Hot, but not heated – Bill Gammage at the 2015 Workshop Launch
Posted on 27 February, 2015 by Connecting Country
It was over 35 degrees celcius outside – and probably hotter inside the Campbells Creek Community Centre – but that didn’t deter around 300 people from attending the launch of the Connecting Country 2015 Workshop Program on Sunday 22 Feb 2015.
copies available at stonemans bookroom
The main attraction was historian and award winning author Bill Gammage, who spoke about ‘1788’* aboriginal land management and ‘fire stick farming’. Drawing upon the early records of Colonial explorers and European settlers, Bill has described a systematic and complex system of aboriginal land management throughout Australia, from coast to coast, which included planned and selective burning, to create conditions for prey and plenty. It’s a new way of looking at the Australian landscape; which has led to plenty of conjecture and debate amongst scientists and lay-people alike. Undoubtedly, Bill’s book has struck a chord in the community on many levels.
What is it about the book that draws this level of interest and engagement?
Perhaps because the scope of his text is large enough to encompass – and also exclude – many and varied views, and perhaps because there is always much difficulty in moving from the big picture, down to the more specific and locally relevant scale. For instance, what do central Victoria’s Box Ironbark forests (and their myriad species) need/tolerate/resist in terms of fire duration, intensity and timing? And how does this compare with granitic landscapes on the eastern side of Mount Alexander, or on the basalt plains to the west? And what value do we place today on the areas described as ‘scrub’ – so full of shrubs, ground-layer plants, logs and leaf litter that provide critical habitat for so many declining woodland birds and other species.
Bill’s challenge to all of us is to view our landscape, on both in the large (continent-wide) and lesser (catchment, regional, local, property) levels with fresh eyes.
How much do we really know and understand the inter-relationships of animal, plant, human – and how have they been altered over the past 200 or so years? How can we possibly work to benefit all? We can surmise, through the research of Bill and others such as Ron Hateley**, how it was prior to 1788, but what for the future? How can we learn and benefit from both indigenous and scientific ecological knowledge?
Ultimately, it all comes down to our own particular lens through which we view the world, and our landscapes.
bill, janet, brendan, marie and trent
Many thanks to Bill, to Dja Dja Warrung Traditional Owner Trent Nelson for welcoming us to his Country and talking about the contemporary challenges for all of us, to Mal Brown (Scarlet Consulting) for facilitating the session and as always we thank our Committee members, especially Brendan Sydes and Marie Jones who presented on the day. Thank you to the many Connecting Country volunteers and staff members who made the day a success. Also thanks to Alice Barnes from Sovereign Hill who generously audio-recorded the session and has made it available for us to share with those who couldn’t make the event or had to be turned away because of the venue limitations.
Some images from the session are available in our Education and Resources Section (Click here). To see what people are saying afterwards, or to comment on the presentation, go to the Forum page (click here). We hope to have the audio from the presentation available on our website soon.
To sign up for one or more of the Autumn workshop sessions register HERE (NB: the session on the 1st March is now fully booked).
For more information about our education program, contact janet@connectingcountry.org.au or phone 5472 1594.
* Bill uses the term ‘1788’ as shorthand for the beliefs and actions of Aboriginal people at the time of first European colonisation in Australia.
** Ron Hateley’s book, “The Victorian Bush – Its ‘Original and Natural’ Condition.”, published by Polybractea Press, provides a comprehensive and compelling perspective on vegetation patterns prior to European colonisation of Australia.
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