Caring for Waterscapes in the Anthropocene: Heritage-making at Budj Bim, Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Australian waterscapes were fashioned to meet human needs during the ancient Aboriginal past through the construction of weirs, fish traps and small dams and accompanying socio-cultural practices and institutions. Exemplary amongst Australian water cultures was that of the Gunditjmara of western Victoria, who for thousands of years practiced a sophisticated form of swamp engineering and eel farming in the volcanic landscapes of Budj Bim. Within 150 years of European colonisation, frontier violence, dispossession and hydrological alteration had put an end to the most extensive and oldest aquaculture system in the world. Recent land and water restitution measures enacted in collaborative partnerships with the wider watershed community have enabled the Gunditjmara to restore the Budj Bim wetlands and rebuild their nation. This process entails re-storying engineering and eeling: cultural practices and connections are being retold to gain recognition for the capacity to negotiate change and adapt to geological, climatological and imperial forces. Critical theory and concepts relating to waterscapes, hydro-social relations and the Anthropocene assist in interpreting the resilient efforts of a rural community to retrieve its history and find new ways to care for the past as well as the future.