Aboriginal Stockmen posing in front of motor truck at Willara Station c. 1940. BOURKE SHIRE ABORIGINAL HERITAGE STUDY JANUARY 2019 Report Prepared by OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management Pty Ltd for Bourke Shire Council OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management Front picture © Bourke Historical Society. Original handwritten caption reads ‘Aboriginal Stockmen posing in front of motor truck at Willara Station c. 1940—man wearing apron is white cook—man on top of truck was named Rufus and earlier (1930s) used to drive a T Model ford about the Paroo River stations doing rural work’. Bourke Shire Aboriginal Heritage Study i OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management DOCUMENT CONTROLS Client Bourke Shire Council Document Description Bourke Shire Aboriginal Heritage Study Report Name Signed Date Clients Reviewing Officer Clients Representative Managing this Document OzArk Person(s) Managing this Document Carolyn Crain Brendan Corrigan Location: Bourke Shire Council Offices Document Status V2.3 FINAL DRAFT Date 31 January 2019 Draft V1.1 Author to Editor OzArk 1st Internal V1.1 Brendan Corrigan (Series V1._ = OzArk internal edits) V1.2 BC edit 8/10/18 V1.3 BMC edit 17/10/18 V1.4 BC edit 24/10/18 V1.5-V1.7 JB V1.8: BC edit 8/11/18 V1.9: SR edit 13/11/18 Draft V2.0 Report Draft for release to client V2.0 OzArk to BSC 13/11/18 (Series V2._ = OzArk and Client edits) V2.1 BSC to OzArk with comments 7.1.19 V2.2 OzArk update 31/1/19 V2.3 OzArk to BSC 31/01/19 FINAL V3._once latest version of draft approved by client Prepared For Prepared By Carolyn Crain Brendan Corrigan, Dr Jodie Benton and Philippa Development Assessment Officer Sokol Bourke Shire Council OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management Pty. Limited 29 Mitchell Street 145 Wingewarra Street (PO Box 2069) P.O Box 21 Dubbo NSW 2830 BOURKE NSW 2840 P: 02 6882 0118 Ph: 02 6830 8000 F: 02 6882 6030 Fax: 02 6872 3030 [email protected] Email: [email protected] COPYRIGHT © OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management Pty Ltd 2019 and © Bourke Shire Council 2019 All intellectual property and copyright reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1968, no part of this report may be reproduced, transmitted, stored in a retrieval system or adapted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without written permission. Enquiries should be addressed to OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management Pty Ltd or Bourke Shire Council. Bourke Shire Aboriginal Heritage Study ii OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management Acknowledgement OzArk acknowledge Traditional Owners of the area on which this assessment took place and pay respect to their beliefs, cultural heritage and continuing connection with the land. We also acknowledge and pay respect to the post-contact experiences of Aboriginal people with attachment to the area and to the elders, past and present, as the next generation of role models and vessels for memories, traditions, culture and hopes of local Aboriginal people. Bourke Shire Aboriginal Heritage Study iii OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management ABBREVIATIONS AHILA – Aboriginal Heritage Information Licence Agreement AHIMS - Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System AHIP - Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit BSAHS - Bourke Shire Aboriginal Heritage Study BSC - Bourke Shire Council DECCW – NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (now OEH) LALC – Local Aboriginal Land Council LGA - Local Government Area OEH - NSW Office of Environment and Heritage Bourke Shire Aboriginal Heritage Study iv OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management (OzArk) was engaged by the Bourke Shire Council (BSC) to complete an Aboriginal Heritage Study over the Bourke Local Government Area (LGA) (the project). The project has several objectives: 1. To update/complete the Bourke Shire Aboriginal Heritage Study (BSAHS), originally begun ten years ago under a separate contract to separate researchers 2. To ensure that Aboriginal community of the Bourke Local Government Area (LGA) were meaningfully consulted in regards to what sites and places within the LGA are important to them 3. To identify a group of sites of significance to Aboriginal people that may be appropriate for listing on the Bourke Local Environmental Plan (LEP). Aboriginal community consultation occurred with relevant Aboriginal persons with interests in the Bourke LGA from 14 February 2018 to12 June 2018. On 13 June 2018 a community workshop meeting was held at the Country Women’s Association facility, Enngonia, and on 14 June 2018 a community workshop meeting was held at the Bourke Council Chambers, Bourke. For various reasons, not all Aboriginal people who would have wished to have attend were able to. However, both community workshop meetings were nonetheless well-attended and much valuable discussion occurred at them. One of the key outcomes of the consultation with Aboriginal stakeholders was that while the meetings were considered a solid first step, it was emphasised that further consultation would be required to identify appropriate knowledge holders for specific sites. As a result of the consultation, a preliminary list of 31 sites was compiled as places of significance to the Aboriginal community across the LGA. This group is documented and discussed in Section 5. Sites range from fish traps on the Darling River, the remarkable Mount Oxley, burial sites, Aboriginal reserve post-contact sites, rock art sites and many more. Of this group, at least six and up to 14 would be eminently suitable for LEP listing, so long as further consultation and site visits are undertaken to ensure cultural permission and access is received from the appropriate knowledge-holders. This study has shown that Bourke LGA has an incredibly rich and diverse Aboriginal heritage resource that dates from 50,000 years ago to the present day. This heritage should be celebrated and protected into the future. To do this, work is needed to build trust and openness between the diverse communities of Bourke and particularly between the Aboriginal communities and various government agencies including the BSC. With this confidence it should be feasible for the Bourke Shire Aboriginal Heritage Study i OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management community and the BSC to work together to ensure that heritage is protected and that it can increasingly become a resource for education, tourism and cultural healing. Bourke Shire Aboriginal Heritage Study ii OzArk Environmental & Heritage Management CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ......................................................................................................... I 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 8 1.1 Aims and objectives ............................................................................................... 8 1.1.1 Report authors and contributors ........................................................................ 8 1.2 Background ............................................................................................................ 8 1.3 Constraints and limitations ................................................................................... 10 1.4 Relevant legislation .............................................................................................. 11 1.4.1 The role of a Local Environmental Plan ........................................................... 13 2 ABORIGINAL STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION: METHODS AND RESULTS .......................... 16 3 HISTORY .................................................................................................................. 17 3.1 Overview .............................................................................................................. 17 3.1.1 Brief post-colonial history of Bourke ................................................................ 17 3.2 Ethno-historic sources of regional Aboriginal culture ............................................ 19 3.2.1 Barranbinya (Baranbinja) People .................................................................... 22 3.2.2 Ngiyampaa (Ngiyambaa or Ngemba) People .................................................. 23 3.2.1 Paruntji (Parundji) People ............................................................................... 30 3.2.2 Naualko People ............................................................................................... 31 3.2.3 Muruwari (Murra Warre or Murrawarre) people ............................................... 35 3.3 Aboriginal Post-Contact History ............................................................................ 40 3.3.1 The post-contact period and the Ngiyampaa people ....................................... 40 3.3.2 Post-contact conflict ........................................................................................ 41 3.4 Post-contact relationships and impacts to traditional culture ................................. 42 3.4.1 Government intervention ................................................................................. 44 3.5 Aboriginal people in Bourke in the Twentieth and Twenty-First centuries ............. 52 3.6 Aboriginal people currently occupying the Bourke LGA ........................................ 54 4 ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT .....................................................................................