[1] While the rivers acted as important travel and trade routes, each tribe had a clearly defined territory, the boundaries of which were commonly marked by prominent physical features.

Prior to European disturbance, both banks of the river at the fish traps were lined by almost continuous middens with an accumulation of shells and other objects more than a metre deep.

Many Aboriginal people believe that the fish traps were designed and created by Baiame, a great ancestral being who is respected by numerous cultural groups in western NSW, including the Ngemba Wayilwan, Morowari.

[1] The story of Baiame as creator of the fish traps was reported by Kathleen Langloh Parker in her 1905 book, The Euahlayi Tribe: 'Byamee is the originator of things less archaic and important than totemism.

It is said to have been made by Byamee and his gigantic sons, just as later Greece attributed the walls of Tiryns to the Cyclops, or as Glasgow Cathedral has been explained in legend as the work of the Picts.

Others include the stories of the kurrea serpent living in Boobera Lagoon on the Barwon River, the great warrior Toolalla, an eminent man called Yooneeara, and Mullian, the eagle, at nearby Cuddie Springs.

[8][1] The linkages between landscape features through long-distance creation stories means that many of them, including the fish traps, are important to Aboriginal people from distant places, as well as local communities.

[20][1] The rock bar across the Barwon River at the fish traps quickly became a common watering and camping place for teamsters and drovers moving mobs of cattle.

Randell, in an 1861 report on his pioneering trip, had noted that: His suggestion was acted upon and rocks that formed parts of the fish traps were removed to create a passage for steamers and barges.

But with the arrival of Sergeant Steele in 1878, Aboriginal people were forced to camp away from the town on the northern bank of the Barwon River adjacent to the fish traps.

[24][1] Despite this segregation and the forced abandonment of their cultural traditions, a report in the Sydney Mail in 1888 claimed that: "The blacks still adhere to their old habit of frequenting the Fisheries at proper seasons, when they rejoice in high living, coupled with corroborees".

[28][1] During the early years of the 20th century, the fish traps continued to receive some use and parts of the system were kept in repair by the small community of Ngemba Wayilwan and Morowari people living at the mission.

[30] During the 1920s and 1930s, many people were brought to the Brewarrina mission from places such as Tibooburra, Angledool, Goodooga, Culgoa, Collarenebri and Walgett as Aboriginal settlements in those towns were closed down.

[33] A single Aboriginal man, Cassidy Samuels, protested against the construction of the weir, chaining himself to the safety nets erected at the site during blasting works.

More of the contemporary stone wall structures may be the result of building work reportedly undertaken in recent years by children and adults wishing to privately reconstruct the fish traps.

Beyond its role as a tourism drawcard, the fish traps are also viewed by Aboriginal people as a teaching place, one that can contribute to cultural renewal, understanding and tolerance.

[35][1] The Brewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Museum has been constructed on the south bank of the river near the fish traps, a free-form curvilinear building consisting of a series of earth-covered domes that represent traditional shelters or gunyas.

[1] The Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps, also known as Baiame's Ngunnhu, consists of a series of dry-stone weirs and ponds arranged in the form of a stone net across the Barwon River in north west NSW.

Extensive areas within the bioregion have been cleared and the combination of droughts, overstocking of properties, the spread of weed species and changes to fire regimes have contributed to widespread land degradation.

[39] Light grey clay stained with the yellows and reds of iron oxide extends as a low cliff along the southern bank of the river downstream of the fish traps.

Key water quality problems in the river include contamination with agricultural pesticides, high concentrations of nutrients and salt, the large quantity of suspended sediments present and the occurrence of algal blooms.

Apart from the direct physical damage to the upstream set-of fish traps, construction of the weir has altered the flow of the river and the natural processes of sediment erosion, transportation and deposition.

Despite this, surveys of the Barwon Four Aboriginal Reserve have revealed 250 archaeological sites including burial grounds, open campsites, scarred trees and middens.

The first of these surveys revealed that there were significant distortions in the plan of the fisheries prepared by Mullen in 1906, due to him apparently drawing in details of the walls and traps by eye.

[1] The traditional Aboriginal fish traps at Brewarrina, also known as Baiame's Ngunnhu [pronounced By-ah-mee's noon-oo], comprises a nearly half-kilometre long complex of dry-stone walls and holding ponds within the Barwon River in north west NSW.

It is said that Baiame instructed these responsibilities to be shared with other traditional owner groups who periodically gathered in large numbers at the fish traps for subsistence, cultural and spiritual reasons.

The creation of the fish traps, and the laws governing their use, helped shape the spiritual, political, social, ceremonial and trade relationships between Aboriginal groups from across the greater landscape.

The stone-walled pens, designed to withstand the high water flows of the Barwon River, are tear-drop shaped with the convex wall facing upstream.

While the Ngemba people are the custodians of the fish traps, it is understood to have been Baiame's wish that other tribes in the region, including the Morowari, Paarkinji, Weilwan, Barabinja, Ualarai and Kamilaroi should use it in an organised way.

[1] Aside from the obvious Aboriginal significance, the Fisheries are built on a bedrock outcrop which is a rare geological exposure along the Darling River system which reveals evidence of past landscape history.