Expert Witness Report NSW Planning & Assessment Commission (PAC),

R027/14 Warkworth Continuation Project & R028/14 Mt Thorley Continuation Project

Public Hearing- 18 December 2014

Author Maria Cotter

(PO Box 1262)

Armidale NSW 2350

Client EDO NSW

On behalf of Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association (BMPA)

Aboriginal Cultural Heritage

In a recent self-published local history Mr Stewart Mitchell of Bulga

wrote:

“In 1852 the people of Bulga witnessed the last recorded Bora held

in the Hunter Valley. The Bora was an aboriginal ceremony which

amongst other rites included the initiation of young males into

manhood…According to the local white settlers as many as six

hundred warriors attended the Bora…The Bora Ground which was

located in the Wallaby Scrub close to the road to Warkworth, was

encircled with an earth mound and symbolically carved trees - sadly

nothing remains of that ceremonial ground today”

(Mitchell, 2004:41-42).

In 2012 Native Title Claimant Mr Scott Franks of the PCWP provided the following statement to the NSW Land & Environment Court:

“The area is known to have been an important gathering area for the

Wonnarua and neighbouring Aboriginal groups. It was an area where

initiation and marriage ceremonies occurred and where tribal disputes,

trade and social gatherings were conducted…there was an abundance of

plant and animal resources including fish within the nearby Wollombi

Brook that could be used to support large gatherings of people. As a boy I

was taught the importance of this area by my Uncle Clyde and his Cousin

Ashley Hedges as he included it in his description of the physical route and

spiritual journey/songline that my family would take from Falbrook near

Ravensworth to Warkworth to attend gatherings and initiation

ceremonies, especially at the “Bulga Bora Ground”

(Franks, 2012:1)

Despite the common reckoning that the Bulga Bora Ground, no longer

remained extant within the Bulga - Warkworth Area.

Dr Helen Brayshaw conducted research in 2003 as part of the Aboriginal

cultural heritage assessment for the Wambo Development Project EIS in

which she concluded that she had reliably determined the probable

location of the BBG (The Brayshaw Report).

This research is relied upon in section 3.6 of the ACHAR which forms

Appendix M of the Warkworth Continuation Project.

Image #AMS351_V3513

Copyright Australian Museum

Carved Tree BBG - 1918

Historical Parish Map Composite BBG Area c. 1905-1915

Sources: Wollombi Parish Map, 1920,

(lpi.nsw.gov.au, 2012) and Bora tree

at Bulga (Mitchell, 2004:42)

Sources: Wollombi Parish Map, 1920, (lpi.nsw.gov.au, 2012) and Bora tree at Bulga (Mitchell, 2004:42)

Sketch map of the location of the BBG drawn from memory by W. Thorpe in 1918. (Source: Enlarged extract from the Australian Museum Register of Ethnology E8/1918, image reproduced with permission of the Australian Museum).