Maintaining Barkandji fish traps and their...
URL: https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/Maintaining%20Barkandji%20Fish%20Traps%20and%20their%20Cultural%20Values.pdf
Authors: Sarah Martin, Badger Bates, Michael Kennedy
Combining Indigenous knowledge with ecological monitoring, the project highlights the enduring cultural, spiritual, and ecological significance of Barkandji stone fish traps along the Baaka (Darling River) near Wilcannia.
This project is important with its focus on field data collection and the discovery of the Darling River snail on Wilcannia weir, showing the value of rock bars, rocks and rock faced weirs as well as dry stone walled fish traps as important habitat.
It has also demonstrated that a local Indigenous community, in this case the Wilcannia Barkandji community and their kin, can actively engage in and lead research, monitoring and re-establishment of endangered species and critical features in the river.
Key findings / recommendations:
-
The oral histories emphasise profound cultural and ecological losses suffered by the Barkandji due to disrupted river flows, poor water quality, and invasive species like carp. Traditional fish traps once supported sustainable fishing, biodiversity, and cultural continuity. Their decline has impacted species survival and severed intergenerational knowledge. Restoring traps offers a vital pathway to heal Country, strengthen identity, and revive damaged ecosystems.
-
Visiting rock features in the Baaka near Wilcannia was significant as previously unrecorded remnant dry stone walls were located at The Strip, Woytchucca Creek and the Falling Star site. It also allowed the field team to access places important to them for the first time or first time in a long while (due to access issues). They also had the opportunity to see the rock bars and how they could be utilised as fish traps, and to undertake baseline monitoring of species at some of them.
-
Maintenance of The Strip fish traps was significant as it allowed the younger Barkandji and kin of the field team to access and learn from an Elder about the old fish traps at the site. It also demonstrated to them that they can continue their fish trap culture in paces other than Wilcannia weir and Weir 32, if access can be negotiated. Most importantly the field team has set up an experiment examining how the new rock walls enhance the habitat for many invertebrates, including Darling River snail.
-
Baseline monitoring of species at rock bars or rock weirs, including using traditional methods, found pippi, shrimps, yabby, black bream/spangled perch, Golden Perch, carp, empty snail shells, water striders, and common sandpiper (indicating presence of invertebrates).
-
Through the monitoring the critically endangered-and thought to be extinct in the natural habitat of the Baaka–Darling River snails were discovered at the Old Wilcannia weir. Oral histories of the snails and examining the habitat features of the newly discovered population provides insights into the habitat needs of the critically endangered Darling River snail and many other animals.
-
Key recommendations from the research are: integration of cultural knowledge into water management; river connectivity; ongoing monitoring and management of species by local Barkandji Wilcannia community; and recognising and understanding the significance of rock bars and rock weirs.
You can copy and paste the embed code into a CMS or blog software that supports raw HTML