Sunbury Bora rings tree planting day gives community chance to learn site’s history

A SACRED indigenous tribal ground in Sunbury is set for a rejuvenation.

Uncle Dave Wandin (fourth from left) and representatives discuss the restoration of the Sunbury Rings.

AN INDIGENOUS tribal ground in Sunbury that could be more than 1000 years old is set for a spruce up.

Known as the Bora rings, the site has previously been listed on the National Heritage Register and in 2012 ownership was transferred to the Wurundjeri Land Compensation and Cultural Heritage Council Inc (Wurundjeri Council).

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Since then, the Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC) has partnered with Hume Council on landcare projects.

Villawood Properties, the Port Philip and Western Port Catchment Management Authority and Salesian College are also working with the Wurundjeri Council and MCMC to reinvigorate the site of the hardened earth circles.

On Saturday, a tree planting will take place at the site, with the public invited to plant seedlings and learn more about the important site at the back of Salesian College.

Wurundjeri Council’s Uncle Dave Wandin said it would be the first of many opportunities for the public to get involved with the beautification of land by the mysterious circles.

“There is a lot more to Sunbury history than a cricket match and this site is something which is incredibly important although little known to Sunbury people and even little known by many of our people,” he said.

“We want to restore the immediate landscape to what we think it would have been pre-settlement and in doing so a place of pride for indigenous people.”

Mr Wandin said Wurundjeri people believed the three rings, close in proximity and between 10m and 25m in diameter, had ritual roles in male life, female life and possibly in marriage.

They were formed by scraping off grass and topsoil which was then piled in a circular ridge around the outside of the circles, he said.

They were first investigated and described in the early 1970s when archeologist Dr David Frankel undertook a test excavation on one of the rings to determine its origin.

“No one knows what role they played but there were definitely ceremonies and it’s likely different tribes converged and boomerangs, spears and clapsticks exchanged,” Mr Wandin said.

The planting is on Saturday from 10am to 12.30pm.

Details: 9380 8199 or email HERE