Science and Traditional Owner knowledge guide new community area

Mud at the bottom of an old bed of the Barwon River is helping to tell the story of how life has changed over thousands of years for a local site in Breakwater, Geelong.

And the information gleaned is being used by Wadawurrung Traditional Owners to plan for a healthy future for the area, with the data to inform the development of a place-based healthy country plan for the site.

Working together on the exciting Porronggitj Karrong (Place of the Brolga) project, Barwon Water and Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation were pleased to receive the findings of scientists commissioned to take sediment samples at the 66-hectare site along the edge of the Barwon River.

Sediment samples were taken to a depth of six metres below the surface. The deepest samples provided a snapshot of what the environment was like as long as 9,500 years ago, a time when the Barwon River ran a slightly different course across the site.

Scientists looked at diatoms (microscopic algae), pollen and charcoal preserved in the soil, to understand how Porronggitj Karrong changed following European settlement, and in the thousands of years before that.

Greg Robinson, Wadawurrung man and Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation Caring for Country General Manager, says that the results show that for most of the past 9,500 years, Porronggitj Karrong was an estuarine environment, a salt marsh surrounded by different areas of native vegetation.

“You can see in the 1800s with the construction of the breakwater upstream and the tidal barrage downstream, Porronggitj Karrong changed and became a freshwater wetland environment,” he said.

Another key event evident in the sediment is the Gold Rush, when heavy metals were washed downstream and deposited.

And while charcoal analysis revealed little evidence of past burning within the immediate area, charcoal counts rose with depth. This is consistent with Wadawurrung cultural burns within the wider landscape, further back in time.

The findings are exciting for the two partners who are working together to create a new cultural, recreational and community precinct on the site.

As part of the project, Barwon Water will, with Heritage Victoria approval, work to make the site safe and remove four of the 14 spans of the Ovoid Sewer Aqueduct, which crosses the site. The ten remaining spans will be propped and will remain for the community to view. The work will mean that public access to that section of the Barwon River will be opened up for the first time in over 30 years.

Wadawurrung Traditional Owners are leading the development of a place-based Healthy Country Plan for the site.

Although cultural burns weren’t prevalent on the site in the past, Wadawurrung Traditional Owners are keen to trial cultural burns on a few small sections of the site to help with regeneration and consistent with Wadawurrung cultural burns within the wider landscape further back in time.

“It’s about listening and learning from Country, working out how the vegetation responds to fire, and how this cultural practice might be used going forward,” said Mr Robinson

“We are connected to our land, our skies, our waterways, and our coastal areas. Keeping them healthy keeps our people and culture healthy.”

Interim Barwon Water Managing Director Shaun Cumming said the organisation was grateful to be partnering with First Nations peoples in the region, to enable their knowledge, understanding and water values to make a difference.

“Through the partnership with Wadawurrung Traditional Owners, it is an opportunity to rediscover, trial and bring back traditional land and water management practices to restore the environment, and for us that is tremendously exciting,” he said.

Mr Cumming said that a community reference group was helping the partners to shape the project.

“The community reference group members are providing the project with significant knowledge and expertise. We have diverse representation on the committee which makes for robust discussions at times. We’re very grateful to have a broad range of voices helping to shape the project and help us to realise our vision for a new cultural, recreational and community precinct on the site,” he said.

The research was coordinated by Eco Logical Australia’s Principal Ecologist James Garden, with input from diatom expert Peter Gell and experts from La Trobe University, including Rebekah Kurpiel, Matthew Meredith-Williams and Georgia Stannard. It adds to other studies on the area, including an assessment of the plants and animals currently living on the site.

Aqueduct update

Barwon Water is working to continue planning for the complex aqueduct stabilisation and span removal works, which will allow for future public access along the river, both on land and in the water, at Porronggitj Karrong.

Following significant flooding along the Barwon River last year and updated engineering advice on the safe span removal works on the Aqueduct, we have updated our schedule to complete these works.

Subject to weather, planning and safety controls, the works will now likely occur in 2024, meaning the site could be opened to the community sometime in 2025, subject to works being completed.

We are committed to taking the time needed to deliver this tremendously exciting project safely. It will be a special place for generations of Geelong people for years to come.


Flooding along the Barwon River at Porronggitj Karrong in 2022