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GREAT BARRlER REEF - Saint Ignatius' Moodle Community

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The Great Barrier Reef is an important part of our cultural heritage. The Reef is<br />

important to Indigenous Australians, and it contains sites important in Australia’s<br />

maritime history.<br />

Indigenous land and sea<br />

country<br />

More than 70 Aboriginal and Torres Strait<br />

Islander groups live in the Great Barrier<br />

Reef area. For over 60 000 years it has<br />

been their land and sea country, and they<br />

are its traditional owners. The area includes<br />

important sacred and ceremonial sites, rock<br />

art and fish traps.<br />

Traditional use of the Great Barrier<br />

Reef’s resources<br />

Traditional owners hunt, fish and collect the<br />

Reef’s resources, including barramundi,<br />

eels, crayfish, oysters, crabs, turtle eggs and<br />

dugongs. Whereas once wooden canoes and<br />

spears were used, now motor boats, spear<br />

guns and fishing rods are preferred. Under<br />

Traditional Use Marine Resources Agreements<br />

(TUMRAs), traditional owners are allowed to<br />

continue hunting some protected species.<br />

Native title<br />

Native title recognises that Indigenous<br />

Australians hold rights to the places where<br />

they still practise their traditional laws and<br />

customs. Several native title claims exist for<br />

areas within the Great Barrier Reef Marine<br />

Park, and one has been accepted.<br />

… as Indigenous [people],<br />

we need to eat our turtle<br />

to sustain our life and our<br />

cultural practices.<br />

Stephen Ambar, Head Ranger,<br />

Hammond Island<br />

Australia’s maritime<br />

history<br />

In the 1800s, the Great Barrier Reef<br />

was a major trade route, supplying<br />

products such as wool, cattle<br />

and wheat to Queensland’s early<br />

settlements. It was also an affordable<br />

way to travel to other countries. Sea<br />

routes through the Reef still link<br />

regional Queensland today.<br />

Shipwrecks and lighthouses<br />

More than 30 shipwrecks and many<br />

lighthouses provide an important<br />

physical link to past events, situations<br />

and people. In the past, ship’s crews<br />

relied on lighthouses, maps and prior<br />

experience to steer around dangerous<br />

shallow sections and coral reef<br />

outcrops. Many tourists visit the sites<br />

of shipwrecks in the Great Barrier Reef<br />

area to learn more about Australia’s<br />

maritime history.<br />

The Endeavour<br />

Captain James Cook’s ship, The Endeavour,<br />

hit a coral outcrop in the Great Barrier Reef<br />

in 1770. Cook and his crew camped at<br />

what is now called Cooktown for nearly two<br />

months while making repairs. Then they<br />

sailed south, where Cook claimed the east<br />

coast of Australia as British territory.<br />

14<br />

Indigenous Australians have used spears to fish in the Great Barrier Reef<br />

area for thousands of years.<br />

Lighthouses such as this one helped guide ships through the Great Barrier<br />

Reef’s dangerous waters.<br />

15<br />

Macmillan Digital Library: What’s the Issue? Set 2 © Michelle Atkins, Julie Murphy, Greg Reid, Geoff Thompson, Ashten Warfe/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2011 ISBN 978 1 4202 9209 1 Macmillan Digital Library: What’s the Issue? Set 2 © Michelle Atkins, Julie Murphy, Greg Reid, Geoff Thompson, Ashten Warfe/Macmillan Publishers Australia 2011 ISBN 978 1 4202 9209 1

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