Securing water entitlements is critical for the spiritual, cultural, social, environmental and economic benefit of Indigenous nations. A number of projects are currently underway to build the evidence base. The National Cultural Flows Research Project is a groundbreaking piece of research that is driven by Aboriginal people, for Aboriginal people. Through a combination of modelling and watering trials at two case study sites in the Murray-Darling Basin, the project will develop transparent and replicable ways to identify and quantify Aboriginal water requirements, and build a rigorous evidence base to enable Aboriginal water allocations to be embedded into Australia’s water planning and management regimes. One example of restoration of culturally significant water management is Lake Condah & the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape.
Lake Condah is at the heart of Gunditjmara country along the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape. The lake and its water has been managed by Gunditjmara clans and people for the past 8,000 years to support traditional aquaculture systems along the Budj Bim (Mt Eccles & Tyrendarra) lava flows and wetlands. The lake was drained in 1954 as part of the state drainage program along with the Condah and Louth swamplands.
Following installation of Kerrup Jmara Weir in 2010, lake now has more permanent water through seasons to support natural, cultural, social and economic aspirations of Gunditjmara and broader communities in far southwest of Victoria. A world heritage nomination for Lake Condah and Budj Bim Cultural Landscape has been made by Victorian Government to Australia Government for consideration towards a formal UNESCO World Heritage nomination.
The Gunditjmara are drawing on their 8,000 year history of drought mitigation, traditional engineering, dispossession, colonisation and restoration along with broader community to face challenge of climate change in 21st century and how water will be managed at Lake Condah and Budj Bim Cultural Landscape.