Lake Tyers Heritage Note

							V I C TO RIA’S
       H ERITAGE
LOVELY LAKE TYERS – LAKES ENTRANCE
By Mary Ryllis Clark, Discover Historic Victoria, 1996


‘In all my wanderings far and near
in search of the picturesque, I have
seen nothing of the kind more
lovely than Lake Tyers.’ So wrote
the nineteenth-century travel writer
‘Vagabond’ of Lake Tyers in the
Australasian in 1886. But the
loveliness of the lake is not
immediately accessible; Lake
Tyers holds itself surprisingly aloof.

The only way to reach the lake
other than by boat is through a
thick forest of Gippsland grey box,
red ironbark, blue gum and
mountain grey gum. The main
artery, Burnt Bridge Road, was
originally a fire track and does not     The Parsonage and Church at Lake Tyers. Taken from the 1880s Album,
actually lead to the lake. However, Courtesy of the DSE.
if you turn off the Princes Highway                          Charles Tyers, Commissioner of Crown Land
down Pile Bay Road to Long Point, you get a                  for Gipps Land in the 1840s.
tantalising glimpse between the trees of dark,
still water. There may be pelicans or wild                   The scientific explanation for the formation of
ducks floating silently, occasionally diving                 the lake is compatible with the story of
down in search of snacks.                                    Narkabungdha, but less colourful. According to
                                                             geologists, Lake Tyers, like Sydney Harbour,
Further down Burnt Bridge Road, Black-fellow                 is a buried river created in the last ice age
Arm Track leads to a more expansive view of                  about 10 000 years ago. As ice caps and
the lake and the beginning of Lonely Bay                     glaciers melted and flowed to the sea, the river
Walk, a two-hour walking track through a patch               disappeared under the rising water and a lake
of delightful warm-temperate rainforest. Here                was created. Gradually great sand dunes
at last visitors encounter the spirit of                     formed cutting the lake off from the sea. The
Narkabungdha.                                                edges of the newly formed lake followed the
                                                             curves of the hillsides creating wavy fingers of
In the Dreamtime Narkabungdha, the Sea,                      land that protruded into the water.
was tired from playing with fish, rushing over
rocks and rolling backwards and forwards on                  The largest protrusion is the peninsula that
the sand. He searched the coast until he found               forms the Aboriginal reserve in the heart of the
a quiet place with tall, shady gum trees and                 Lake Tyers Forest Park. Striking views of the
soft earth. Here he wriggled about and made                  partially cleared peninsula and of its historic
himself comfortable before going to sleep.                   buildings clustered around the pretty 1878
Where the Gunai people of East Gippsland                     timber church, can be glimpsed from the shore
say Narkabungdha still rests among the trees                 of the lake in some parts, and of course from
they call Bung Yarnda or Big Waters. The                     the water. However, the reserve itself may not
Europeans renamed it Lake Tyers after


                            For more information call the Parks Vi ctoria Information Centre
                            on 13 1963 or visit our website at w w w.parkw eb.vic.gov.au
V I C TO RIA’S
       H ERITAGE
be visited without the permission of the Bung                         When Bulmer saw the lake, he agreed with the
Yarnda community, whose home it is.                                   Gunai: ‘It was isolated and far from any
                                                                      goldfield; there was abundance for the people,
The story behind the reserve is a complicated                         fish in the lake and kangaroo and other
and often sad one. The Aboriginal people of                           animals in the bush - I at once chose the site’.
the area were known as the Gunai, or Kurnai.                          Another advantage of Bung Yarnda was that it
They were divided into five clans, each                               had always been neutral territory for the
speaking a different dialect comprehensible to                        Gunai, who would have been unwilling to cross
each other but not to outsiders.                                      tribal boundaries.

In 1838, the year in which Angus McMillan                             John Bulmer and his wife lived in a relationship
became the first European to travel overland to                       of mutual respect and affection with the Gunai
the area that became known as Gippsland,                              community at the Mission Reserve, which
there were over 2000 Gunai. In 1858 there                             combined farming occupations and traditional
were eighty. One man who devoted his life to                          Aboriginal activities, such as hunting and
redressing this wrong was John Bulmer.                                fishing. The community was often desperately
                                                                      short of funds, and time and again Bulmer
                                                                      subsidised the Reserve from his own pocket.

                                                                      A change of Victorian government policy in
                                                                      1886 brought more hardship. Those described
                                                                      as ‘half-castes’ were to be excluded from
                                                                      reserves to encourage their assimilation into
                                                                      white society. But this only served to break up
                                                                      family groups and caused great distress. In
                                                                      1909 the Victorian reserves were taken over
                                                                      by the Central Board for the Protection of
                                                                      Aborigines and ‘half-castes’ were allowed to
                                                                      live there and to receive welfare assistance.
Rev. John Bulmer looking towards the Mission Station from
Dang-a-Dove. Taken from the 1880s Album, Courtesy of DSE.             Until the board was abolished in 1957, it
                                                                      pursued a goal of closing all the reserves in
Bulmer emigrated to Melbourne in 1852 and                             Victoria other than Lake Tyers and
spent some time on the goldfields, where he                           concentrating the remaining inhabitants at
was shocked by the living conditions of the                           Lake Tyers. Many Aborigines resisted this
Aborigines. In 1855 he offered his services to                        move. Some of the older people, like those at
the Church of England and was sent to help                            Coranderrk at Healesville, refused to leave
Thomas Hill Goodwin set up a Mission Station                          their homes, while the younger ones often
at Yelta on the Murray.                                               preferred independence to the institution-like
                                                                      atmosphere of Lake Tyers where, under some
In 1860 Bulmer and the Reverend Frederick                             managers, breaking rules could mean
Hagenauer were asked to set up two                                    expulsion or loss of wages or rations.
Aboriginal Missions in Gippsland. Hagenauer
went south and established Ramahyuck near                             In 1971 the ‘unconditional deeds to 4000 acres
Stratford, while Bulmer made his way east to                          comprising what is presently known as the
John McLeod’s Buchan Station. William                                 Lake Tyers Aboriginal Reserve’ were handed
Thomas, the Protector of Aborigines, had                              to the ninety-two adults and children then living
chosen a site for the Mission at a place called                       there. This was one of the first granting of land
Yellow Water Hole; however, the local Gunai                           rights in Australia and a new beginning for the
told Bulmer they preferred Bung Yarnda.                               Bung Yarnda community, which today is

                         For more information call the Parks Vi ctoria Information Centre
                         on 13 1963 or visit our website at w w w.parkw eb.vic.gov.au
V I C TO RIA’S
       H ERITAGE
working towards self-sufficiency and economic
independence.


GETTING THERE
Lake Tyers Forest Park is 333 kilometres east
of Melbourne via the Princes Highway and
only a short distance from Lakes Entrance.
Stop at the information shelter at the junction
of the Princes Highway and Petersons Road to
find out about forest tracks, the history of the
Reserve and where to find picnic places and
toilets.

There are picnic facilities as well as camping
sites on the far side of the park beyond Nowa
Nowa, off Lake Tyers House Road, and
another lovely picnic ground at Pettmans
Beach off Lake Tyers House Road.

The Lake Tyers Aboriginal Reserve is the
private property of the Lake Tyers Aboriginal
Trust and not open to the public. The story of
Narkabungdha is told in the Bataluk Cultural
Trail brochure, which gives details of
Aboriginal sites in East Gippsland.




                    For more information call the Parks Vi ctoria Information Centre
                    on 13 1963 or visit our website at w w w.parkw eb.vic.gov.au