Jean RICE
Yanga is near Balranald on the east side of the Murrumbidgee River close to the junction with the Murray and is part of the Lowbidgee Floodplain. In 2005 65,000 acres including ecologically important wetlands became a National Park after 160 years of pastoral settlement and millennia of Aboriginal occupation.
In flood times water flowed out into the low lying areas behind the riverbank filling lakes and wetlands supporting water birds and rich ecosystems.
In 1846 Robinson described and mapped Aboriginal occupation and the river. Explorers passed through and left descriptions. Surveyors produced maps.
Squatters followed and by 1845 runs were stocked with sheep and cattle and there was intense conflict between the squatters and selectors.
The consolidated leasehold property was over 300,000 acres in 1857.
By the 1880s Yanga was freehold and was developed with headstations and outstations including the iconic droplog homestead on Yanga Lake and the woolshed on the river.
From 1900 dams, irrigation and hydropower developments upstream reduced river flow into the great Cambung Wetlands in the Lowbidgee.
At Yanga levees, regulators, weirs and escapes were built to control the flow of water to grow feed and for agriculture. Lakes dried and filled over the decades, supporting commercial fishing at Yanga Lake in the late 20th Century.
Yanga Pty Ltd took over the pastoral station in 1919. It was run from the homestead by resident managers and local staff.
By the late 20th Century sheep/wool production was declining and Yanga Pty Ltd was farming river redgums for timber production ? irrigating the ?black country? to increase their extent. Below Yanga Lake, ?red country? was irrigated for cropping, but the lake dried up in 2000.
Financial decline and family changes resulted in the property being offered to NPWS and purchased. There was community concern but NPWS retained key local station staff whose intimate knowledge was important for management.
NPWS valued the wetland ecology and river redgums but also the pastoral history ? the purchase included house contents such as the ?Yanga? embossed cutlery and the station records.
Many scientific studies are now underway. Irrigation structures are being repaired and replaced to manage the wetlands. The homestead, woolshed and historic structures have had initial assessments and some stabilisation. Some areas were opened to the public in 2009.
A multi-disciplinary consultant team is now preparing a CMP that will be completed by the conference. The challenge is to take a truly cultural landscape approach that balances the overt physical manifestations of the pastoral history, the social values, the archaeological resource and the natural systems.