The conservation of rock-art at Gariwerd: a response to recreational impacts

Abstract

The rock-art¹ at Gariwerd (Grampians National Park) is the most significant in Victoria and presents over 90% of the State’s known rock-art Places. Growing recreational use of the national park over the last 50 years has been threatening the safety of the rock-art, among other significant Aboriginal cultural places, with Traditional Owners concerned for the future of their valuable and irreplaceable cultural heritage. Recent closures of special protection areas throughout Gariwerd have allowed conservation professionals to take stock of the damage and assess the level of work required to conserve and rehabilitate some of the significantly impacted rock-art locations throughout the national park. While the rock-climbing community are concerned for the future of their recreational ‘heritage’, the future of Gariwerd rock-art grows increasingly uncertain. This paper examines the issues raised by the history of conservation at Gariwerd to identify if and how conservation of the rock-art at Gariwerd can be achieved. This paper discusses how ongoing closures to recreational activity may be the only solution to protect the significant cultural assets located throughout the Gariwerd landscape.

Keywords:

• Rock-art
• conservation
• Gariwerd
• Indigenous
• Australian

Disclosure statement

A note on employment

The author of this paper would like to make it clear that she is an employee of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Aboriginal Victoria, Heritage Services Branch. The opportunity to undertake fieldwork that has been discussed in this paper was provided to her as an Aboriginal Victoria employee. This paper presents only the views of the author and not as an employee of Aboriginal Victoria.

Author biographie

Lucy Welsh is an archaeologist with over seven years’ experience working in the private and public Victorian Aboriginal cultural heritage sector. Lucy’s primary focus in her career has been Traditional Owner engagement, and the management and protection of Aboriginal Cultural heritage across the state. Lucy has an honours degree in Aboriginal Studies, Geography and Environmental Science from Monash University and wrote her honours thesis on the use of gender as an interpretive framework in the study of rock-art motifs. Lucy‘s recent work has included the recording and protection of new rock-art sites in Gariwerd and has contributed to their inclusion on the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register.

Notes

1 The hyphenated use of ‘rock-art’ is used as a preference to the unhyphenated ‘rock art’ throughout this paper, as it responds to Taçon & Chippindale’s (2004, p. 6) analysis of the term. The term is used as a form of portmanteau, to encompass the various forms that rock-art may take, without diminishing the nature of any one of those forms.