Lake Boga, Social and Cultural Heritage Landscape
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case study 6: Lake Boga, Social and Cultural Heritage Landscape Lake Boga is situated within the traditional country of the Wamba Wamba people, specifically the ‘Gourmjanuk’ (meaning along the edge of trees) clan. They lived around the lakes in the area and the land up to the Murray River. Lake Boga has a rich and important social and cultural history. The Wamba Wamba people are tied to the landscape where people lived and worked, and the site of the former Moravian mission. Descendants continue to maintain a strong ongoing connection with this area. The story of the Wamba Wamba people and Lake Boga are important at a community level as well as for our understanding of the Aboriginal history and prehistory of Victoria. This case study illustrates the application of the Victoria’s Framework of Historical Themes to a complex cultural and historical landscape, by drawing on seven storylines associated with the formation of the Lake Boga landscape, the former Mission, the emergence of pastoral and agricultural development and Lake Boga Township. This case study also shows a continuity of connection with Lake Boga for the Wamba Wamba people and how the themes can be used to draw out their many-layered stories as well as their linkages with European settlement and the development of a rural township. 54 Victoria’s Framework of Historical Themes The formation of the natural The formation of the ancestral The displacement of Aboriginal environment landscape people at Lake Boga Lake Boga is in the Murray River Basin of The Wamba Wamba people have a number The first recorded encounter between north-west Victoria and is part of the series of traditional stories that explain the Wamba Wamba people and Europeans of lakes that form the Kerang wetlands. formation of their landscape and natural occurred when explorer Major Mitchell Lake Boga and the adjacent Lake Mannaor environment, including stories explaining and his party passed through the area in are typical of lakes in the area, having the lack of trees around the lake, features 1836. This encounter resulted in a violent been formed as shallow depressions with associated with the lake and the river, incident when one of Mitchell’s men shot crescent shaped lunettes (sandy ridges) the local fauna and the moon. Many of and killed a Wamba Wamba man after around the leeward (eastern) side formed these stories were recorded by Lake Boga being threatened with spears. during dry climatic episodes over the last resident A. C. Stone during the late 19th European settlement in the 1840s had 10,000 years. and early 20th century. an even more devastating impact when The area has mineral deposits that are Victoria’s themes and sub-themes pastoralists arrived to take up squatting unique to the area, with granite outcrops 1. Shaping Victoria’s environment runs for grazing. The pressure on Wamba and tobernite (a secondary form of 1.4 Creation stories and defining country Wamba populations increased in the 1850s uranium) and is well known for its gypsum as their land, resources and cultural deposits. Aboriginal economy, resources traditions were threatened with the introduction of pastoral settlement and Prior to European land clearance, the and customs an increase in the number of travellers native vegetation consisted of black box, The Wamba Wamba people have a strong passing through the area. This included chenopod woodland and an understorey connection to Lake Boga. They and their those heading to the Victorian gold fields, of saltbush species, nitre goosefoot and ancestors have successfully occupied drovers and other travellers from South tangled lignum. The lake itself supported the area for many thousands of years, Australia and the Murray Darling area ground-covering rushes and sedges with with evidence of their activities seen in who followed Major Mitchell’s track to the grasses on higher ground. the numerous campsites and middens Murray and Lake Boga in search of fresh Fauna at Lake Boga includes native water containing food remains of bone and fresh water. rats, echidnas, possums and kangaroos water shellfish, earth ovens used to cook The Colonial government faced conflict as well as a range of reptiles, amphibians meals, surface scatters of stone artefacts between the needs of the displaced and and birds, including emus. and artefact manufacturing debris, as well rapidly declining Aboriginal populations as the places they selected to bury their Victoria’s themes and sub-themes across Victoria and their interest in dead. 1. Shaping Victoria’s environment establishing a successful pastoral 1.1 Tracing climatic and topographic change The Wamba Wamba occupied a wide area occupation. Government Superintendent 1.2 Tracing the emergence of Victoria’s plants that took in many of the lakes and swamps Charles La Trobe called on the German- and animals within the Kerang Lakes system, including based Moravian church to establish a Lake Boga and nearby Lake Mannaor as mission station to save the surviving well as land up to the banks of the Little Aboriginal population, and Lake Boga was Murray River (Barne Mille) and the Murray selected for the first Moravian mission in River. Victoria in 1851. Victoria’s themes and sub-themes 2. Peopling Victoria’s places and landscapes 2.1 Living as Victoria’s original Inhabitants 2.5 Maintaining distinctive cultures 55 Subsequent Moravian missions were also Closer rural settlement The emergence of a rural town established at Ebenezer on the Wimmera By the 1870s, land selectors had moved The town of Lake Boga started to develop River and at Ramahyuck near Sale in into the Lake Boga area, selecting land during the late 19th century. Major Gippsland. An outcome of the Moravian around the lake, along the Little Murray developments included construction of a mission model was to offer Aboriginal River, Fish Point and around the present railway station on the line passing through people religious training to ‘enable them day township of Lake Boga itself. the town, expansion of services to supply to adapt’ to the colonial lifestyle. the rural settlement include shops and a By 1889, the Lake Boga Irrigation Company At Lake Boga, the Moravians established school, as well as a secure water supply. was formed to supply water to the newly their mission in 1851 on the south- Around this time the town was being establishing agricultural settlement. eastern shores of the lake, where they promoted as a place to settle because This involved the construction of channel planned to attract the local Wamba of its permanent fresh water supply and networks for reticulated flow, and later Wamba populations to take up permanent the availability of small-scale irrigated the installation of a pumping station, with residence. They also hoped to establish agricultural allotments. pumps installed at Lake Boga and Tresco gardens, keep livestock and open a school. by the state Rivers and Water Supply By the mid-20th century Lake Boga had However, after being unable to attract many Commission in 1904. become an important strategic location local Aboriginal people, and with difficulties for the allied defence forces during experienced with local authorities and World War II when the No. 1 Flying Boat landholders, the mission closed in 1856, (Catalina) Repair and Service Depot and leaving behind little physical evidence of its underground communications bunker former existence. were constructed to service Catalina flying Evidence of the early European settlers planes, after the Japanese had decimated and those who travelled through the area part of the Australian fleet in a bombing can still be seen in the fragments of glass, raid on Broome in the far north-west of the ceramic and metal which are scattered country. over a wide area within the boundaries of Following both the First and the Second the former mission reserve. World Wars, soldier settlement schemes Victoria’s themes and sub-themes were set up in many parts of Victoria, 2. Peopling Victoria’s places and landscapes including at Lake Boga. This increase in 2.2 Arriving in a new land population further boosted the size of 2.8 Fighting for identity the town and its services, and also led to smaller agricultural allotments around the township. 56 Victoria’s Framework of Historical Themes Victoria’s themes and sub-themes Regaining identity, culture and There are many places with which 2. Peopling Victoria’s places and landscapes caring for country the Wamba Wamba people have close 2.6 Promoting closer settlement schemes associations in and around the town, such 2.7 Promoting Settlement Despite experiencing devastating as the primary school, and the cemetery 4. Transforming and managing land and displacement during the period of colonial where many were buried, including a natural resources settlement, the Wamba Wamba people number of people who had lived in the 4.1 Living off the land have maintained a strong presence in the area before the arrival of the squatters, 4.3 Grazing and raising livestock Lake Boga area from the mid-19th century missionaries and selectors. 4.4 Farming through to the present. 5. Building Victoria’s industries and Today, Wamba Wamba people have an workforce A number of Wamba Wamba people who interest in managing cultural heritage in 5.7 Working had occupied the mission followed the the Lake Boga area. They consider the 6. Building towns, cities and the garden state missionaries to the newly established lake and surrounding landscape to be 6.4 Making regional centres Ebenezer Mission in the Wimmera. an important place because of their long 6.5 Living in country towns However, many returned later to their connection to the land and resources. 6.7 Making homes for Victorians traditional land, either taking up rural 6.8 Living on the fringes land selections or working on pastoral or Victoria’s themes and sub-themes 7 Governing Victorians agricultural properties, delivering mail, 5.