Turning an old rail trail into a path to understanding culture and Country

Giving steam to the idea 

Several years ago, the Tumbarumba local council met about converting an old rail trail through Ngarigo Country. This gave the Ngarigo Elders a chance to propose something they’d been thinking of for a while: a Ngarigo Culture Reserve.

‘A couple of the members, including Aunty Sandra and Uncle John Casey, went to our local council with a group called Tracks and Trails and gave them a proposal for the culture reserve. They examined our proposal and then voted it the number one proposal in Tumbarumba, so that was how we started the journey’, Uncle Craig Wilesmith, a Ngarigo Elder and long-time Tumbarumba resident tells us. 

The corporation gets underway

With funding and donations from local businesses and organisations like Snowy Hydro, Hyne Timber, and Bald Hill Quarries, the Ngarigo Culture Reserve got off the ground. The Ngarigo Toomaroombah Kunama Namadgi Indigenous Corporation generates funding for the reserve, located on the culturally significant site of the Five Ways.  

‘It's actually the junction of 5 Songlines. In early November every year the different mobs would all meet at this area. They've been meeting there for 60,000 years so we found the perfect site,’ Uncle Craig explains.  

Uncle Craig is a Board member with the corporation. In one of the Ngarigo dialects, its name means:

• Tumbarumba (Toomaroombah)
• Kosciusko (Kunama)
• big snow (Namadgi). 

‘Everyone used to meet there and have corroborees, dance and swap knowledge and stories. They used to walk across to Yellowin Bay which is where the Tumut River and Yellowin Creek meet. They would have a corroboree there for a week and bring the boys to men in that area and after that, they would go up [to the top of the mountain] chasing the bogong moth.’ 

Fitting with the corporation’s mission to maintain and nurture culture, the reserve has a bora circle (initiation site) and a healing circle. A scar tree and a rock monument mark the land where a message tree once stood.  

A great wooden long-necked turtle acts as a sentinel, guarding this sacred place and representing one of the favourite food delicacies of the area. The sculpture, carved by Ngarigo man, Justin McClelland, looks over busloads of school children and other groups who visit the reserve to learn about Ngarigo culture and history.  

‘It's really about advancing the cultural aspects,’ says Uncle Craig. ‘We're on a journey and we want everyone else to come along with us and enjoy it.’  

Community comes aboard

Some of the largest employers and businesses in the area are also making sure their contribution to sharing cultural knowledge is more than just a financial one.  

Snowy Hydro reached out in an effort to learn more about local Ngarigo culture and to improve the cultural awareness of its employees. ‘We do regular Zoom meetings to talk about culture with Snowy Hydro and the recording goes out to all their staff,’ Uncle Craig explains.  

Local businesses have come on board to donate valuable time and manpower as well as materials, like timber and gravel, for the reserve site. ‘The local businesses are on board, and they'll be happy to continue to help because it's not just for us it's for everybody. It's a community project’.  

As well as the generous support of local businesses in the area, Uncle Craig adds, ‘The community acknowledgement in town here has been wonderful. People’s attitudes have changed. We haven't heard any negative stuff or any negative stereotypes about what we’re doing’.

Making tracks with a new funding model

The corporation raises funds by holding cultural sessions in schools and daycares, giving local children experiences, such as throwing a spear or boomerang, or playing the didgeridoo. They stay extremely busy performing Welcome to Country ceremonies, doing cultural awareness sessions and designing and printing T-shirts to sell in the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centres in Jindabyne and Cooma.

‘The funds we raise get donated back to the corporation to keep the wheels turning,’ says Uncle Craig. ‘This year has been our biggest year as far as money goes. It’s good because that means we're getting stronger and better. We’ve got everybody pushing in the same direction and understanding that there's no “I” in mob.’

There are now plans to further enhance the Ngarigo Culture Reserve with facilities to encourage the people who visit to spend some time there. Uncle Craig explains, ‘We've just laid the slab for a BBQ area, so there’ll be a BBQ, a toilet, and a bike track coming off the rail trail. We've had meetings with the Hume and Hovell Walking Track committee, so we're going to put a link from the walking track down to the reserve as well.’

Uncle Craig and his fellow directors are proud of what they’ve been able to achieve in a short amount of time. They plan to keep finding innovative ways to make sure the corporation can fulfil its purpose and stay financially viable.  

‘For example, Hyne Timber have come on board to sponsor us every year, not just as a one off,’ says Uncle Craig. ‘But that BBQ that's going in at the reserve is a coin operated barbie, so that'll pay for the gas.’

Eyes trained on the future

The corporation is achieving its aim of nurturing and growing Ngarigo culture as it continues to expand its experiences and offerings. With more being added to the rail trail and walking tracks in the near future, locals and tourists will have more opportunities to learn about culture and Country.