Biocultural GIS mapping: A Living Country and Terra Nullius, Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area (WLRWHA), NSW

Abstract

There are current pervasive European biases into GIS land suitability models. Research into the areas described as suitable for land use and occupancy need to incorporate multiple perspectives of what makes a land use patch useful or salient ecologically. The effect of Terra Nullius is deeply apparent in the current GIS models of historical land use and occupancy of Aboriginal communities within arid zones in Australia. Biocultural zones of land use and occupancy are omitted and overlooked due to European bias of what a suitable ecological or hydrological land use zone should look like. Pastoral settlement in the 19thc and now, with the subsequent acts of landscape change through developing wells, chaining trees, building fences, and running sheep all damaged a living Country. This article employs Exploratory GIS methods to interrogate the data layers within the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area, NSW, Australia. This work conclusively demonstrates that there are ranges of areas and land suitability zones prior to colonisation in the 19thc. In turn, these Exploratory GIS models of a Living Country comprehensively address the question of why visually salient areas of hydrological and ecological Indigenous land use and occupancy continue to be ignored, destroyed, and damaged by settlements in semi-arid regions. Biocultural GIS mapping unpacks the myth that areas were empty or uninhabited by Aboriginal communities.