![Wallaga_Lake_NSW_2546,_Australia_-_panoramio](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Wallaga_Lake_NSW_2546%2C_Australia_-_panoramio.jpg)
Wallaga Lake is an
estuarine
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...
lake in
Bega Valley Shire
The Bega Valley Shire is a Local government in Australia, local government area located adjacent to the South Coast, New South Wales, south-eastern coastline of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire was formed in 1981 with the amalgamation of t ...
in
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, Australia,
the largest
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
in southern NSW.
It is located between
Bermagui to the south and between
Tilba Tilba to the north,
situated beneath
Mount Gulaga
Gulaga, dual-named as Mount Dromedary and also referred to as Mount Gulaga, is mountain located in the south coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It rises above the village of Central Tilba and is within the Gulaga National Park. At it ...
, in the traditional lands of the
Yuin people
The Yuin nation, also spelt Djuwin, is a group of Australian Aboriginal peoples from the South Coast of New South Wales. All Yuin people share ancestors who spoke, as their first language, one or more of the Yuin language dialects. Sub-group ...
.
A large section of its foreshore and
catchment
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the ...
are within the
Gulaga National Park
Gulaga National Park is a national park on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Bermagui. The park is dominated by Gulaga, also known as Mount Gulaga (formerly Mount Dromedary). The former Wallaga Lake National Park, ...
,
since
Wallaga Lake National Park
Wallaga Lake National Park is a former national park in New South Wales, south-west of Sydney and north of Bermagui. It now forms part of a greater Gulaga National Park.
In 2001, as part of the Southern Comprehensive Regional Forest Agreemen ...
, Goura Nature Reserve, and
Mt Dromedary Flora Reserve were combined into the larger
national park
A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...
.
[PDF]
Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence. (se
here
) There is an island in the lake known as Merriman's Island, Merriman Island or Umbarra.
The
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
's surface area is , while its
catchment
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the ...
area spans , consisting mainly of Dignams Creek and Narira Creek and tributaries. While the lake itself and most of its
catchment
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the ...
fall within the Bega Valley Shire, the northern part of the catchment lies within
Eurobodalla Shire Council
Eurobodalla Shire is a local government area located in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The Shire is located in a largely mountainous coastal region and situated adjacent to the ''Tasman Sea'', the Princes Highway and t ...
. It is classified as an Intermittently Closed and Open Lake or Lagoon (ICOLL), because the entrance of the lake sometimes allows tidal exchange from the ocean, but at other times is closed off by a
sand bar at the beach.
[ It is a popular spot for ]recreational fishing
Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is professional fishing for profit; or subsistence fishing, which is fishing ...
, sailing, bushwalking
Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histo ...
and birdwatching
Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, b ...
.[
]
Aboriginal history and present significance
The Wallaga Lake Aboriginal Station or Wallaga Lake Station, was an Aboriginal reserve
An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...
near the lake, was established in 1891 by the Aborigines Protection Board of New South Wales (APB). It was categorised as an "Aboriginal station" or "managed reserve", which was a type of reserve established by the APB from 1883 onwards that was managed by APB-appointed officials. Education (in the form of preparation for the workforce), rations and housing were usually provided on these reserves, and station managers tightly controlled who could, and could not, live there.[ ]
Text may have been copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence. (Se
here
) The land on reserves called stations was often unproductive, or there was not enough labour, and therefore little chance for the reserve to become self-sustaining. The Superintendent of the Reserve was also the teacher at the Wallaga Lake Aboriginal School that was established in March 1887.[
The Aboriginal population of the Tathra area was removed to the an ]Aboriginal reserve
An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-sanctioned settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th c ...
near the lake after colonisation of the area in the early to mid 19th century, under the control of the Aborigines Protection Board of New South Wales (APB). A 1925 account of people on the reserve tells of much fishing activity by both men and women, wood carvings which are sold to passers-by, the skilled use of the gum leaf as a musical instrument, being employed to work in the maize fields, the bora ceremony and other lore.[Julie Dibden. Bega Valley Shire Council Various Works - Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment Report, 2017]
The lake is of significance to the Yuin people
The Yuin nation, also spelt Djuwin, is a group of Australian Aboriginal peoples from the South Coast of New South Wales. All Yuin people share ancestors who spoke, as their first language, one or more of the Yuin language dialects. Sub-group ...
, being home to the black duck, a totem
A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system.
While ''the wo ...
connected with the elder, Umbarra
Umbarra, or King Merriman (died 1904) was an elder of the Djirringanj/Yuin people of the Bermagui area on the South Coast of New South Wales.
Although Aboriginal people traditionally did not have kings or chiefs, only elders, the white colo ...
(aka "King Merriman", who died in 1904), who lived on Merriman's Island (aka Merriman Island and Umbarra) in the lake.[ In June 1978 ]Guboo Ted Thomas
Edwin "Guboo" Ted Thomas (29 January 1909 – 19 May 2002), a Yuin man, was a prominent Aboriginal leader. He toured Australia with a gumleaf orchestra during the Great Depression of the 1930s, played rugby league and became a respected elde ...
, a leader in the campaign for Indigenous land rights in Australia, wrote to then NSW Premier Neville Wran
Neville Kenneth Wran, (11 October 1926 – 20 April 2014) was an Australian politician who was the Premier of New South Wales from 1976 to 1986. He was the national president of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1980 to 1986 and chairman of ...
: "We, the Aboriginal people of Wallaga Lake and members of the Yuin tribe, do hereby place before you and the Government of New South Wales our claim for our Land Rights". In 2006, after a protracted battle for recognition of native title
Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...
, the lake was included in a handover of the Gulaga and Biamanga National Park
Biamanga National Park is a protected area in New South Wales, Australia, south of Sydney and north of Bega. The park forms part of the Ulladulla to Merimbula Important Bird Area because of its importance for swift parrots.
Its name derives ...
s to the Yuin people, to be jointly managed by the traditional owners
Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...
and the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is a directorate of the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment responsible for managing most of the protected areas in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Despite its name the ...
. The agreement was signed by then New South Wales Environment Minister Bob Debus
Robert John Debus (born 16 September 1943) is a former Australian politician who served as a member of the Australian House of Representatives and the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing the Labor Party. Debus has been a minist ...
and representatives for the Yuin people. The island is gazetted as an Aboriginal place
The ''National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974'' is the legislation passed by the New South Wales Parliament with the explicit intent of conserving the's natural and cultural heritage of the state of New South Wales; fostering public appreciation, u ...
and is not accessible to the public. Midden
A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...
s and other Aboriginal artefacts have been found around the lake.[
Under Commonwealth native title law, Aboriginal people are allowed to fish on the lake without a State Government permit, but in around 2015 the NSW Aboriginal Fishing Rights Group decided to negotiate a cultural fishing permit under the ''Fisheries Management Act 1994'' (NSW) in the spirit of collaboration with the ]Government of New South Wales
The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...
, and they have been working closely ever since. In April 2020, men from the Bermagui Wallaga Lake Djiringanj
The Djiringanj, also spelt Dyirringañ, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the southern coast of New South Wales. They are one of a larger group, known as the Yuin people, who all speak or spoke dialects of the Yuin–Kuric group of languages ...
men's group launched their new hand-built net fishing boat at the lake, thus reviving an old cultural tradition, thanks to a grant from the government. Young men from the community target species like flathead, bream
Bream ( ) are species of freshwater and marine fish belonging to a variety of genera including '' Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), '' Acanthopagrus'', ''Argyrops'', '' Blicca'', '' Brama'', '' Chilotilapia'', ''Etelis'', '' L ...
, and mullet, and hand over their catch to local elders. They see it as a way of helping people who live below the poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
, and suffer from poor nutrition, particularly lack of iodine
Iodine is a chemical element with the symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...
, and diseases such as heart disease
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...
and diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...
brought on partly by poor nutrition.
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallaga Lake
Lakes of New South Wales
Coastline of New South Wales