Ive been finding and uploading CMTs around the Walgett- Carinda area for almost 10 years now. The biggest and best scars are found around the Cumborah ridges while the most interesting TinTs are here in the sandhills of the old Barwon river. However, the Ginghet creek & floodplains have the most extraordinary connected coolabahs which were ‘barked up’ to make shelters when needed. This area is the only place in the world where you find old CMTs in abundance because of our climate & history. The traditional tribes – Gomilaroi/ Kamilaroi – Wailwan/ Weilwun – Yuwaalaraay/ Yuwaaliyaay (Euahlayi) – intermarried & shared culture/technology at regular gatherings. They didn’t have the written word, the bow & arrow or the wheel but were so perfectly in synch with the ecology of this place they survived for millennia in a chronically challenging & capricious environment. This website is a both a tribute to the ancestors and my legacy for their descendants.
The ancestors didn’t just bivouac anywhere on their land but moved from temporary camp to temporary camp. The amount of time spent in one place was dependant on food /water availability as well as cultural considerations. Other Aboriginal clans may have had more permanent accommodation where food was continually available. Not out in the semi-arid North West of NSW where the rivers run dry & the droughts don’t really end but just move around. Shifting from camp to camp wasn’t a set routine but an opportunistic strategy dependant on rainfall & seasonal cues. The ancestors were the original storm chasers not for the thrill of the lightning but in response to the growth of fresh grass and filling of billabongs. Kangaroos adapt their breeding cycle to suit the seasonal fluctuations but emus lay eggs at the same time every year. Hunters knew the habits & preferences of all the animals while the gatherers (seeds, tubers, fruit etc.) knew what was available and ripening where & when. The ancestors knew their land like the back of their hands which made their dispossession so terribly traumatic. Culture & country were totally entwined.
Temporary camps along the Ginghet contain the most extraordinary connected coolabahs. These trees are joined by inosculated branches in the same way ringtrees are made. We won’t ever know how these extended camp trees were created because no ethnobotanists or indigenous studies academics will ever come out to see them. We can just go on what Sandra Winsor & I observe, what we google on sites like iNaturalist, and what we are told by BNTAC Project Manager James Briggs & other people of culture. Below are the 2 new connected-coolabah camp trees Sandra & I saw along the Ginghet last week. The property owner, Joy Dare, couldn’t be there but she knows where all the BFCs are & hopefully next time all 3 of us can explore this old water course together Check these out ….
The GNR parks & Wildlife ranger John Boyd did me a favour last week by euthanizing a red kangaroo I saw trapped under a ramp. He winched up the ramp to release it but it had a broken foot unfortunately. I would love to walk the entire length of the Ginghet one day to see all the CMTS in order rather than piecemeal. These next connected coolabah camp trees are ones I found last year in what used to be my great uncle Keith McKellar’s & also my sister’s property “Minoru”. Minoru along with neighbouring places “Wilga vale” & “Cafton” make up the Ginghet Nature Reserve. The traditional owners wouldn’t recognise the place now it’s mostly overgrown with invasive scrub & home to hundreds of feral pigs, goats & cattle. Still unlike the Narran lake nature reserve there haven’t been any major bushfires so the trees still live to tell their tales. The good news is there is now a course at Lightning ridge TAFE to teach people (Aboriginal only) how to find old campsites. Also Brenton, a very talented photographer from NSW Health based in Orange, is out photographing local CMTs this month.
The next CMT with a story to tell is the Peach bush in spiral scarred box TinT living in the ridges around Cumborah. There is very little surface water in the ridges so finding the old camps it a bit hit & miss. You can’t just get on google earth to find the likely places as its all trees with some parts for densely timbered than others. The big scarred trees are insane so we know there were many people there at some time. My theory is that there was a great influx as the result of the record 1890 flood when the Barwon & the Narran were one and people were forced up into the ridges to survive. Some of the scars may be for bark canoes? It’s also possible the Yuwaalaraay/ Yuwaaliyaay were escaping from the violent squatters & settlers but the only reliable water was the Gali gurranaar springs. Did they dig trenches down from the springs to access the spring or did they carry it to the satellite camps?
So here is the bark stripped spiral box symbolising birth, death & rebirth or as I like to think of these trees as a ‘stairway to heaven’ .Google … ourspiritanimal All About Spiral Symbol Spiritual Meaning – : In Aboriginal mythology, the spiral is a common motif in rock art and symbolizes the journey of the ancestors and the cycles of creation.
