Baiame's Ngunnhu: The Brewarrina Fish Traps

Whose story this is

Baiame's Ngunnhu are the stone fish traps in the Barwon River at Brewarrina, in north-western New South Wales. The Ngemba (Ngiyampaa) people are their custodians, and they shared use of the traps with neighbouring peoples, including, as the National Heritage listing records, the Morowari, Paarkinji, Weilwan, Barabinja, Ualarai, and Kamilaroi. The story summarised here is the one recorded in that listing, prepared with the Aboriginal community, and told publicly by Brewarrina's Aboriginal people. It is not a complete account of Baiame, who is associated with other stories and with restricted ceremonies not described here.

The net over the river

According to Aboriginal tradition, the ancestral creation being Baiame revealed the design of the traps by throwing his net over the river. The pattern of the net, laid across the water, became the plan of the traps: a network of dry-stone walls and pens across the riverbed. Baiame and his two sons, Booma-ooma-nowi and Ghinda-inda-mui, then built the traps to that design.

Responsibility for the traps

Baiame did not simply make the traps and leave. He allocated particular traps to each family group and made them responsible for their use and maintenance. The traps were therefore a system of law as well as a structure: who could fish where, who was responsible for repairing which walls, and how the catch was shared. Neighbouring peoples were invited to Brewarrina for gatherings, ceremonies, and trade, especially when the fish were running.

How the traps work

The design of rock weirs and pens allowed large numbers of fish to be guided and caught, particularly during their spring migrations, and it withstood both floods and low water. The traps show a detailed understanding of river flow and fish behaviour, and they are among the largest and most complex Aboriginal fish traps known. Their age is not known with certainty; the story places their origin in Baiame's time, and archaeologists regard them as very old.

Damage and recognition

After colonisation, the traps were damaged: stones were removed for building, and a weir later built across the river altered the flow and buried part of the system. In 2005 the Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps were added to Australia's National Heritage List, recognising both the traps and the Baiame story. Local Aboriginal people continue to care for the traps and to lead work on their future.

What the story teaches

The story of Baiame's Ngunnhu joins technology, law, and sharing. The traps are a gift that comes with duties: each family's responsibility for its part of the system, and a sharing of the river's abundance with neighbours. That combination of practical knowledge and law is characteristic of how many Aboriginal stories connect people to Country.