WATERWAYS OF CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: BUTCHULLA PERSPECTIVES

Gathering stories and mapping cultural values for proactive water management across Butchulla Country

^{Photo by Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation}

^{Story created in collaboration with Butchulla Traditional Owners.}

K’gari is the world’s largest sand island and an area of remarkable natural beauty with several internationally significant natural features including evolving dunes, perch lakes, soil and forest systems. The island also plays host to a variety of plant communities ranging from coastal heath, mangrove forests and swamps to subtropical rainforests.

Butchulla Rangers and Elders on Country as part of their water monitoring and management work to map the cultural values of water on Butchulla Country. Photo by Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation (BAC).

The Butchulla people are the Traditional Owners of the World Heritage-listed K’gari (formerly Fraser Island) and parts of the Mary River Catchment southern Queensland, which has been identified as a significant source of sediment into the Great Barrier Reef.

Collecting fish samples in a perch lake on K’Gari. Photo by Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation (BAC).

This project came into being following the 2020 Duling (K’gari) bushfire, when Butchulla Traditional Owners were asked to provide advice regarding water extraction from perch lakes, application of salt water to put out fires on Country and potential impacts of taking water from the mainland. At the time, there was no information to support decision-making about these things, and Traditional Owners were concerned that emergency services personnel didn’t have information about their cultural heritage, including important sites to be protected.

Butchulla Rangers testing water samples as part of their work monitoring and managing cultural water values. Photo by Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation (BAC).

To increase understanding, monitor and manage cultural water values across Butchulla Country, Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation (BAC) is undertaking a story gathering, cultural mapping, and cultural value management project across the waters of Butchulla Country. Information collected in the past is being collated with new information from Elders and members of the Butchulla Working Group through knowledge sharing and documenting activities. This information is stored in a secure but accessible way, that protects Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property (ICIP) so Butchulla knowledge can be used to inform management of Butchulla waters both on the mainland and K’gari.

Butchulla Project Team — The project is being run in partnership with Butchulla Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (BNTAC), Everick Foundation, and University of the Sunshine Coast (USC). Photo by Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation (BAC).

A web-based mapping system has been produced to make the information accessible, and a Butchulla Water Stories Management Plan was created which identifies actions for the next four years, focusing on priorities sites and gathering information where knowledge has been lost. The information gathered has informed a water extraction decision-support tool to guide emergency services on how to protect Butchulla values while supporting bushfire response on K’gari.

Overall, the project is enabling the planning and knowledge gathering necessary to effectively develop engagement, preservation, protection and sharing of Butchulla cultural values to care for K’gari and mainland Country into the future.

Find out more about the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation and the great work they’re doing on Country. Learn more by watching the Butchulla Water Series videos:

What Does Healthy Water Mean to You? – The Butchulla Water Series

What’s Made the Butchulla Water Stories Project so Special?

The Butchulla Water Stories Project