The incredible effectiveness of the stone fish trap of the indigenous people is testified to in the accounts of early settlers to Australia, who were amazed at how the aboriginal fish traps structure was able to withstand the regular Barwon riverfloods. With his two sons Booma-ooma-nowi and Ghinda-inda-mui he then built the traps to this design. According to Aboriginal tradition, the design of the traps was revealed when the ancestral creation dreamtime being Baiama threw his net over the Barwon river. Possibly the oldest man made structure on earth, the traps are estimated to be over 40,000 years old.
Stretching for nearly half a kilometre along the Barwon river bed just below the Queensland border in north-west New South Wales, they are the largest group of aboriginal fish traps recorded in Australia. The heritage-listed traditional Aboriginal fish traps at Brewarrina consist of an elaborate network of rock weirs and holding ponds and pools arranged using river stones in an intricate way that allowed native fish to be herded and caught during both high and low river flows. These aboriginal fish traps became major centres of trade and cultural exchange, and many supported permanent communities, challenging the myth that all Aboriginal people were hunter-gatherers.Īs part of our new tours of Australia, Odyssey Traveller is offering clients the opportunity to visit two of the most extraordinary examples of Indigenous Australian aquaculture: the Brewarrina Fish Traps,that form the Brewarrina weir, visited on our tour of Outback Queensland and the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, visited as part of our tour of the Southern States of Australia Using weirs, dams, a stone fish trap, and other technologies, Aboriginal communities directed water to create a fish trap in order to ensure a consistent and abundant supply of fish. Aquaculture,‘the rearing of aquatic animals, or the cultivation of aquatic plants for food’ ( Oxford Dictionary ), was a major part of the pre-settlement economies of Aboriginal communities across Australia.
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