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Brewarrina Fish Traps (Baiame's Ngunnhu)

A half-kilometre network of Aboriginal dry-stone walls and holding ponds in the Barwon River at Brewarrina, built to herd and catch fish at both high and low water. In Aboriginal tradition the creator Baiame designed the traps by casting his net over the river. The Ngemba people are the custodians, and Baiame's law shared the use of the traps with neighbouring peoples.

Dated events and their evidence

• 38,000 BCE disputed
  Claimed age of over 40,000 years, quoted by the local shire; the stone walls have no direct date source
• 13,000 BCE disputed
  15,000-9,000 years ago: first period of low river flow in which the traps could have been built (hydrological inference, not a direct date) source
• 1848 CE mainstream
  First European written reference to the traps, by W. C. Mayne source
• 1971 CE mainstream
  Brewarrina Weir opens and destroys the upstream part of the trap complex source
• 2000 CE mainstream
  Listed on the NSW State Heritage Register (SHR 01413) source
• 2005 CE mainstream
  Added to the Australian National Heritage List on 3 June 2005 source

Where

29.9585° S, 146.8556° E

Sources

• https://brewarrina.nsw.gov.au/first-nations/
• https://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=105778
• https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5051305

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