Authors: Rosemary Kerr and Sue Rosen, Historians; Heather Burke, Historical Archaeologist; Anthony English, Archaeologist; and Joanne Erskine, Anthropologist
Client: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
This Cultural Heritage Assessment of the Torrington State Recreation Area was commissioned to inform the preparation of a Plan of Management for the State Recreation Area.
The project was undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team which included an anthropologist, archaeologists, and historians. The Aboriginal heritage study was a collaborative effort between the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and local Aboriginal people in Glen Innes, Tenterfield and Guyra. Glen Innes District staff and Karen Moorhouse, Aboriginal Sites Officer, Northern Cultural Heritage Unit (Glen Innes) played an important role in project management, fieldwork and planning of the Aboriginal Heritage component.
This final report integrates the documentary history prepared in March, 1998 by Rosemary Kerr and Sue Rosen (Sue Rosen & Associates, Historians), Torrington State Recreation Area, Draft Land Use and Social History, and the findings of Anthony English (NPWS Archaeologist), Joanna Erskine (NPWS Anthropologist) and Heather Burke (Historical Archaeologist) who undertook fieldwork. The findings of the team members, excepting the draft history, have also been published in separate reports as follows: Anthony English, Archaeological Survey for Aboriginal Sites, Torrington State Recreation Area, Northern New South Wales,July, 1998; Joanna Erskine, Draft Torrington Anthropological Report, November, 1998; Heather Burke, An Historical Archaeological Assessment of the Torrington State Recreation Area, Volumes One and Two, July, 1998.
This Assessment aims to place the findings in the various reports within a historical framework, demonstrating the interaction between historic events, past land uses, processes and cultural interactions with regard to physical evidence remaining within the SRA and contemporary social value placed upon the area by various groups.