The Aboriginal fish traps at Brewarrina are ingeniously engineered to trap fish in the Darling River. Their operation was described by R. H. Mathews in 1901. He explained that in early spring or whenever the Darling River was flowing after heavy rain, immense numbers of fish travelled up the river. The fish traps were open in the direction from which the fish were swimming and:
'...as soon as a sufficient number of the finny tribe had entered the labyrinth of traps, the openings were closed by means of large stones which had been placed alongside ready for use...The natives next entered the pens and splashed the water with their hands or feet, thus frightening the fish into the smaller enclosures, where they were more easily caught.'
The effectiveness of the traps is indicated by Dame Mary Gilmore in her book Old Days, Old Ways. Here she reports observations from two of her uncles that when the fish were running 5,000 or more people were drawn to the fishery from Aboriginal communities in the surrounding areas.
See also Aboriginal Fisheries of the Darling & Barwon Rivers by Peter Dargin.
