You could also argue that the Indigenous tribes around
Brewarrina did things sustainably an aeon before ‘sustainable’
become a buzz word. Crucially, the traps did not truncate the
spawning patterns of the Barwon’s fish stocks, even though the
maze of structures stretches from riverbank to riverbank. “What
I marvel at is how the Old People left lots of room for the fish to
keep swimming up river,” says Bradley. “They would catch 30 per
cent with 70 per cent left to go for next time.”
Over time, the traps’ significance came to transcend just their belly-
filling role. The surrounding riverbanks became a multi-purpose,
multi-cultural crossroads: a place to meet and trade, a proxy parliament
for surrounding tribes. A place where people from many ‘countries’
practised ceremony and corroboree, shared traditions. “Eight
different languages built our fish traps. There is one of the biggest
patches of undisturbed ochre in the region here: white, brown, red,
orange and gold. People could identify the colours of the people by
the ochre. If you had these, they would know you are from this area.”
According to the Dreaming story, creation-being Baiame cast his
vast net over the river course. His powerful sons, Booma-ooma-nowi
and Ghinda-inda-mui, then set the stones in the pattern of the net,
uncoincidentally a place rich with river mussels, crayfish, golden
perch and Murray cod.
Europeansettlementhasdrasticallyalteredtheappearance,
scopeanduseofthetraps.Inthe1800s,settlersbeganremoving
stonesfortheirrivercrossingsandbuildingfoundations.A
centurylater“theyblewupsometraps,toputtheweirin”.
TheBrewarrinaWeir(finishedin1971)wasbuiltimmediately
upstreamofthetrapstosureupthetown’swatersupply,butit
effectivelybecamea1.2-metreconcretehurdleforspawningfish.
Otherfactors(leadbytheintenseagriculturaluseofthe
Murray-Darlingsystem)haveupsettheriver’secology,too,
leadingtoreducedflowsandquestionablewaterquality.Many
a localfirmlypointtheirfingersatupstreamcotton-farming.
“There’snowabuildupofsilt,andawholelotofgrasses.And
before,theshrimps,crayfishandmusselswouldbreedinthenative
weeds;theywerelikeanaturalfilter.NowtheEuropeancarpeat
it[andeverythingelse].”
OtherIndigenousfishtrapssurviveonriversystemselsewhere
aroundAustralia,someofwhichhavebeenfoundtobe‘only’afew
thousandyearsold,butBrewarrina’sarethelargestandmost
complex.Whatevertheirvintage,theyarenowlistedontheState
HeritageRegisterandtheNationalHeritageListforcultural
significance,furtherproofthatIndigenouspeoplewerenotjust
nomadichunter-gatherersbutactualfarmers,too.You could also argue that
the Indigenous tribes
around Brewarrina did
things sustainably an
aeon before ‘sustainable’
become a buzzwords.
LEFT AND RIGHT:
Sculptures of fish stand
outside the town’s visitor
centre, celebrating their
significance to life here
over thousands of years;
The many pools of the
fish traps cover an
extensive length of the
Barwon River.PHOTOGRAPHY: DESTINATION NSW / JONATHAN CAMI (FISH SCULPTURE)