Framlingham: Mission, Forest and River

Framlingham is located on the Hopkins River. If you choose a travel destination partly for its history and cultural landscape, the town offers several distinct points of reference: the site of the Framlingham Aboriginal Mission, the Framlingham Forest Indigenous Protected Area and the river. Together, they broaden the picture of Framlingham beyond its riverside setting: Aboriginal cultural heritage and the protection of a significant forest are also defining themes.

Mission and cultural heritage

The site of the Framlingham Aboriginal Mission contains potential archaeological remains. The surviving church, cemetery and trees are also significant. The site is of historical, scientific, archaeological and social significance. This classification connects potential archaeological traces with surviving features and social contexts; it makes the mission more than a consideration of individual buildings.

The land between Framlingham and Purnim was the site of an Aboriginal mission station from 1865 to 1889. These dates place the mission station in a clearly defined period of the 19th century. A municipal heritage study from 2006 lists the Framlingham Mission Cemetery as a place of Aboriginal cultural significance. The study also identifies Framlingham Mission Church and the eel traps in the Hopkins River at Framlingham as places of potential Aboriginal cultural significance.

Framlingham Forest and the Hopkins River

Framlingham Forest is an Indigenous Protected Area. The Framlingham Forest Indigenous Protected Area includes one of the larger remaining native forests in south-west Victoria. The forest is of spiritual, social, historical, cultural and economic significance to the Kirrae Whurrong community, as well as local and other Aboriginal people. Protected-area status and cultural significance address different questions: one describes protection, while the others describe the diverse relationships between the forest and communities. The mission site points to potential archaeological traces and surviving features; for the forest, the focus is on its protected status and significance to several communities.

Framlingham is located on the Hopkins River, and the river at Framlingham contains eel traps of potential Aboriginal cultural significance. Framlingham rangers clean traditional Gunditjmara and Kirrae Whurrong eel traps in the Hopkins River. A fishing spot on the Hopkins River is also located in Framlingham. These connections differ: the eel traps are associated with cultural significance, their cleaning is a ranger practice, and the fishing spot marks a distinct connection to the use of the river.

The mission station belongs to a clearly dated period, from 1865 to 1889; cleaning traditional eel traps is part of a living cultural landscape practice. This distinction connects a historical point of reference with a practice that forms part of the cultural relationship between the river and communities.

Discover more destinations: Warrnambool, Arthurs Creek, Mccrae, Heywood, Kangaroo Flat, Talbot, Moolap, Loch

For the broader travel overview: Victoria.