Above: Marbanu Uncle Bunna Lawrie, Senior Male Mirning Elder (right) and Wilderness Society South Australia Director, Peter Owen, watching sunrise at Moodyerra, Nullarbor Wilderness Protection Area.
Next year the Wilderness Society turns 50. As part of a special series of Journals celebrating this anniversary, we visit the Mirning, Custodians of land and sea Country for well over 50,000 years.
Over 50 years of campaigning for people and nature, the Wilderness Society has been privileged to learn from and work with First Nations people and to be invited onto Country.
Along the road friendships are forged. It's been an honour to have worked so closely with Senior Mirning Elder, Marbanu Uncle Bunna Lawrie. Wilderness Society South Australia has worked with the Yerkala Mirning Community to repeatedly knock out fossil fuel exploration and expansion from the waters of the Great Australian Bight, a sacred place for the Mirning and a nursery for the mighty southern right whale. The sacred caves of the Nullarbor and the waters of the Great Australian Bight remain under threat as we seek lasting World Heritage protection, as you'll read in South Australia Director Peter Owen's story in this issue.
As Wilderness Society turns a young fifty, we are tremendously grateful to learn from and work alongside people who have always been Custodians of Country—the oldest, continuous culture on Earth.
All photos and Mirning language with approval of the Mirning Elders.
Words by Wilderness Society South Australia Director Peter Owen.
Photography by Peter Owen and Rebecca Burnett.
“When our Country and all life and bush tucker continues to flourish from the work of the Elders’ custodianship in maintaining our ancestral coastal sea and land country—it's Yardiji.
"Yardiji means pristine, complete and beautiful, it will always continue to flourish and give back to us Mirning and all life that we share it with for all time.”
—Marbanu Uncle Bunna Lawrie, Senior Male Mirning Elder.
Since our last journey into Mirning Country, so much has happened. In order to protect South Australia's land and sea wilderness, giving native species their best chance of surviving climate change, we managed to secure many very significant policy commitments from the South Australian Labor Government prior to the last state election in March 2022.
SA Government 2022 Policy Promise to: “Support World Heritage protection for the Great Australian Bight.”
The Great Australian Bight and the adjacent coastline came under threat from fossil fuel exploration and drilling plans in the last decade. The Australian community strongly opposed these proposals and South Australian polling showed 84% of the community supported World Heritage protection, which became a 2022 election promise of the South Australian Government.
In collaboration, we prepared The Case for World Heritage Nomination of the Nullarbor and Great Australian Bight (2022). This identified Mirning culture and Country in South Australia as of outstanding value, and a globally significant case for a World Heritage listing.
“The Nullarbor and Great Australian Bight satisfy seven of the 10 criteria for Outstanding Universal Value, making the area one of the most diverse and valuable heritage properties in the world. Currently, there are only two properties on the World Heritage List that meet seven criteria—the Tasmanian Wilderness (Australia) and Mount Taishan (China). Satisfying seven World Heritage criteria makes the Nullarbor and Bight a truly extraordinary candidate for inscription on the List”.
Protection of the natural and cultural wonder that is the Nullarbor and Great Australian Bight is increasingly a matter of urgency.
In 2022, sacred art with over 30,000 years of history in Koonalda Cave, at the heart of Yerkala Mirning clan Country, was tragically desecrated. The significance of Koonalda is recognised globally and in Australia it is on the National Heritage list, though much needs to be done to reflect this at the Yerkala Mirning sacred site.
The World Heritage process must be accelerated so that crucial protection, policing and enforcement of the law at these vulnerable sites is enhanced. The Mirning must be supported in their on-Country ancestral role; fulfilling their responsibilities and duties in protecting and conserving their sacred sites for future generations. The Traditional Owner authority of the Mirning for ancestral coast and sea Country has been further acknowledged by findings in the Federal Court of Australia in April 2025.
Let Nullarbor be Nullarbor
After a very long day, we arrived at Yerlada, Fowlers Bay where the southern hairy nosed wombats came out to welcome us. Exhausted, the Elders, younger members of the Mirning community and the Wilderness Society team slept soundly before embarking on a journey deep into a living cultural landscape of the Yerkala Mirning clan. The great arc of coastal Country across the Ngargangurie, Nullarbor, and Billia Mocalba, Great Australian Bight, was our home until the full-moon-rise a week later, a Country that lives in the hearts of the Mirning community wherever they are.
Marbanu Uncle Bunna Lawrie (74) and Yagalu Aunty Dorcas Miller (86) are recognised as the most senior of all the Mirning People and, along with their Council of Elders, talk for Country and represent over 300 Mirning Traditional Owners and 200 Mirning children. Those with the authority to talk for Country are opposed to industrialisation of the Nullarbor and Great Australian Bight, as this breaks the traditional Mirning laws and customs of protecting Country for future generations.
The last Journal article in 2021 showed the pristine records of ancestors embodied in the art of the handprints. On returning, we made the crushing realisation that this has now been vandalised. The photograph above left shows some of the graffiti desecration at Murrawijinie caves.
Murrawijinie is the murra, hand, winnaitchi, sacred place with the handprints of the Elders’ ancestors recorded in ritual and ceremony on the walls. These secret ancient caves have been open to the public without the Elders’ permission and they have been in ongoing dialogue with the South Australian Government to have greater protection.
The photograph above right shows why the marrilya, kestrel protector birds for Murrawijinie, have been unable to lay eggs, as their nests have had stones stacked inside them. The Elders found this deeply disturbing.
The Nullarbor is a culturescape from sky to sea to land; above ground and below with a hidden world of caves that are nearly all pristine yet fragile due to their astonishing isolation for millions of years. These places have strong Mirning protocols that have been in place since time immemorial, protocols that have protected their unique species from cross contamination and human damage.
The Mirning protocols for behaviour on Country are in place with purpose, even if this is not apparent to the passing visitor. The cultural landscape can be subtle and unseen unless revealed through the stories shared by the Elders.
Evidence of stone arrangements having been taken apart and used for campfires or clearing paths have inadvertently damaged ancient songlines. The proliferation of vehicle tracks is doing irreparable damage to a timeless landscape that relies on a thin crust of soil and lichen to protect the ecosystem above and from water erosion into the cave systems below. The tracks from a car going off-road can take the delicate Earth crust decades to repair.
The experience of travelling across the Nullarbor is a journey that has become an Australian rite of passage; to experience the vastness of open space and the curve of the horizon. This is completely incongruous with recent industrial scale dumpsites of road aggregate interrupting the skyline along the Eyre Highway.
Arriving into Western Australia, it was clear that this is not a divided Mirning Country. This is the heartland of the Yerkala Mirning clan. Yerkala is the Mirning name for Venus, which became the name of the township Eucla. We were welcomed to be at home here with the Mirning Traditional Owners, who continue to care for their ancestral waterholes, guided by ancestral laws and customs that belong with this Country. There was a sense of who was welcoming us. The Elders present were not just Mirning Traditional Owners, they were the Senior Elders of the Mirning People, who carry the responsibilities and duties to care for Country. These were the Custodian Elders who talk with and for their Ancestors and Country.
Their distress was palpable over the proposed industrialisation of the Nullarbor in Western Australia. The contrast of these gentle, warm-hearted traditional leaders who care for Country and all the creatures who call this home, to the complete disconnect that industrialisation represents was both obvious and confronting.
The proposed Western Green Energy Hub project would be a massive industrial manufacture and export of ammonia. The project would damage beyond recognition this iconic vast wilderness, whose continuing integrity is reflected in the superlative natural and cultural values of World Heritage significance. The commercial proposal has a footprint across 15,000 square kilometres, which is something unheard of on pristine and globally significant land and sea. This is an area a quarter of the land-mass of Tasmania and would extend with port and infrastructure into the pristine waters of the Great Australian Bight.
On the return journey, upon entering the Nullarbor Wilderness Protection Area in South Australia, Marbanu Uncle Bunna Lawrie explained the meaning behind the Mirning word Yardiji:
“When our Country and all life and bush tucker continues to flourish from the work of the Elders’ custodianship in maintaining our ancestral coastal sea and land country—it's Yardiji.
"Yardiji means pristine, complete and beautiful, it will always continue to flourish and give back to us Mirning and all life that we share it with for all time.”
Yardiji is more than an idea; this is an obligation that the Custodian Elders personally carry to pass on something yardiji to future generations, as their ancestors have for countless generations before.
Yagalu Aunty Dorcas Miller stood proudly on her ancestral Country with four generations of her family. A powerful woman and matriarch. Born on Nullarbor in 1938, she has seen so much, carries immense knowledge and wisdom and embodies the Mirning way.
“Let Nullarbor be Nullarbor.”
— Yagalu Aunty Dorcas Miller, 86 years old and most Senior Female Mirning Elder and Custodian.
At Koonalda, the Elders explained that there is a cultural exclusion zone around the cave sinkhole that needs to be respected. They also wish for the rubbish surrounding the Koonalda Homestead to be removed and Mirning cultural signage to be included to inform and guide.
It reaffirmed my conviction that people should not be given access to sacred places, like Koonalda, unless invited and in the presence of the Custodian Elders. There is too much to inadvertently damage when we do not understand the significance and fragility.
Sitting with the Elders through sunset at their ancient womwoum, home overhang, reflecting a continuity scientifically dated to over 40,000 years, there was a calm. It was personally moving and I was clear how important it was that this area has been protected. I was struck by how critical it is to ensure as much of this area is protected as possible, particularly in the context of encroaching industrialisation. That protection works, was apparent; Country was alive and literally buzzing.
The Nullarbor Wilderness Protection Area was proclaimed in 2013 by the South Australian Parliament. This followed our campaign to protect the area that took nearly a decade. Today I still reflect on how important this outcome was, what a difference it has made and how the wider estate now needs this protection.
The presence of a mother dingo was indicative of the absence of the use of 1080 poison, which is still being dumped from planes over vast areas of Australia to kill “wild dogs” that science has shown are nearly all pure dingos. This is a chemical that was developed for chemical warfare in World War II and is banned in nearly every country apart from Australia and New Zealand. As one of the most poisonous substances causing horrific suffering before death, this has serious implications for the whole ecosystem and it is long past time this practice was stopped.
The Mirning Elders explained that, along with the whale, the thuthu, dingo is a totem of their Yerkala Mirning family and it was particularly auspicious to be joined by such a rare coloured dingo.
SA Government 2022 Policy Promise to “Manage dingoes in a manner that recognises the vital role of the dingo as a valuable apex predator in South Australia’s ecosystems”.
The water of the Billia Mocalba, Great Australian Bight is full of spiritual significance for the Yerkala Mirning. In the Dhoogoor, Dreaming, Jeedara, the great Creator being from the Yirrerie, Milky Way took the form of a white whale. Jeedara created Country with all the plants and creatures and from his love with Yargaryilya, the Seven Sisters, they gave birth to the Mirning people and their brothers and sisters the whales.
Today, the place of the Gadama, the southern right whale for the Yerkala Mirning people and Country is apparent and is home to the world’s most significant whale nursery and sanctuary. While still an endangered and recovering species, the global population is an estimated 13,600 southern right whales, a dramatic increase from less than 300 individuals in the World’s Oceans in the 1920s. It was touching to see this year’s young whale calves playing in the protected waters of the Bight, each whale recognisable by the individual markings.
A Poem From Miranungu
Approaching the cliffs
sensing, feeling
amazement
in the moment
time stands still
the love of a whale mother.
The coast and sea is also home to Balgada, the world’s most endangered sea lions who have their home in the Bight and are found nowhere else on Earth. Before the whales, it was the sea lions who were hunted to near extinction and are now recovering in numbers having recently been added to the endangered species list.
SA Government 2022 Policy Promise to “Explore establishing Whale Nursery Protection Areas where whales come close to shore with their young.” And to “ensure appropriate protections are in place for vulnerable populations of Australian Sea Lions.”
There is so much that is rare and vulnerable about Mirning Country and the species who call it home. From the tiny subterranean creatures who have inhabited the caves in isolation for millions of years to over 85% of species in the Bight being unique to these waters, a higher level of endemic species than found in the Great Barrier Reef. These numbers contribute to biodiversity globally.
As one of the most isolated peoples on Earth, bounded by arid lands to their north and west and ocean to their south, this abundance of uniqueness is also reflected in the Mirning People. While Mirning Country meets four potential criteria for becoming a World Heritage estate, it is Mirning culture that satisfies a further three criteria to make this one of the most globally complete and unique places in existence.
Protection works and this timeless Country needs World Heritage protection now.
Let’s create one of the most amazing conservation estates in the world!
—Peter Owen, July 2025.
We thank the Mirning for sharing their world with us. Watch the video below to see why the Nullarbor and Great Australian Bight needs to be declared a World Heritage Site.
Photographs from the 2016 protest outside of the BP office Melbourne. People demanded the company withdraw plans for oil drilling in the Bight. BP finally withdrew its application to drill in December 2016.
Photographs by Glenn Walker.
We recognise First Nations as the custodians of land and water across the continent of Australia and pay our respects to Elders past and present. We acknowledge sovereignty was never ceded.
