Long before there was ever a pool or a chairlift there, the Gorge was a place where the first peoples of Tasmania would meet.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
With geology dating back millions of years, and tens of thousands of years of aboriginal history in the area, the Gorge holds many stories.
Aboriginal Elder Patsy Cameron this month received the Order of Australia for service to Indigenous Tasmanians. Her connection to the Gorge goes “way back”.
She said stories are “vital” to indigenous people and culture, and the Gorge has a rich well of stories.
“We tell them in dance and song and artistic expression or impression ... the people who told some of these very old stories, they came from an oral speaking tradition, everything had to be done from memory,” she said.
“Stories included understanding how the landscape tells us our story, the old people didn’t have a calendar or a mobile phone so they had markers in the landscape that would tell the story or speak to us.
“When we say country speaks to us, we mean that certain trees tell us that mutton birds are coming back from their migration, or certain plants that flower tell us that snakes are coming out of their hibernation, the faces of the moon tell us when we’re gong to meet somewhere at a certain place, for instance here at the Gorge to dance and conduct ceremonies and exchange information.
It was really important that stories be told and translated so that we knew who we are, where we’re from and how we're going to continue our cultural practices.
- Patsy Cameron
“It was really important that stories be told and translated so that we knew who we are, where we’re from and how we're going to continue our cultural practices.”
Cameron holds regular walks through the Gorge for the public, to share these stories and indigenous culture.
“I try to incorporate the spirituality, the geology, the history, the ancient connections to this place,” she said.
Much of Cameron’s knowledge comes from meticulous research, drawn from journals and recordings of early European settlers.
Looking out across the First Basin, the plunging bush and dolerite boulders carved in two by the flowing waters of the river, Cameron shares the story of a leader from the Ben Lomond country.
The man, who Cameron believes was Walter George Arthur, was brought to the first basin in 1847, and the moment is recorded by reverend and co-founder of The Examiner John West.
This leader was one of 15 men incarcerated at Wybalenna on Flinders Island, and the story takes place just before they were taken to Oyster Cove where they were forced to take up residency.
“This leader asked to come here, to this very spot … [he] danced on the rocks where the river finds its tranquility, which is the First Basin,” Cameron said.
“Of course this is before this development that we see today, so it was just a very rocky space and obviously was very important.
“John West described it as, ‘Gypsies on the business of Egypt would pitch their tents’ … he’s telling us that this is where Aboriginal people would come and live in their huts and carry out what he called ‘the business of Egypt’, which can be all sorts of things, like trade, exchange of knowledge, ceremonies, having their babies, doing all sorts of things in this very spot.
“His dance was so incredible, John West said he jumped from rock to rock but I imagine that it was a dance, he was dancing his story.”
With the leader was a twelve year old boy, who had also been exiled at Wybalenna, Cameron said he was overwhelmed by the display.
“He hadn't seen such an amazing display of emotion in a dance, he would have seen dance on Flinders Island because they did dance, but nothing like this,” she said.
“John West’s paragraph ends that ‘The woods were silent, he heard no voice save his own and he returned pensively with his young companion’.
“It’s telling me that John West ... knew this man was calling out to the people that he was seeking out, the spirits and the people and of course there was no one left here at the time, they were all about to be taken to Oyster Cove.
“That tells me that this place was a place where people lived, gathered, conducted ceremony, they probably came from all over, the North East and Ben Lomond and the Northern nations and the Launceston area and gathered here and carried out remarkable ceremonies and activities.”
For Aboriginal people, the land is alive and recognised as kin, Cameron said.
“Most Aboriginal people in Tasmania have a very emotional link with their country, not all get the opportunity to go out and walk country and experience country,” she said.
“When they do [get to experience country] it does make you feel very special and it is very rewarding to be able to take our children out and teach them … it’s really our school, a type of learning experience on country.”
Where some might look at the Gorge and see static bush, Cameron said for indigenous Tasmanians country us a living entity.
Walking around the Gorge, Cameron sees a land that can provide, for those that know where and how to look.
The bush provides food from plants, leaves, fruits and grubs.
“You’ve just got to know how to identify these pants for a start, which plants are edible and which aren't,” she said.
“There are wild cranberry here in the Gorge which you can gather, but you've got to know where they are … the cranberries don't just hang off the tree they're sort of under the plants and you've got to lift up the prickly little plants, so you have to understand not only which plant is which but where the fruits are.”
Cameron points out branches that you can chew to relieve thirst (apparently it tastes similar to lemonade), plants that can be used in salads or roasted and roots you can clean and chew.
“The nuts of the Sheoak you can boil up for 10 or 15 minutes and then dip them in honey and chew on them,” she said.
“There’s this belief that Aboriginal people just hunted kangaroos and possums for meat, for protein, but there’s so much more of the story, the fruits and the medicines.”
Cameron encourages people to take the time to see the wood for the trees, to experience another way of seeing the land.
“The Gorge is just such an amazing cultural, spiritual, historical, geological space,” she said.
“It's an amazing place to talk about these two creation beings who travelled from the stars, across the Milky Way and came down here, made all the mountains and cut the rivers with their stone tools and made the plants and the animals and the people out of the ground.”