Tag Archives: Cultural Heritage Management

Keeping up with the Boords

Posted on August 23, 2012 by | Comments Off

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As part of my directed study, I am assisting the Florey Reconciliation Task Force in drafting a heritage nomination for a little house in Highgate (Tea Tree Gully) that is affectionately called, “Boord House”. The name doesn’t imply magnificence, but I think it is one of the most fascinating historic places in Adelaide – and only a 15 minute drive from the CBD! It left an impression from the beginning when Associate Prof. Heather Burke told me about the house and its odd accoutrements. One of its defining features is a wall with what are believed to be gun slits and which is still very much intact. Much of the cottage, in fact, is still intact, and under the sturdy cover of a shed which was obviously built much more recently.

When I went to the Florey Electorate building for the first time to meet with Lea Crosby, she was kind enough to provide me a variety of resources, all referring to the Boord family, their history, and a little about the house itself. The more I found out, the more I wondered why such a place wasn’t listed yet, and I was genuinely worried. She was also kind enough to show me the house – easy enough to get to down a scenic route off Lower Northeast Road.

The surrounding area is part of the Linear Park project of Campbelltown, with a creek running through, and is speckled with a mix of native and non-native trees. Most, if not all of the latter are old fruit trees which I believe are part of the Boord’s orchard. Lea led me down the trail through the trees and to the house nearby. Little did I know that my first problem would be waiting in the form of a big black metal fence surrounding the house, and a conspicuous sign stating, “PRIVATE PROPERTY”, and with that went my initial plans to visit the house regularly – apparently, they were recent additions. Despite the barrier, the tall black bars reassured me that there were precautions being taken in preserving such a beautiful historic building, despite not being heritage listed. While the property may no longer (or for the moment) be available for public visitation, a memorial plaque is available for passers-by to read about the house and a brief history of the Boord family in South Australia.

Antoinette Hennessy

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Database that could rival that of the starship Enterprise

Posted on August 13, 2012 by | Comments Off

Blog 4
Adrian Fenech

The database I patched together from the large number of rock shelters that exist in the Pilbara region, Western Australia, has a great deal of potential for future research on these sites. This is because the database contains nearly 600 sites and potential archaeological deposits (PADs) with quite a bit of information available for each. There are always going to be limitations, though, because the database does not include every rock shelter and PAD in the Pilbara.
If nothing else, Australian Cultural Heritage Management (ACHM) could use the database I created and expand on it with more data fields and rock shelters and create their own large scale database. Some data fields that the archaeologists at ACHM said they would like in a database are information on which mining tenement each rock shelter falls within and if there are any hazards or difficulties in physically accessing the rock shelters. This would assist the work with rock shelters in the Pilbara dramatically, because archaeologists would have additional information easily available during their research. Hopefully the database I have created will have features added to it and its data expanded by future researchers so it can reach its full potential for assisting rock shelter and PAD research in the Pilbara.

I have found some interesting results now that I have come to the end of the data analysis in regards to rock shelter sites and PADs in the Pilbara. The aspect (direction rock shelter opening faces) of rock shelter sites and PADs was most often east, at 22.8% and 17.4% respectively. Rock shelter sites and PADs are also within 100m2 in area at 82.4% and 89.5% respectively. The aspect and area analyses of rock shelter sites and PADs helps to indicate how common rock shelters with these features and physical dimensions are in the Pilbara.

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Remembering ‘the everyday’ using community maps

Posted on July 20, 2012 by | Comments Off

The data from the recent Marion Cultural Heritage Survey is equivalent to a vast store of local knowledge and stories. Knowledge about the Sturt River, the vineyards and almond groves. Stories of the people who helped build Marion, from the famous, like Colonel Light, through to nineteenth century families like the Westerns, Hamiltons and Shearings who settled in the area, to the Bulgarian immigrant in the 1950s who built three small shops on Marion Road by hand, and the local man who kept the Marino cliff top walk tidy and freshly planted. So what to do with it? How to get it out there so that others know about it too?

Developing cultural or community maps is one way of protecting and managing this sort of knowledge. Cultural mapping encourages people to celebrate the ordinary and the everyday, the things that may not usually be recorded, but that build a sense of place.

In the UK, community maps, known as ‘parish maps’, have been used as a means of community engagement, with the maps taking various forms, such as posters, photo collages, paintings and movies. Other ways of capturing local heritage include creating ABCs as a way of portraying a place and starting the process of understanding what it means. Details from a parish map and an ABC are shown below.

An alternative way of mapping stories is to present them digitally. A digital story telling project, the Wangaratta Digital Quilt, was carried out in Victoria as part of a project called Generations Wangaratta. The digital quilt initiative was intended to encourage storytelling and the sharing of stories between generations. It includes a series of short films and interviews with local residents and visitors. They are presented in the form of a digital quilt (see images below) where users can click on a picture to see and hear more information.

Wangaratta Digital Quilt home page

Wangaratta Digital Quilt

Wangaratta Digital Quilt (Images from http://www.wangarattadigitalquilt.com.au)

Susan Arthure

Further reading:
Clifford, S. 2011 Local distinctiveness: Everyday places and how to find them. In J. Schofield and R. Szymanski (eds) Local Heritage, Global Context: Cultural Perspectives on Sense of Place, pp.13-32. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing.

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Overlap between official and unofficial heritage

Posted on July 18, 2012 by | Comments Off

When people identify places that are important to them, do they overlap with those that have been deemed important officially? The recent City of Marion Cultural Heritage Survey explored the unofficial heritage of the community. It also helped to illustrate crossover points where professional and public opinions regarding heritage overlap.

There was certainly an overlap in the Marion Historic Village, where several buildings are listed officially as having heritage value, either on the SA Heritage Register or as Local Heritage Places. These buildings were noted by many survey respondents, who also identified the remnant almond orchard along Oliphant Avenue as important. Almonds were once one of the main tourist attractions in Marion, with thousands of visitors coming on tour buses every July up until the 1950s to view the almond blossom. Although the almond orchards are no longer part of the Marion landscape, they live on in people’s memories, and the remnants are important tangible reminders of the past.

The Sturt River featured in many survey responses because of the importance of the remaining river red gums, scarred trees, the bike track, its history of flooding before the drainage scheme, its bridges, the wetlands and dense vegetation, connection with the Kaurna people, and the sound of the river flowing. Although the survey comments applied to the Sturt River in its entirety as it crosses the Marion Council area, there is no official heritage acknowledgement of the river, except that it flows through the state heritage-listed Warriparinga area. There is an interpretive tile near the river, however, as part of the historic walk in the Marion Historic Village.

Sturt River interpretive tile

Interpretive tile near the Sturt River in the Marion Historic Village

Another natural element recorded in the survey was the Moreton Bay fig tree in the Fisk Avenue Reserve at Glengowrie. Again, there is some overlap between official and unofficial heritage. This tree was previously recorded in a 1990 heritage survey of Marion, and noted as the dominant feature of the reserve. In fact, the Council bought some of the land at the time to ensure that a proposed new development wouldn’t damage the tree.

Moreton Bay fig tree

Moreton Bay fig tree at Fisk Avenue Reserve, Glengowrie

It’s fair to say that the survey responses revealed a broad view of what’s important to local people. Some of the places recorded as important are already recognised officially on the list of Local Heritage Places or in the SA Heritage Register. However, more are considered important primarily by the local community, for example, trees and the river, but also the Westfield Marion Shopping Centre, local reserves and children’s playgrounds. They lend themselves to recording and recognition through oral histories, community maps, plantings and interpretive signage.

Susan Arthure

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Yourambulla Caves Rock Art Trail: Natural vs. Human Intervention

Posted on July 4, 2012 by | Comments Off

The Yourambulla Caves are an Indigenous rock art site located 13 kilometres south-west from the town of Hawker within the southern Flinders Ranges, South Australia. Yourambulla is a name that is derived from the words ‘yura bila’, which means two men in the language of the Andyamathana people, the traditional owners of this region. The cave paintings are made from manganese, charcoal, red ochre and white ochre. Figures include animal tracks (emu and kangaroo), hand stencils, human figures, camps and ceremonial depictions (FIGURE ONE).

FIGURE ONE: Rock art at Yourambulla Cave One. Photo by Daniel Petraccaro.

The Yourambulla caves are one of the most accessible rock art sites within the Flinders Ranges, attracting hundreds of tourists every year. The Yourambulla Caves trail was constructed in 1995 by member of the Iga Warta Aboriginal Corporation and the Bungala Aboriginal Corporation. The project was funded by the Department of State Aboriginal Affairs, Environment Australia, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and from Commercial Minerals. The Yourambulla cave trail encompasses three rock shelter sites within a radius of one kilometre. A path has been carved allowing access, while interpretation signs are also present to enhance the visitor’s experience.

There are a number of natural processes affecting the rock art at the Yourambulla caves. The rock art at Yourambulla Cave One is suffering from water damage (see FIGURE ONE). Water is seeping through a crack in the overhang and trickling over the art. The area of rock art affected by the water exposure is significantly faded compared to the rest of the site. There is also are a number of old wasp nests on the rock face at all three overhang sites. The wasp nests appear to have been destroyed but not completely removed.

The barriers around the rock shelter sites were established to protect the sites from animals and human interferences (FIGURE TWO). The barrier around Yourambulla Cave Three, in particular, is in very poor condition. The base is eroding out of the sediment (FIGURE THREE) and the top bars have been intentionally bent back. While the barriers have been successful in keeping feral goats and kangaroos out of the shelter, it has not prevented humans from drawing graffiti on the site. Graffiti is present at all three rock shelter sites. The graffiti is either in the form of imitation Aboriginal art or in the form of human figures (FIGURE FOUR). The graffiti is drawn with white chalk or scratched on the rock surface. The staircase leading to Yourambulla Cave One has some nails missing and there are cracks in the wooden planks. It is recommended that visitors are not to use the staircase until repairs have been done.

FIGURE TWO: Eroded fence post at Yourambulla Cave Three. Photo by Daniel Petraccaro

FIGURE THREE: Fence cage at Yourambulla Cave Three. Photo by Daniel Petraccaro.

FIGURE FOUR: Graffiti at Yourambulla Cave Two. Photo by Daniel Petraccaro.

There has been no management plan established for the Yourambulla Caves determining who is responsible for the long term management of the site. Pastoral leases and tourism companies develop rock art trails in the Flinders Ranges for financial gain. However, neither party really understands about the long term management and conservation issues of these sites. Neither the land owners nor the tourist groups contribute to the management of the site.

The failure of site management has resulted in a number of conservation and liability issues. The graffiti needs to be removed to prevent encouragement from the public to vandalise the site. The barrier around Yourambulla Cave Three also requires significant repair. Further, this site needs to be monitored in another few years to determine whether the area of water damage over Yourambulla Cave One is expanding or receding. The Yourambulla Caves should have a management plan detailing relevant stakeholders who should be contributing funding to the management of the site.

By Daniel Petraccaro (Masters in Archaeology Student)

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