1 VALUES FOR A NEW GENERATION: Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area Values for a new generation Greater Blue Mountains WORLD HERITAGE AREA ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area Advisory Committee would like to thank Jacqueline Reid Executive Officer, Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area EDITOR: Doug Benson SCENIC PHOTOGRAPHY: Ian Brown DesIGN: Nature Tourism Services Published by the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area Advisory Committee PO Box 552, Katoomba NSW 2780 Cite individual papers as per: Mackay, R (2015) The Contemporary Aboriginal Heritage Value of the Greater Blue Mountains. Chapter 3 in Values for a new generation: Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area Advisory Committee ISBN-10: 0646946498 ISBN-13: 978-0-646-94649-8 © 2015 Cover photographs: Eucalypt forest – Ian Brown; Eagles Reach rock art – Paul Tacon. Greater Blue Mountains WORLD HERITAGE AREA Values for a new generation A series of papers on geodiversity, biodiversity, contemporary Aboriginal values, historical issues, nature-culture and scenic grandeur to support understanding of potential National and World Heritage values AUTHORED BY MEMBERS AND FORMER MEMBERS OF THE GREATER BLUE MOUNTAINS WORLD HERITAGE AREA ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND EDITED BY DOUG BENSON 4 VALUES FOR A NEW GENERATION: Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area World Heritage The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area only exists today because of a 70-year campaign by conservationists to achieve a chain of reserves across the region. This culminated in the year 2000 with the acceptance of 10,000 square kilometres of wild bushland onto the World Heritage List – the ‘best of the best’. The eight connected conservation areas of Wollemi, Yengo, Gardens of Stone, Blue Mountains, Kanangra-Boyd, Nattai and Thirlmere Lakes national parks and Jenolan Karst Conservation Reserve make up Australia’s most accessible World Heritage Area. This 10,000 square kilometre area extends 220km from the Southern Highlands to the Hunter Valley, and from western Sydney to the farming tablelands of the Great Divide. Six Aboriginal language groups treasure connections with the Country of the Greater Blue Mountains that reach back into ancient time. They are the Dharawal and Gundungurra people (in the south), the Wiradjuri (in the west and north- west), the Wanaruah and Darkinjung (in the north-east) and the Darug (in the east). Landscapes The World Heritage Area is divided into four geographical sectors reflecting changes in landscape and vegetation. Each is named after a local landmark with an Aboriginal name: Monundilla (north-west), Mellong (north-east), Kedumba (central) and Colong (south). The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area Advisory Committee The Advisory Committee’s role is to advise on matters relating to the protection, conservation, and the presentation and management of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, including strategic policies in relation to Australia’s obligations under the World Heritage Convention. The Advisory Committee plays a crucial role in the provision of scientific advice and achieving conservation outcomes by facilitating the development of cooperative, constructive and innovative relationships between the National Parks and Wildlife Service (part of the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage); the Jenolan Caves Reserve Trust and the community. 5 VALUES FOR A NEW GENERATION: Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area - N U O C WA H NA A RU U AH R CO A UN N TRY • WA monundilla sector W IRAD JU RI C O mellong sector U N WOLLEMI GARDENS OF NP D YENGO STONE NP A R NP • K I W N JU I N R G J U A C D N OU I J N K U TRY • DAR R I C O U N T R Y • W DARUG C I O R UN A TR D Y U J • R D I R • U G kedumba sector Y JENOLAN KCR C T O N U U N O BLUE T C R MOUNTAINS Y A SYDNEY R NP KANANGRA UR -BOYD NP G UN D UN G D THIRLMERE H LAKES NP A colong sector R AW NATTAI NP A L CO U N T R Y Above: Conservation Reserves and Aboriginal Language Groups of the Greater Blue Mountains WHA 6 VALUES FOR A NEW GENERATION: Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area List of Contributors Doug Benson is now an Honorary Research Associate DOUG BENSON with the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney after a career as a E: [email protected] botanist and plant ecologist with extensive research on Sydney bushland and its management, and co author (with Jocelyn Howell) of Taken for Granted: the bushland of Sydney and its suburbs (1990). In the Blue Mountains he worked on vegetation mapping and rare species ecology particularly, where he discovered a small mallee stringybark now named Eucalyptus bensonii, one of 96 types of eucalypt found in the GBMWHA. He has been a member of the GBMWHA Advisory Committee since 2006. Martin Fallding is a former tourism and recreation MARTIN FALLDING representative on the GBMWHA Advisory Committee. E: [email protected] He has had a long association with bushwalking in the W: www.calli.com.au Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley and environmental management. He established and operates Callicoma Hill eco-cabins in the Hunter Valley, and produced the 20 Great Hunter Region Walks map. Martin also works as an environmental planner specialising in strategic biodiversity assessment and planning, for which he has been recognised with a number of awards. RICHARD MACKAY Prof Richard Mackay, AM is the Director of Possibilities at Mackay Strategic and Chair of the Greater Blue Mountains E: [email protected] World Heritage Area Advisory Committee. He was formerly W: www.mackaystrategic.com.au Chair of the Australian World Heritage Advisory Committee, member of the NSW Heritage Council and Commonwealth State of the Environment 2011 Committee. He teaches at La Trobe University and has worked in heritage management throughout Australia and in Asia on sites ranging between Kakadu National Park, Port Arthur and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Richard was the inaugural winner of the Australian Heritage Council ‘Sharon Sullivan Award’ for his contribution to Australia’s national heritage. In 2003 he was made a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia for services to archaeology and cultural heritage. ANN MCGRATH Ann McGrath OAM is a Professor of History and Director of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History at the Australian E: [email protected] National University. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and holds an Honorary Doctorate from Linneaus University, Sweden. Her publications include Born in the Cattle: Aborigines in Cattle Country (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1987) and, with Ann Curthoys How to write history that people 7 VALUES FOR A NEW GENERATION: Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area MCGRATH (CONT’D) want to read (New York, Palgrave, 2011). She has been an expert witness on Aboriginal land claims, and worked on E: [email protected] The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and in the Gunner & Cubillo stolen children case, has curated exhibitions, and produced and co-directed films, including A Frontier Conversation (Ronin Films, 2006) and Message from Mungo (Ronin Films, 2014). She has worked at Monash University, the UNSW and the National Museum of Australia. Her current projects include the major digital history project Deepening Histories of Place: Landscapes of National and International Significance. With Mary Anne Jebb, she co-edited Long History, Deep Time (ANU, Canberra 2015) and serves on the Editorial Boards of Aboriginal History and the international journal Public Historian. JUDY SMITH Judy Smith has lived and worked in the Blue Mountains for over 30 years. She is a principal of P & J Smith Ecological E: [email protected] Consultants and has undertaken many flora and fauna surveys within the Greater Blue Mountains as well as more widely across Australia. She is currently documenting the terrestrial fauna of the eight reserves that comprise the GBMWHA. She has been a member of the GBMWHA since 2006. HAYDN WASHINGTON Dr Haydn Washington has worked for 40 years as an environmental scientist, writer and activist. While originally E: [email protected] a plant ecologist, he worked in CSIRO on heavy metal pollution, and in sustainability in local government. He is currently a Visiting Fellow and sessional lecturer in Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (Science) at UNSW. His recent books include Demystifying Sustainability and Human Dependence on Nature. He is the Hon. Secretary for the Colo Committee, which led the campaign for Wollemi NP and Gardens of Stone NP. His interest in geodiversity came from hundreds of walks through the Wollemi and particularly the pagoda country of Gardens of Stone. Dr Robert Wray is a teacher at UOW College, and is a ROBERT WRAY former Honorary Principal Fellow in the School of Earth and E: [email protected] Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong. He is a geomorphologist with a love of sandstone terrains and has published extensively on this topic. He has worked in natural heritage management in Australia and in China; including National Heritage assessment of sandstone areas across northern Australia, and has been a member of the IUCN international experts group for the Chinese Danxia World Heritage Listing. 8 VALUES FOR A NEW GENERATION: Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area Contents INTRODUCTION Richard Mackay PAGE 10 CHAPTER 1 Recognising new values: the geodiversity and geoheritage of the Greater Blue Mountains Haydn Washington and Robert Wray