Yea Wetlands

Four Franklin family descendants join the Corroboree
Herb Paton thrilled the large crowd with his gumleaf playing talents	This young descendant of John Franklin proudly shows off his face painting.

An estimated 300 people joined in the Womindjeka (Welcome) Day fun and activities celebrating our magnificent natural environment and indigenous culture at the Yea Wetlands on Saturday 4th October.

The Yea Wetlands Committee put together a full program of entertainment, fun educational activities and demonstrations of Aboriginal art, craft and dancing that commenced in High Street at the monthly Street Market before progressing to the Police Paddock and culminating with a free evening barbeque, damper and billy tea, campfire sing-a-long and Aboriginal Corroboree in the John Cummins Reserve.

Uncle Wally’s Dance group prepare for the Corroboree

This year’s campfire corroboree led by Uncle Wally’s Dance group featured 4 young descendants of John Franklin, a member of the Taungurung Clan who used to live in this area. Bernadette Franklin, a Member of the Committee who played a large role in the event’s organisation, was absolutely thrilled to see the Aboriginal traditions being learnt and handed down through the generations. 

Popular new attractions this year included hands-on demonstrations of reptile and Frog handling by Snake Busters, amazing Gumleaf playing by Uncle Herb Paton (of Australia’s Got Talent fame), an environmental treasure hunt for the kids and adults, and horse drawn wagon rides between the town and the beautiful wetlands.

The trigger for this unique celebration was the 2006 United Nations Association of Australia World Environment Day Award presented to the Yea Wetlands Committee in recognition of the enormous amount of volunteer community work they and the Yea community through a.  This small, energetic Committee has since refined and grown Womindjeka Day into a regional event.

Uncle Roy drew and donated this bark painting to the Committee

Ben Hardman, Member for Seymour attended the celebrations and officially opened the $95,0000 Stage 2 Infrastructure Project just completed by the Committee – improvement works made possible over a 2 year period by a $65,000 Grant from the State Government. This brings the amount of improvements undertaken in the Yea Wetlands to a total of some $600,000 – much of which has been volunteer effort.

This years Womindjeka Day was made possible when the Committee was successful applying for a grant through the Australian Government’s EnviroFund.