Calls to protect northern Australia's ancient stone wall fish traps

September 12, 2024 12:19 AM

Calls to protect northern Australia's ancient stone wall fish traps from tourists, climate change. Traditional owners say World Heritage listing would help preserve Australia's largest archaeological site, an elaborate network of stone walls designed to trap fish at low tide in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (4 comments total)

federal Environment Department said it could only consider nominations for the national heritage list, and states were responsible for lodging World Heritage nominations.
national significance's a fine step, see

community nature of the endeavour was strengthened by the sheer magnitude of the common infrastructures...The Government of Canada recognizes the national historic significance of the Acadian aboiteau system [acadian.org]

although aboiteau mostly disappeared after removal of the Acadians (as Acadians'd befriended Wabanaki [wiki²], and were sent out like driftwood [the band] at the end of a war George Washington started [state]), these may remind one more of what was once [wickedlocal] in the quinobequin [charles river conservancy]
posted by HearHere at 3:51 AM on September 12 [1 favorite]

Hey Chariot, I just want to say that I always appreciate seeing your posts. MeFi is super US-centric, and it's nice seeing all of the Australia things that you bring us.
posted by gc at 4:57 AM on September 12 [2 favorites]

Seems like the kind of World Heritage designation that might preserve rather than destroy a traditional lifeway (cf Italy's Cinque Terre for an example of the latter).

The CW for "might contain images of people who have died" jumped out at me.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:37 AM on September 12

The CW for "might contain images of people who have died" jumped out at me

For a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, there are cultural restrictions/prohibitions on looking at images of people who have died.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 8:06 AM on September 12 [2 favorites]