Conferences

Dr Colin Pardoe

Dr Colin Pardoe

Abstract | Aboriginal heritage as ecological proxy in south-eastern Australia: A Barapa wetland case study

Aboriginal archaeology has a role to play when considering the number of government agencies and professional disciplines involved in land and water management of the Murray River Basin. This is Australia's food bowl that today produces one third of our food supply while using four fifths of the water supply. Conservation and environmental restoration efforts along the Murray River have concentrated on water delivery to six icon sites.

Using a case study from one of these, Koondrook State Forest, we set out the basis for identification of ecological 'hot spots' that may not otherwise be apparent. Such sites form one of the micro-environments of the riverine forest that were, and will be again, centres for mass migratory bird and small fish breeding as well as the myriad associated wetland plants and invertebrates.

We describe the relation between seasonal water flow and residential patterning at the Pulitj, a small alveolar swamp in Koondrook State Forest. A total of 154 earth mounds are distributed in an area 4x3km, including the 1.6km diameter swamp. Mounds are the by-product of housing and cooking. The village life of this archaeological record is a distillation of 3,500 years of traditional knowledge and land management practices.

Seasonal residential patterns and economic activities have been reconstructed using environmental, archaeological, ethnographic and hydrological information. The result is a picture of traditional Aboriginal land use in this particular ecosystem that can be used to link and inform future heritage, land and water management.


Bio | Dr Colin Pardoe

Colin Pardoe is an archaeologist who has worked in research, museum and commercial sectors.