Pages 9 - 77 (1600kb) - Eurobodalla Shire Council

EUROBODALLA ABORIGINAL CULTURAL HERITAGE STUDY
South Coast NSW
The Eurobodalla Shire covers an area of over 343,000 square hectares between
Batemans Bay to the north and Wallaga Lake to the south. It is characterised by a
relatively narrow coastal strip some 110 kilometres long, abutted to the west by
lowland forests, rolling hills and the high country of the Great Dividing Range. The
study area is dissected by major river valleys including the Clyde, Buckenbowra,
Moruya and Tuross Rivers which flow from the high inland ranges to the coast.
Rivers and creeks flow into estuaries and tidal lagoons rich in plant and animal life.
Consultation Program
The project was guided by a steering committee made up of representatives from each
of the six LALCs involved, representatives of the Eurobodalla Shire Council and staff
from DEC. Meetings were held on the following dates:
• Project establishment meeting – 4 th May 2004
• Project progress report meeting – 17 th August 2004
• Final project presentation meeting/workshop – 23 rd November 2004
These meetings provided an opportunity to discuss the aims of this investigation and
to clarify its relationship to other stages of the project, particularly Stage 2 oral history
collection which commenced towards the end of Stage 1. The steering committee also
suggested sources of historical information, highlighted specific Aboriginal place
associations and discussed issues to do with community control over information
collected.
Over the course of the project telephone contact was made with LALC staff on a
number of occasions and as many Land Councils as possible were visited during field
trips to the regional collections. These ongoing discussions with LALC members have
provided helpful insights into the history of the area.
As a way of informing the wider Aboriginal community about the project copies of an
explanatory flier were sent to each Land Council within the Eurobodalla Shire
(Appendix 2). This project flier was also published in Coastal Custodians.
On 23 rd November 2004 a workshop involving community members and agency staff
was held at the office of the Cobowra LALC in Moruya. The project outcomes were
presented as a follow up to the distribution of the draft report. The workshop provided
participants with the opportunity to hear about the findings of the historical research
and to provide feedback on the project report before is finalisation. This feedback also
extended to participants identifying gaps in current research and in providing
guidance on the recommendations for further stages of the project and targeted
research possibilities.
The workshop also provided an opportunity for Chris Griffiths to outline his Stage 2
oral information recording process.
Goulding Heritage Consulting Pty Ltd
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