Dr Anna WONG
All over Australia, regional towns are ulitising their heritage to encourage tourism. This paper examines how a small historic outback town in north-west Queensland is promoting itself by highlighting the intangible heritage of its community.
Julia Creek is located in the McKinlay Shire, an area covering 41,000 acres. Located on top of the Great Artesian Basin, the area has developed through pastoralism and mining that began in the 1860s. In 2009, the McKinlay Shire Council opened 'At the Creek' - a visitor and interpretation centre aimed at promoting the pastoral and mining history and heritage of the area. Rather then creating a conventional museum that displayed material culture and signage, 'At the Creek' consists of multimedia displays of local voices telling stories and experiences about the three inter-related elements that make up Julia Creek - 'Country, Water, People'.
'At the Creek' was developed to enhance tourism, but it became a process of place-making and developing community identity. Through the use of oral histories, locals communicated what they considered to be the essence of their community and sense of attachment to the land. The conservation focus of pastoral and mining heritage is usually on material infrastructure, such as woolsheds, shearing sheds and mines. This paper emphasises the need to recognise the social significance of such landscapes, and how the personal connections individuals have with where they live, work and play underpin the heritage significance of a place.