- Title
- Parish plans as a source of evidence of Aboriginal land use in the Mallee back country
- Creator
- Burch, John; Clark, Ian; Cahir, David (Fred)
- Date
- 2020
- Type
- Text; Journal article
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/187093
- Identifier
- vital:16995
- Identifier
- ISBN:1832-2522
- Abstract
- The nature of Aboriginal people's use, indeed occupation, of the Victorian Mallee 'back country' warrants detailed investigation. Probably arising out of the paucity of observations of Aboriginal people on the land before it was pastorally occupied, an historical analysis from the 1870s suggesting Aboriginal people were not occupiers but mere 'seasonal visitors' to the 'back country' was unquestionably accepted for the next century. Growing understanding of the fundamentally sophisticated ways in which Aboriginal people managed their land has led to some recent historical works with a revised understanding of land use in the 'back country', but there is no agreement to move away from the orthodox historical paradigm. Parish plans from the Mallee, part of PROV's 'Parish and township plans' collection, were investigated to determine whether they contain evidence of former Aboriginal land use that could inform this question. It was found that these plans can potentially reveal the presence of pre-colonial Aboriginal water management, pathways, quarries, land management, cemeteries and placenames. Thus, parish plans were shown to be a potentially valuable resource that might have the capacity to support a reinvestigation of Aboriginal land use in the 'back country'. Approaches for a more detailed investigation of the value of these plans are suggested.
- Relation
- Provenance (North Melbourne, Vic.) Vol. , no. 18 (2020), p. 9-21
- Rights
- All metadata describing materials held in, or linked to, the repository is freely available under a CC0 licence
- Rights
- Copyright © John Burch
- Rights
- Open Access
- Rights
- Culturally sensitive
- Subject
- 4303 Historical studies; Aboriginal Australians; Civil service; Colonists; Land tenure; Management; National parks and reserves; Water-supply
- Full Text
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