Even now, their connection and cultural and spiritual responsibilities to Country continues. These responsibilities and care run parallel to the story of the railway line, and their custodianship and jurisdiction has never been relinquished.

The Taungurung people would have fished the deep holes of the Mollison Creek and hunted kangaroo and possum and gathered food sources such as Mirniong (Yam daisy), Bracken fern, Tree fern, Cherry Ballart and Kangaroo apple. High Camp is a day’s walk from Wil-im-ee Moor-ring (Mount William), one of south-eastern Australia’s most significant greenstone quarries, where axe heads carrying symbolic, cosmological and social roles were traded as far away as North Queensland. High Camp may well have sat on a busy trading route long before the coming of European settlement and the building of the railway.

High Camp is also a day’s walk from the Waring (Goulburn River) and its floodplains. The river is a longstanding traditional corridor linking upland and lowland zones for seasonal movement, food resources and inter-group interaction. For Taungurung, Waring was not just a physical river but a major organising axis of Country — ecologically, socially, and spiritually. The High Camp landscape likely sat within broader movement and exchange networks that linked quarry specialists, riverine communities, and other parts of Taungurung Country

When Europeans first settled the region in the early 1800s, the area was already occupied by the Taungurung people. From that time, life for Taungurung people in Central Victoria changed dramatically and was severely disrupted by the early establishment and expansion of European settlement. Traditional society broke down with the first settler’s arrival and soon after, Aboriginal mortality rates soared as a result of conflict, introduced diseases, denial of access to traditional foods and medicines.”

Since the start of the railway line, the High Camp Railway station has been an important point of trade, with agricultural goods, building materials and other goods travelling in and out, along with passengerswe know that trade, travel, agricultural activities, and care for Country, along with cultural and social responsibilities, were key parts of life for Taungurung people — and remain so today. There are registered cultural heritage places quite close to High Camp.

“Taungurung Country carries memories of sorrow and of strength. Healing begins when we listen to our Ancestors, our Elders and our Country with respect, patience, humility, and responsibility.”

Aunty Loraine Padgham