aboriginal cultural heritage...despite the common reckoning that the bulga bora ground, no longer...
TRANSCRIPT
Expert Witness Report NSW Planning & Assessment Commission (PAC),
R027/14 Warkworth Continuation Project & R028/14 Mt Thorley Continuation Project
Public Hearing- 18 December 2014
Author Maria Cotter
(PO Box 1262)
Armidale NSW 2350
Client EDO NSW
On behalf of Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association (BMPA)
Aboriginal Cultural Heritage
In a recent self-published local history Mr Stewart Mitchell of Bulga
wrote:
“In 1852 the people of Bulga witnessed the last recorded Bora held
in the Hunter Valley. The Bora was an aboriginal ceremony which
amongst other rites included the initiation of young males into
manhood…According to the local white settlers as many as six
hundred warriors attended the Bora…The Bora Ground which was
located in the Wallaby Scrub close to the road to Warkworth, was
encircled with an earth mound and symbolically carved trees - sadly
nothing remains of that ceremonial ground today”
(Mitchell, 2004:41-42).
In 2012 Native Title Claimant Mr Scott Franks of the PCWP provided the following statement to the NSW Land & Environment Court:
“The area is known to have been an important gathering area for the
Wonnarua and neighbouring Aboriginal groups. It was an area where
initiation and marriage ceremonies occurred and where tribal disputes,
trade and social gatherings were conducted…there was an abundance of
plant and animal resources including fish within the nearby Wollombi
Brook that could be used to support large gatherings of people. As a boy I
was taught the importance of this area by my Uncle Clyde and his Cousin
Ashley Hedges as he included it in his description of the physical route and
spiritual journey/songline that my family would take from Falbrook near
Ravensworth to Warkworth to attend gatherings and initiation
ceremonies, especially at the “Bulga Bora Ground”
(Franks, 2012:1)
Despite the common reckoning that the Bulga Bora Ground, no longer
remained extant within the Bulga - Warkworth Area.
Dr Helen Brayshaw conducted research in 2003 as part of the Aboriginal
cultural heritage assessment for the Wambo Development Project EIS in
which she concluded that she had reliably determined the probable
location of the BBG (The Brayshaw Report).
This research is relied upon in section 3.6 of the ACHAR which forms
Appendix M of the Warkworth Continuation Project.
Image #AMS351_V3513
Copyright Australian Museum
Carved Tree BBG - 1918
Historical Parish Map Composite BBG Area c. 1905-1915
Sources: Wollombi Parish Map, 1920,
(lpi.nsw.gov.au, 2012) and Bora tree
at Bulga (Mitchell, 2004:42)
Sources: Wollombi Parish Map, 1920, (lpi.nsw.gov.au, 2012) and Bora tree at Bulga (Mitchell, 2004:42)
Sketch map of the location of the BBG drawn from memory by W. Thorpe in 1918. (Source: Enlarged extract from the Australian Museum Register of Ethnology E8/1918, image reproduced with permission of the Australian Museum).