Indigenous Cultural Heritage Database

The TORG have been working with Reef Catchments and Terra Rosa to compile an Indigenous Cultural Heritage Database (ICHD). This database will include information on significant Aboriginal Heritage places. Significance of Aboriginal heritage places will be sensitive to the recent Indigenous history of the region, and take into consideration of the continued contribution that Aboriginal sites can have for contemporary Indigenous cultural identity and sense of place.

Geographical locations (zones) were shortlisted, three of which were visited during the 2016 fieldwork. These different zone divisions are due to, and influenced by, environmental features, previous archaeological research, contemporary land use and the sense of connectedness and ethnographic interrelation of places. The five zones are:

1. St Helens Beach;
2. Hook Island, Whitsunday Island and South Molle Island;
3. Cape Hillsborough including Andrews Point, Wedge island, Finlayson Point and Haliday Bay;
4. Cape Palmerstone; and
5. The Mackay Region.

During the 2016 cultural heritage health assessment of the Mackay-Whitsunday region, a total of 21 sites were recorded across three zones. Sites or points of interests identified within the five zones located through: targeted surveys focussed on the previously recorded sites identified by the desktop research; broader surveys focussed on identifying previously unidentified sites; and visits to locations of interest identified by the TORG representatives. Any obvious management issues were recoreded and 11 monitoring stations were established across 9 areas of assessment. These monitoring stations allow for the capture of panoramic imagery which is one of a number of effective ways of assess the physical health of each site over time, and which allows for visual record of the place to be created.

Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property will be collected and protected through the development of the ICHD for the Mackay-Whitsunday region. This intellectual property will be controlled by the TORG and shared with appropriate project partners.