Places of significance
Many areas of NSW have cultural significance to Aboriginal people. They reflect the ways in which Aboriginal people view their cultural heritage. These places carry a relationship between one person and another, and between people and their environment.
Aboriginal places can include:
- ceremonial areas
- cemeteries
- story sites, such as North Brother Mountain in Dooragan National Park
- massacre sites (part of the invasion of Australia)
- missions.
When Aboriginal places are protected, there are benefits for both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. A good example is Mt Drysdale near Cobar. An Aboriginal place declaration recognises that places are (or were) of special significance to Aboriginal culture. It gives the land a higher level of protection, to safeguard its significance to Aboriginal people.
The next time you drive into the NSW countryside, think about how the landscape may reveal a very different story to Aboriginal people who understand the land. They may see such things as:
- important food and medicinal plant species
- territories, important sites, or good camping areas, reflected in landscape changes such as soil colour or plant species, rivers or mountains.
- cultural aspects of prominent natural features, formed long ago by one of the creation ancestors.
More information
Places of significance in parks and reserves
Get information on some of the Aboriginal places you can visit in parks and reserves around NSW.
Gundabooka National Park oral history project
This project, which began in 1996, allows the NPWS to work with local Aboriginal communities in understanding and protecting this park in western NSW.
Aboriginal 'Living Places'
Find out about this four-year study, which aims to record places in NSW where Aboriginal people have settled since colonisation.
Revival, Renewal and Return: Ray Kelly and the NSW Sites of Significance Survey
This publication reflects upon the career of the service's first Aboriginal employee, in particular his work on the documentation of Aboriginal heritage across NSW.
Aboriginal people and biodiversity
Find out how Aboriginal heritage is inseparable from the natural environment - from individual plants and animals to whole ecosystems.
Mapping attachment: a spatial approach to Aboriginal post-contact heritage
This 'cultural mapping' study shows how Aboriginal people in NSW 'possess' their local landscapes by imprinting them with their life stories, histories, memories and emotions. Buy a copy from the NSW government's online bookshop.
Spiritual places by the sea
Reflect on the deep and varied attachments that many Australians have to the coast.