Biamanga National Park

Biamanga National Park is a protected area in New South Wales, Australia,<ref name=ParkAreas/> Template:Cvt south of Sydney and Template:Cvt north of Bega. The park forms part of the Ulladulla to Merimbula Important Bird Area because of its importance for swift parrots.

Its name derives from Yuin elder Biamanga, aka "King Jack Mumbulla", after whom Mumbulla Mountain was also named. It is an important Aboriginal site for the Yuin people and a prominent landmark that can be seen from across the Bega Valley, also known as Biamanga. Proclaimed in 1994 and extended in 1997, the park covers Template:Cvt. It is seen by the traditional owners as "part of a single cultural landscape" with the Gulaga National Park, and also has cultural links to Umbarra (Merriman Island), Barunguba (Montague Island), and Dithol (Pigeon House Mountain).

In November 2021 Mumballa Mountain was ascribed the dual name of Biamanga.

Geology

The mountain is the remnants an ancient shield volcano, and granite rock formations and boulders are visible along the course of Mumbulla Creek.<ref name=nswparksmore/>

History

The park lies in the lands of one of the Yuin peoples, who have inhabited the area for thousands of years.<ref name=plan2014/>

20th century

Extensive logging was taking place in the area up until the 1970s,<ref name=plan2014/> and in 1967 some of the rock was blasted with dynamite in the interests of improving television reception, and a television transmitter tower for WIN-4 was built on the mountain.<ref name=hidden>Template:Cite web</ref> After concerns had been raised by local people, the NSW Government set up an advisory committee in 1977 to investigate the woodchipping industry<ref name=hidden/> and in the same year 1977 Guboo Ted Thomas, a Yuin elder, led a protest against the destruction of the forest on Mumbulla Mountain.<ref name=plan2014/> On 15 July 1980, the government of New South Wales declared an area of around Template:Cvt an "Aboriginal place" and a "Protected Archaeological Area" under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 (NSW).<ref name=plan2014/>

The park was proclaimed in 1994 and extended in 1997.<ref name=plan2014>Template:Cite book</ref>

21st century

Further protests against logging activities took place in 2010.<ref name=hidden/>

On 30 November 2021 Mumballa Mountain was ascribed the dual name of Biamanga.<ref name=renamensw>Template:Cite web File:CC-BY icon.svg Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.</ref>

Description

The park covers Template:Cvt. It is seen by the traditional owners as "part of a single cultural landscape" with the Gulaga National Park.<ref name=plan2014/>

Flora and fauna

There are monkey gums and ribbon gum along the creeks, and the park is home to chef's cap correa, an endangered species.<ref name=nswparksmore/>

The park forms part of the Ulladulla to Merimbula Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International because of its importance for swift parrots.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Azure kingfishers and superb fairywrens abound in the park.<ref name=picnic/>

Management

Biamanga has been jointly managed by the traditional owners and the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service NSW since 2006.<ref name=nswparksmore>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=sapphire/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The traditional custodians are represented by two Local Aboriginal Land Councils, the Merrimans and Bega LALCs,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which own the title to the land and lease it back to the government of New South Wales for use as a national park.<ref name=plan2014/>

Aboriginal significance and sites

The mountain and surrounds have important cultural links to Umbarra (Merriman Island), Barunguba (Montague Island), and Dithol (Pigeon House Mountain).<ref name=sapphire/> The mountain is of particular significance to the people of Wallaga Lake.<ref name=hidden/>

The park contains important Aboriginal sites,<ref name=picnic>Template:Cite web</ref> in particular Biamanga, also known as Mumbulla Mountain, which is part a large ceremonial and cultural track on the South Coast of New South Wales that includes other Aboriginal sacred sites of particular importance to the Yuin peoples.<ref name=sapphire>Template:Cite web</ref> The mountain was named after Yuin leader King Jack Mumbulla, aka Jack Mumbler, whose "tribal" name was Biamanga.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> King Jack would spend time communing with the ancestor spirits on the highest peak of the mountain and send smoke signals for his people to see. Initiation ceremonies were held by Yuin people at various spots on the mountain, with the last recorded one held there in 1918.<ref name=sapphire/> It has been described as a "men's law mountain".<ref name=plan2014/>

Independent evidence of the sacredness of the site was provided in 1964 by linguist Luise Hercus and by musician and linguist Janet Mathews, but only made publicly available in the late 1970s; as well as by notes made much earlier by Alfred William Howitt, an ethnologist who attended a Yuin initiation ceremony in 1883.<ref name=hidden/>

The Biamanga protest site is of additional significance both to Yuin and to all other Indigenous Australians, "as a representation of embodying the Australian Aboriginal campaign for land rights and Aboriginal self-determination.<ref name=hidden/>

See also

• Protected areas of New South Wales