Aboriginal Australian TraditionsSacred Site
Baiame's Ngunnhu (Brewarrina Fish Traps)
Stone fish traps in the Barwon River at Brewarrina, New South Wales, whose design the ancestral creation being Baiame revealed; National Heritage listed in 2005 and cared for by the Ngemba people and their neighbours.
About Baiame's Ngunnhu (Brewarrina Fish Traps)
A system of stone
Baiame's Ngunnhu is a network of dry-stone walls and pens across the Barwon River at Brewarrina, in north-western New South Wales. The design guided fish, especially during spring migrations, into pens where they could be caught, and resisted both floods and low water. It is among the largest and most complex Aboriginal fish-trap systems known.
Story and law
According to the Ngemba people and their neighbours, as recorded in the National Heritage listing, the ancestral creation being Baiame revealed the design by throwing his net over the river, built the traps with his two sons, and allocated them to family groups who were responsible for their use and maintenance. Neighbouring peoples gathered here for ceremony and trade.
Heritage and care
The traps were damaged after colonisation, and a weir later built across the river altered its flow and buried part of them. They were added to the National Heritage List in 2005. The Brewarrina Aboriginal community continues to care for the traps, and the site is visited through local Aboriginal-led cultural tourism. The coordinates given here are approximate.
On the map
Baiame's Ngunnhu (Brewarrina Fish Traps) among other places of the Aboriginal Australian Traditions.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Australian Government, National Heritage List: Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps (Baiame's Ngunnhu)
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.