Gundungurra Connections

As part of reconciliation week, the Goulburn/Mulwaree, Upper Lachlan and Wingecarribee Landcare regions came together to learn from traditional custodians about connecting to the country Gundungurra country through Bushcare and Landcare.

Gundungurra Connections

As part of reconciliation week, the Goulburn/Mulwaree, Upper Lachlan and Wingecarribee Landcare regions came together to learn from traditional custodians about connecting to the country Gundungurra country through Bushcare and Landcare.

Local Links - Stronger Communities -

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The issue

For Bushcare and Landcare volunteers caring for country is something that we are all practicing through our work, yet many of us do not have a good understanding of the traditional custodians of the land in which we are working and not only the caring for the country but also the connection to country.

The solution

Working together as a Landcare sub-region with funding provided by the South East Landcare through the National Landcare Programme, our volunteers joined a bus tour to Camp Wombaroo on the Wollondilly River for a cultural connections experience. David King, a Gundungurra man, and also a bushcare volunteer was invited to come to speak with our volunteers to share his experiences of caring for country as a traditional custodian and as a bushcare volunteer with the award winning Garguree swampcare group.

The impact

With an introduction to the Gundungurra dream time stories of Gurangatch and Mirragan two ancestral creator spirits, one a giant eel-like creature, Gurangatch, an incarnation of the ancestral rainbow serpent, and the other, a large native cat or quoll, Mirrangan that through scuffling resulted in the gouging out of the land to form the river systems of the Cox and Wollondillly Rivers and the caves systems (Jenolan and Wombeyan caves). David then recounted his own personal journey and connection to Gundungurra country and his involvement in Bushcare using the theme of 5 Naidoc Week shirts.

David started Garguree Bushcare in 2012, which means The Gully in Gundungurra language, from a desire to address the ecological and cultural impacts of historical events in The Gully, notably the forced removal of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people and land clearing to build the Catalina race track in 1957. The track was abandoned a few years later and The Gully was left as a public land.