Old country, new country – connecting culture and wetland restoration

Building brush structures to slow water and retain sediment

The Learning Programs team with Peter Hazell, Erin Healy and Tam Connor recently spent time on Bandjalang Country at Minyumai Indigenous Protected Area exchanging skills and knowledge with the Minyumai Rangers and Jagun Alliance team in a 2-day Bootcamp. The project forms part of the Nature Glenelg Trust wetland restoration project at Minyumai.  

Immersed in a broad valley of several hundred hectares, amongst the Swamp Casuarina and Paperbark forests, the group explored this vibrant cultural landscape, and its relationship with energy, the water cycle, life, and the lie of the land. The group were encouraged to tune their senses to the shape of the surface as they walked and note the transition from steeper country to gentle slopes and flats.  

We found a large headcut and significant gully erosion at the transition between what Peter termed ‘the old country and the new country’. In geological terms, this is where old parent material on the steeper slopes, under the force of gravity, slowly erodes and deposits minerals on the gentle slopes that form the much younger alluvial flats.  

Minyumai Rangers and Nature Glenelg Trust highlighted the legacy of the drainage channels cut into the floodplain in the 1970s, which increased the speed of surface flows and subsequently caused significant erosion. A key outcome of the Bootcamp was to build water stewardship skills that reduce erosion using simple nature-based solutions to slow water flow and to encourage the retention of sediment. Together we demonstrated how simple brush log and rock structures in flowlines can kickstart this healing process benefitting the wetlands and the broader landscape.  

The knowledge shared on culture and scientific principles while we walked and worked together speaks to the sense of community and collaboration that we are eager to grow together through future Country-centred projects. 

This program is jointly funded through the Australian Government's Future Drought Fund, Jagun Alliance Aboriginal Corporation, Nature Glenelg Trust and Minyumai IPA. 

Casuarina branches are woven through wooden pins and compacted down to form a solid structure

V-notched brush structures are bundled with rope and positioned to manage and spread water

Where old country meets new country

Demonstrating the function and design of structures at small scale

Learning by doing first at the small scale