Aboriginal 'Living Places'
The Aboriginal 'Living Places' project is a four-year study that aims to record sites in NSW where Aboriginal people have settled since 1788 and to address the imbalance between the recording of Aboriginal sites before 1788 and the recording of Aboriginal settlements after European colonisation of Australia.
The post-1788 Aboriginal settlements presented here are all located in north-eastern NSW (see map). Such settlements have strong attachments and associated memories for Aboriginal people in the area, and often for Aboriginal communities in other parts of NSW.These places are a valuable part of the state's heritage, and include:
- former Aboriginal reserves
- fringe camps
- pastoral station camps
- town dwellings
- seasonal work camps
- holiday camps.
The project aims to map these places, as well as providing an opportunity for Aboriginal people in communities across NSW to tell the stories that make these places special. Aboriginal communities and stakeholders will be consulted, and people's recollections and memories about the sites will be recorded.
This is a joint project between the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) and the NSW Heritage Office. The information this project collects will be used to place sites on the DECC Historic Heritage Information System (HHIMS), as well as on the DECC Aboriginal Heritage Information System (AHIMS).
Some general aspects of the historical information collected about each site will be available for people to view for the purpose of research only. Access to this information is restricted and can only be arranged through the project manager, Katrina Stankowski.
People and places
On this site, people from Aboriginal communities remember places and the events that shaped them. Please note that some of the photographs on these pages contain images of people who are now deceased.
People from the Bundjalung community (see Jali Land Council area on the map) remember their ancestors who lived in the Ballina region in the mid to late 1800s at the time of early European settlement, when there were many violent exchanges.
People from the Bundjalung community (see Jali Land Council area on the map) recall their relatives' stories of, or remember themselves, living self-sufficiently on Cabbage Tree Island on the Richmond River from the late 1800s, before and after the area became an Aboriginal station. They also share their memories of fishing and socialising at nearby Boundary Creek from the 1930s to the present day.
People from the Gumbayngirr community (see Coffs Harbour Land Council area on the map) remember living on the fringes of Coffs Harbour in the 1930s and 1940s in semi-permanent camps that often provided places of sanctuary away from the government-managed Aboriginal reserves.
People from the Gumbayngirr community (see Coffs Harbour Land Council area on the map) remember being forced to move from the camps along Coffs Creek into State housing in the 1950s, following the introduction of assimilation policies.
People from the Dunghutti community (see Kempsey Land Council area on the map) recall their relatives' stories of, or remember themselves, experiencing changing environmental conditions and government policies from the late 1800s to the 1950s that forced them to move from farms and fringe camps onto Aboriginal reserves.
People from the Gumbayngirr community (see Kempsey Land Council area on the map) remember living at and visiting Grassy Heads camp from the mid-20th century to the present day.
Map: Local and District Aboriginal Land Council areas in north-eastern NSW
