Nuntin Grinding Stones Find a New Home on Brayakaulung Country

There is a new place to witness and learn about the lives of our old people on Country, thanks to a special partnership between GLaWAC and Southern Rural Water. 

All the way back in March of 2021, GLaWAC Cultural Heritage Site Monitors Dillon and Malcolm Siely uncovered what they later learned to be large grinding stones along Norden’s Lane outside Maffra, on Brayakaulung Country. 

Dillon and Malcolm had been doing a cultural survey in the area before a trench was dug through there to make way for a water pipeline, part of Southern Rural Water’s big upgrade of the irrigation system. 

Under the Aboriginal Heritage Act of 2006, cultural surveys like this must be done whenever there is to be any kind of digging or high impact activity in an area of cultural heritage sensitivity. 

The stones, which had several very distinct grinding grooves and bowls, had been covered by soil movement over the years, and had even been clipped by a farmer’s plough.   

In times past our old people sat here beside this sandstone outcrop above the Avon River flats. 

On the grinding stone they would have shaped and sharpened hand tools and milled seeds, creating those grooves and depressions over many generations. 

Perhaps they were on their way to the meeting place we now know as the Knob Reserve, for an important gathering or ceremony with other clan groups. 

Once Uncle Russell Mullett, who was GLaWAC’s Cultural Heritage Manager at the time, was able to identify what had been found, the conversation quickly turned to how the grinding stones could be kept on Country and protected, while still allowing for the pipeline project to continue. 

Uncle Russell had a yarn with Southern Rural Water, which generously agreed to fund the creation of a new home for the grinding stones at Glenmaggie Weir Reserve, a short drive down the road.

Uncle Russell said this week that grinding stones like this are found only in this part of Victoria.

“These are ‘wullung’ – rock,” he said. “Not any sort of rock, this particular stone is sandstone.”

“The old people knew the geology – they knew about the strengths and weaknesses of rocks.”

The stones are being referred to as the Nuntin Grinding Stones, recognising the area between Maffra and Stratford in which they were found.

Uncle Dougie Hood and our Business Enterprise Services team have designed a display enclosure for the stones, plus an amazing seat close by featuring a lyrebird, a wren, and the male and female shields of the Brayakaulung clan. 

In October last year, the stones were installed at the Glenmaggie Weir Reserve under the guidance of Uncle Russell and GLaWAC’s Rob Hudson. 

There they now rest, not only protected but also made available to the public as another opportunity to learn about and celebrate the culture and customs of our Ancestors. 

We’re currently in the process of creating some interpretive signage for the site, too. 

This is just one example of the work that GLaWAC does to protect and preserve the culture heritage of Gunaikurnai people and Country. 

To learn more, visit https://gunaikurnai.org/our-culture/