Contesting age. How old is old?

What constitutes age when science and culture meet?

OVER THE last seven years we have been referring to Munibung Hill as a reference point in determining age of the geographic area within which she is situated.

There is understandably a great love for Lake Macquarie as a water body with which many of us relate. Boating, skiing, kayaking, not so much body surfing, but certainly valued in real estate terms, with many houses being sold on the basis of featuring a lake view.

We acknowledge all of this as being relevant and the focus for many.  There are two ways to view the lake. One is literally as a view. The other is to view the lake as the most important feature within a total landscape context.

Lake Macquarie is a baby in geological time. Aboriginal people lived for thousands of years minus the lake as we know it today.  The low lying land contained perhaps a series of lagoons or swamps.  Working on a 65,000 year historical period, Lake Macquarie didn’t come into view until perhaps 27,000 years ago.  And she didn’t stabilise at the current water level until 6,000 years ago.

By comparison, Munibung Hill, known as Kona-konaba to Aboriginal people, had been around for eons prior to that.  She had been there since the beginning of time from their perspective.  Her elevated nature was considered of great importance. She was the site of significance within Aboriginal culture – as a Bora ground, a location for ochre, a site on which stone arrangements were constructed for numerous not clearly understood reasons, but to be respected regardless of this.

Would the age of plants provide some additional evidence that Munibung Hill is old? Ecologists have identified that there is a threatened Permian Gully Rainforest vegetation community in a creek catchment on the south end of Munibung Hill.

This dates her as ‘old’ in anybody’s language – many millions of years old.

We can quibble over age and become distracted from the main task at hand, which is to protect and conserve this place that is highly significant on many fronts.

MHCS has attempted to make a nuanced assessment of her age that goes beyond the literal pure science to be inclusive of the various positions people bring to the table of knowledge. With this in mind, we offer the following ‘story’ that we trust will clarify our (the MHCS) view and acknowledge that it can be helpful to appreciate the context within which each of us comes to construct our view of the world – in a world awash with contested and fake news. As a small not-for-profit community organisation we have no intention of entering in to these ‘views’.

Fergus Hancock, a Fluvial Geomorphologist, is President of MHCS. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Society. Navigating the narratives that are offered up to explain what is and what isn’t is part of his job. Fergus writes …

‘The entire eastern Australian coastline has altered many times since the end of the Permian Period 251 million years ago. Although the rocks that make up Munibung Hill are from the end of the Permian Period (say 256-251 MY BP), the folding and faulting that makes up the shape of the Lower Hunter occurred over many millions of years.’

‘The major features in our area, the Macquarie Syncline (a dip in the geological strata shaped like a reversed arch) that now forms Lake Macquarie seems very old. The ‘roll’ of the strata between what is now the coast and the syncline may be younger, maybe dating back to about 100 million years, back when a ~300km strip of coast broke away and ramped off to the east across what we now call the Tasman Sea.’

‘So, where does Munibung Hill fit in? I have no papers discussing the dates of the development of Munibung Hill. Whatever. We know Munibung Hill was prominent above paleo-Lake Macquarie (before the last glacial period 27-6 thousand years ago) and is prominent now. Awabakal people know that as well. Munibung Hill is truly ancient in human terms. Just what its relationship is to the age of the rocks that make it up is a question for another day.’

Lineage of the human species is minor by comparison, but we place great store is propping up every notion of protecting our place on the planet regardless of the short time we’ve been here and the consequences of our actions.

We only have to take roaming domestic cats to understand that people will go to extraordinary lengths to place their personal pet higher up the pecking order than any indigenous native animals. These first species are trying to eke out an existence in the face of increasing human encroachment on their homelands, on their rights to life, regardless of geological age contested or not.

Ecological justice is not easy when it comes up against modern human interpretations of a world created in the image of 21st century homo-sapiens.

Munibung Hill is old. Very old. Very, very old. A veteran.

The least we can do is respect the heritage we have been bequeathed. To acknowledge that today we walk where once they walked.

A landscape that can teach us much, should we take the time to listen, to observe, to reflect, to contemplate, to drill down into the depths of our being and approach this place with a sense of wonder and awe. Two things that are sadly in short supply in an age of self-indulgence, entitlement and privilege.  We’ll leave it at that.