ONE of the most significant Aboriginal sites may be lost unless the Federal Government supports a multi-million dollar proposal to protect the area, the Dja Dja Wurrung people believe.
The State Government has rejected a proposal to save Australia’s largest “scarred tree” site at Lake Boort Reserve.
The Boort Interpretive Centre working group says the move is the latest slight on the region’s rich indigenous culture.
Working group spokesman Paul Haw said about 900 red gums and black box trees scarred by the Dja Dja Wurrung people existed in the reserve.
Some of the scars are more than 200 years old.
The trees were scarred when bark was taken for canoes, weapons and tools.
More than 600 stone tools and weapons and about 500 cooking mounds have been found nearby.
“We ought to be ashamed of ourselves for the way we’ve looked after this place,” Mr Haw said.
“Around Boort is a really significant area, and it’s time we valued it before it’s too late.
“We’ve got all these groups like Parks Victoria and Aboriginal Affairs Victoria and they’ve had plenty of chances to do something to preserve the trees, but they’ve done nothing.
“It’s got to a time where we’ve got to think carefully about the right way to save some of these tools and these trees for the Dja Dja Wurrung and for Australia. It’s not just indigenous history, it’s Australian history.”Mr Haw was born and raised in Boort, during a time when appreciation for indigenous culture was almost at its nadir.
After fighting alongside Aboriginal men in the Vietnam War, Mr Haw returned home and started to appreciate the history of the Dja Dja Wurrung for the first time.
“These trees here are officially not allowed to be removed, but nobody is to stop people from coming in and chainsawing them down for firewood,” he said.
“What’s the point in letting these trees just rot away for the next 20 years or so when we can preserve them for the next thousand years?”
A proposal for a development on the banks of Lake Boort - including a museum, cafe, gallery and tourist information centre - failed to satisfy a State Government feasability study.
The museum would be able to house Dja Dja Wurrung bark etchings and a ceremonial headdress currently displayed in the British Museum.
The BIC working group said the then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Gavin Jennings, promised repatriation of the artifacts, believed to be the oldest of their kind, in 2004.
The bodies of five Dja Dja Wurrung ancestors currently stored at Menera Station in NSW could also be kept at the centre.
A letter from AAV executive director Ian Hamm sent to the working group late last month outlines that a feasability study into the BIC did not support investment, as it would not be economically sustainable or support Aboriginal community aspirations.
Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation chairman Graham Atkinson said developing a centre in Bendigo could be the best way to ensure the proposal was economically sustainable.
“It’s common sense that there’s more tourist traffic in centres like Bendigo, but I also know a lot of tourists visit Lake Boort too,” Mr Atkinson said.
A native title claim on the small amount of crown land around Lake Boort that was lodged by the Dja Dja Wurrung people in 2000 is yet to be resolved.
But Mr Atkinson, a Dja Dja Wurrung descendant, is confident the Victorian Native Title Settlement Framework recently announced by the State Government will aid the claim.
“It is an area of high cultural values, and the Aboriginal sites there are evidence of that,” he said.
“Hopefully, when we settle the native title claim we can start working towards securing an interpretive centre.”
Federal Member for Murray Dr Sharman Stone was not available for comment.
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