Eugene von Guérard, Junction of the Buchan and Snowy rivers, Gippsland, Victoria (1867), colour lithograph. One Tree Hill 1 is located at the top of the mountain at the far left of this scene. Balley Hooley 1 is the extending river flat at the very junction of the two rivers at right mid-scene.
Emerging Researchers are Exploring New Ways of Seeing GunaiKurnai Country
Over the past year, the Australian Research Council Linkage Project, Before and After the Last Ice Age: GunaiKurnai archaeology along the Snowy River, coordinated by the GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (led by Uncle Russell Mullett) and Monash University (led by Professor Bruno David), undertook a series of archaeological excavations in the Buchan region of East Gippsland, Victoria. Excavations were conducted at Waribruk, Balley Hooley site 1, and One Tree Hill site 1, with a collaborative team including researchers from France, New Zealand, and universities across Australia. This work is uncovering rich evidence of human occupation and cultural heritage stretching back tens of thousands of years.
Honours student, Kealey Ratzmann, and three new PhD students, Dylan Jenkin, Georgia Carra, and Hugh Cowie, have joined the project, highlighting the two-way learning and capacity-building that occurs on-Country, connecting university research with local cultural knowledge.
Together, they demonstrate how combining archaeology, historical records, and Indigenous perspectives can create new ways of seeing the past, revealing the richness and continuity of GunaiKurnai Country.
GunaiKurnai Honours student Kealey Ratzmann has been actively assisting with the excavations of a deep limestoe cave at Waribruk. Excavations have reached deposits dating back 18,000 years, with even deeper materials awaiting further investigation. Extinct fauna, including Tasmanian Tiger and Tasmanian Devil remains, have been recovered, with some now sent for ancient DNA analysis.
PhD student Dylan Jenkin has reviewed the ethnohistoric literature of GunaiKurnai Country, including the 19th-century unpublished fieldnotes of Alfred Howitt, to understand how animals are considered in GunaiKurnai cultural practice. He has combined this historical information with contemporary GunaiKurnai knowledge to write a paper on how archaeology can examine faunal remains as more than by-products of subsistence, considering the totemic landscape and the broader social dimensions of people–animal relationships.
At Balley Hooley, PhD student Georgia Carra is uncovering a long history of occupation at a site now used as a public campground. Her research shows that this river junction has been a place of gathering and activity for at least 5,000 years, linking present-day landscapes with deep ancestral histories.
PhD student Hugh Cowie is exploring the historical artwork Junction of the Buchan and Snowy Rivers, created in 1867 by artist Eugene von Guérard. The colour lithograph (right) depicts the landscape where the Buchan and Snowy Rivers meet in East Gippsland.
Several archaeological sites investigated through the project, including Balley Hooley and One Tree Hill, are located within the artwork. Excavations at these sites are revealing evidence of long-term GunaiKurnai occupation and activity in this area.
Through this approach, Hugh Cowie brings together art, archival and oral history, archaeology, and GunaiKurnai cultural knowledge. The result is a richer understanding of the landscape shown in von Guérard’s 1867 image: not simply a drawn landscape, but a living place connected to generations of GunaiKurnai people.
Together, their work highlights the importance of supporting projects that enable intergenerational and cross-cultural collaboration, where university-based scientific research and on-Country Indigenous perspectives enrich each other towards complimentary knowledge, reflecting RAA’s commitment to fund projects that support the next generation of investigators.
GunaiKurnai Honours student Kealey Ratzmann and Bruno David excavating at Waribruk, October 2025 (photo courtesy of the GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation).
PhD student Tom Dooley excavating at Waribruk, October 2025 (photo by Bruno David courtesy of the GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation).
Eugene von Guérard, Junction of the Buchan and Snowy rivers, Gippsland, Victoria (1867), colour lithograph. One Tree Hill 1 is located at the top of the mountain at the far left of this scene. Balley Hooley 1 is the extending river flat at the very junction of the two rivers at right mid-scene.
