy Jeannette Hope Saltbush and lignum grew in some areas. The conflicts culminated in 1841 in what has constructions and management activities domestic features (camp sites, stone tools, Enlarging ‘Frenchmans’ Creek to supply water to Lake Victoria - C 1920: courtesy SA Water grindstones, shell middens, hearths, etc.) and come to be known as the Rufus River Massacre in came to dominate the landscape. large burial grounds with estimates of three to While little is known about the wildlife before which about 35 were killed and 16 injured. This From 1928, the Lake was operated as an four thousand individual graves. regulation began, the explorer, and other instances of resistance emphasise the off-river storage vital to the water wrote in his journal in 1844 "…the expanse of area’s special spiritual significance for Aboriginal requirements of communities along the The Commission moved to protect what appeared water, on which are innumerable waterfowl, the people now living in the region. Murray in three states, underwriting their to be the most significant areas. Soon after, it majestic swan, the screaming long-billed agricultural and economic development. ordered an archaeological survey and began ‘Navarete’ and beautiful spur-winged plover, Dispossession soon followed with the land taken consulting local Elders on protection measures, forms a beautiful picture." over for pastoral leases. Many of the Maraura Over the next 60 years the raised level of with local Aboriginal people employed to carry people worked for the pastoralists, but by the the Lake killed much of the existing shore out much of the work. 1890s only a few remained. vegetation, and changed erosion and sedimentation patterns, exposing While most of the Elders would have preferred that the burials had not been flooded in the first In the mid-1890s, Harry Mitchell and his wife Mary Aboriginal burial places and place, they also recognised Lake Victoria’s key Alice McGregor, Barkindji people from the Lower occupation sites. role as a reliable water supply on which so many Burial mound on Moon Island: courtesy Jeannette Hope , moved to Lake Victoria Station , people depended. and worked there for many years. Many of the Air force training During World War 2 Lake Victoria was Barkindji families now associated with Lake used as an air-to-ground gunnery range by Largest conservation project Victoria are descendants of Harry Mitchell. the RAAF’s 2 Operational Training Unit, Since the archaeological survey of the lakeshore based at Mildura. Lake Victoria outlet - 17 June 1928: courtesy SA Water undertaken in 1994, operation of the Lake as a water storage has been restricted. The Commission There were a number of crashes in the has invested about $8 million on what has become area and 6 airmen lost their lives. Some of the largest single cultural heritage conservation the aircraft were salvaged while the project in the Murray-Darling Basin. remains of two airmen remain missing in the Lake bed along with their aircraft. To ensure that the important objectives of protection and conservation are met now and into the future, Discovering a link to a the Commission has developed through the NSW fascinating Aboriginal History National Parks and Wildlife Act (1974) a Cultural For decades Lake Victoria played a key Landscape Plan of Management and Lake Mrs. McKinley, who survived the Rufus River massacre by role in the water supply regulation, Operating Strategy which has been approved swimming across the river with baby on her back. (Reiner, 1905) salinity mitigation and environmental flow through to 2006. management of the Murray-Darling system. It ensured that South Australia - Finding the right balance has involved many the only state guaranteed a minimum stakeholder groups, as well as the Governments monthly flow under the Murray-Darling of the Murray-Darling Initiative. A key part of Basin Agreement - received developing the Plan has been the close and its entitlement. continuous involvement of the Aboriginal Parliamentary Deputation 1905 community, landholders and other stakeholders This photograph was taken on 12th January 1905 at the mouth of Rufus River. Cal Cal graziers met the members Historically, the Lake has been filled of S.A. Parliament who had travelled up on the "Gem" then transferred to the buggies, and were driven around in decision-making for Lake Victoria. during the winter-spring season from the Lake Victoria to see if it could be utilised as a reservoir for irrigation of S.A. fruit areas - SA Water. Graziers are from left - Mr. W.M. Thomson, Mr. J.B. Armstrong, Messrs T & W.T. Smith, Mr. McGregor, The history of Lake Victoria and its people - ancient River Murray (through Frenchmans Creek) Mr. Higgins, Smyth Bros., Thomas Bros. and many others. Presented by Mr. And Mrs. F.E. Duncan and drawn down back to the Murray (via and modern - is a fascinating chapter in Australian Rufus River) during summer-autumn as it history. But an appreciation of the background is supplies the bulk of the South Australian essential to a proper understanding of the issues water entitlement. surrounding this nationally significant place.

Remnants of Wirraway parts found at the Lake: courtesy Peter Mills MDBC

‘Conflict on the Rufus, South Australia (from a sketch by W.A. Cawthorne)- State Library of Victoria Background image: Painting by Peter Peterson