In September 2017, a group of ANTaR ACT supporters joined Rich Allan from Traditional Owners (www.traditional-owners.com.au) to tour sites around Gunghalin.
We started near the town centre to see a ring tree, where people had manipulated the trees when small to create a unique tree that would have been a marker in the area.
We then moved to Gubur Dhaura, the ochre grounds on a Gunghalin hilltop, where artworks tell the story of the significance of this area. http://www.canberratracks.act.gov.au/heritage-trails/track-5-gungahlin/gubur-dhaura
In Crace, we saw two more trees, one of which was a water tree – a ring tree that had been created to hold water – and the other a scar tree.
We then went to an area where, in the middle of a suburb, stone tools had been created and could still be found.
We saw a canoe tree, where (again, now between suburban houses), was a magnificent tree with a huge scar showing where bark had been removed to create a canoe.
Finally, we finished in Forde, learning about the songlines of the area and sharing in lunch of kangaroo cooked in traditional ways.
A fascinating morning, and well recommended to learn much about the lives of the Ngunnawal people who lived in Canberra for so many thousands of years.