C H A P T E R 7: M A N U FACT U RING

In the first Charter of the Institution of Civil Engineers, compiled in 1828, English engineer and author Thomas Tredgold provided a definition that is as arguably relevant and accurate now as it was two centuries ago: “The profession of a civil engineer, being the art of directing the great sources of power in Nature for the use and convenience of man.”

On the other side of the world, the indigenous population of the great land to the south had not read that charter, but for thousands of years previously they had been doing precisely that – directing nature to support their everyday living.

It is not Roman aqueducts and Mesopotamian irrigation that embody some of the earliest engineering feats which should attract Australian interest. Instead, we can look to the aborigines of the Western District of Victoria, and details of the structures they created prior to European settlement, to truly engender wonder.

Aboriginal activist and story-teller Burnum Burnum has written “the traditional Aboriginal economy was much more complex and varied than most textbooks have described it. Some white explorers and early administrators described villages of finely constructed huts, methods of harvesting and storing

grass seeds to prolong the season by many months, as well as complicated fish and game traps.

“Some of the fish traps, as at Brewarrina, still exist, though damaged by time and vandals. In Victoria, a vast network of canals and ponds, which brought eels to be stored and harvested at will, has been discovered and partly excavated. Gradually it is dawning on the outside world that life in the traditional Aboriginal way involved a great deal of knowledge and skill.”

A fine example of this development are the fish traps at Lake Condah, in Victoria’s far west. While fish traps are known throughout Australia, the striking

nature of the Lake Condah region involves genuine engineering, in that stone races and canals were built to manipulate the water levels in various basins of the lake.

In his definitive monograph of the area, published in 1978, respected archaeologist Dr Peter Coutts defines stone races as “above-ground structures for directing water” and canals as “channels dug into the ground”. Stone races appear to have been built to force fish (mainly eels) into fish traps as lake waters rose or fell. Canals appear to have been formed to force water into various basins of the lake where natural flows were not reaching: in some cases

TAKING WHAT THE LAND GIVES YOUThe present-day Aboriginal community at Budj Bim are celebrating a diverse socio-economic environment up to 6000-7000 years old

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A FOOD AND MEETING PLACE

BU D J BIM A BORIGIN A L H Y DR AU LI C WOR K S

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The area containing these unique hydraulic works is now

under the control of Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners

Aboriginal Corporation; they prefer not to use European

names, referring to the whole area as Budj Bim.

The produce from the eel farming at Budj Bim provided a

reliable and substantial food resource of first class protein

for at least 240 generations of Aboriginal communities

in the immediate and trade-related area. This trade

interaction led to the development of visits, gatherings,

ceremonies and exchange of ideas throughout the wider

area, while other goods were traded for eel meat leading to

a more prosperous economy in the region. Indeed, Coutts

referred to the region as being notable for its “diverse,

technologically-oriented economy”.

It is worth noting these works were in operation as an

industrial-scale food-gathering system approximately 1500

years before the Great Pyramid of Egypt was built, and quite

possibly much earlier. Little wonder the traditional Budj Bim

land owners are now engaged in attempting to have the area

listed on the World Heritage List.

At the very least, they are seeking to have the infrastructure

restored to its former health. From the 19th century

onwards, Lake Condah was drained by Settlers for grazing,

with more extensive work being undertaken in the mid-

20th century. Consequently, water can only be seen in the

channel systems during very high floods.

Due to the flatness of the terrain, overgrowth and damage

from stock and vandals, it is very difficult to gain a complete

appreciation of the extent of the systems from ground

level. But enormous pride will drive the rehabilitation of

these hydraulic works, bringing back to life a diverse socio-

economic environment up to 6000-7000 years old.

Shore of Lake Condah with eel trap. Photo: Wettenhall Environmental Trust

Engineers Australia National President Merv Lindsay and Aboriginal Elders at unveiling

of heritage recognition marker and panel. Photo: Owen Peake

it appears that these artificially filled basins were used as holding ponds to keep fish fresh until they were needed. Stone walls also appear to have been used to artificially define ponds.”

There were no engineering drawings of the works; nor were there calculations or standards to follow. Rather, traditions were handed on by word of mouth from generation to generation, a simple ongoing knowledge-base for the use and handling of the available materials and for the design of workable complex hydraulic systems, using materials at hand.

Take the use of available rocks for wall structures. The area had been subject to

volcanic eruptions which had deposited basalt lava flows over the countryside. Over time, these lava flows broke up into large but manageable blocks of basalt, a hard durable stone which has an extraordinarily long life as a building material but is difficult to work, even with modern tools. The breaking up of the lava flows into convenient-sized blocks, scattered across the landscape, was an enormous asset for Aboriginal builders.

Other materials such as timber for house roof structures and palisades, grass for weaving into textile fabrics, and leaves for waterproofing, were readily available almost everywhere.