Please be aware that this site contains the names and images of deceased people as well as the images of skeletal remains. We strive to treat Indigenous culture and beliefs with respect.
This website has been created to teach Year 7 students about Australia's Deep Time through the study of the Rock Flat Creek case near Bunyan, Cooma, NSW.
In 1991, following flooding in the area around Cooma, the remains of two skeletons were unearthed. It was quickly found that these burials were not recent and were in fact thousands of years old.
Through the cooperation of local land holders and authorities, archaeologists, and the indigenous community, much has been discovered about the nature of these burials.
Yet there are many unanswered questions!
Why were they in the area? Who were they?
How did they live? What was the purpose of the grave goods?
And so many more...
About
Use this website to deepen your understanding of traditional ways of life in the Monaro and to help you investigate the interesting case study of the Rock Flat Creek burials.
The burials are important on account of the goods buried and what they can tell us of peoples’ lives in the past. To find such a necklace, we are tempted to think of the woman as a ‘shaman’ or ‘clever person’ [See Witter et al. 1993). All her possessions, even such expensive and important ones as the necklace, might have been buried with her because of their inherent danger to the living, in a religious or magical sense.
Colin Pardoe, Physical Anthropologist
Every single artefact that we find adds to [the] picture. It reminds us the material of the culture of the past is really important... as is the [need to] care for Aboriginal heritage in this country.
Professor Amy Roberts
