Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue

Statement of Significance

Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue, a former red ochre mine site that includes an Aboriginal artefact scatter, rock shelters, caches and an ochre mine, as well as later (1944+) artefacts associated with commercial ochre mining, including survey markers (undated), mine shafts, and introduced plants has cultural heritage significance. the place demonstrates two distinct cultural layers, the original Aboriginal occupation and mining and the later 20th century non-indigenous mining, both activities exceptionally rare examples of co-located mining activities; the place has been a site of the mining and trade of red ochre by Aboriginal people for ceremonial use for thousands of years, with the ochre traded across the state and beyond; as a ritually 'open' site, the place has significant potential to improve understanding of Aboriginal life in the Weld Ranges region prior to colonisation and into the 20th century, the site demonstrating food processing, tool manufacture and mining techniques. the place is a significant part of the Aboriginal story of how the Weld Ranges came to the be formed, the wounded Marlu Dreaming ancestor lying down and bleeding at Little Wilgie before dying at Wilgie Mia, creating the red ochre at these sites from its blood; and, the place demonstrates the legal controls over Aboriginal people and places by the State government, with commercial activity at the site either encouraged or restricted depending on the views of the day.

Physical Description

Original use as an Aboriginal red orche mine by the Wajarri Aboriginal group. The site continues to be visited and monitored by the Wajarri Traditional Owners. The site comprises a red ochre deposit, which has now been subsumed by a crater caused by mine blasting post 1944. On the south siode of the crater, two European era mine shafts are extant with wooden and metal support structures. At the base of a nearby ridge European and Wajarri campsites are present. Around this area is a stone artefact scatter and scatters of European era artefacts such as bottles, wood and metal objects.

History

Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue is a mining and activity area where natural seams of red ochre have been mined by Aboriginal people for use in trade and traditional Aboriginal ceremony and later by 20th century non-indigenous miners. The development of the place is associated with the traditional Aboriginal lifestyles, spiritual beliefs and cultural connections with the land, as well as later post-colonial relationships with Aboriginal people and the expansion of a commercial mining economy in the area. It is unknown exactly when Aboriginal groups arrived in the Mid West region of Western Australia, however excavations of Yalibirri Mindi Rock shelter at the Weld Ranges indicates on ongoing physical and cultural presence stretching back at least 30,000 years. The Aboriginal people of this region are currently known as the Wajarri Yamatji. A particular cultural feature of the Wajarri people has been the trade of red ochre mined in the Weld Ranges, particularly from the nearby Wilgie Mia and Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue. Despite the similarities of the mineral resource, both the historical and modern accounts note that the Wajarri consider the two sites to be quite different. Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue was an open access site for men, women and children, whilst access to Wilgie Mia was restricted to initiated men of a certain status and responsibility. Studies of the early trade networks between Aboriginal tribal groups in Western Australia suggest that red ochre from Wilgie Mia, and possibly Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue, travelled great distances across the state prior to and after the period of early contact between European settlers and Aboriginal people in Australia. The Weld Range was so named during a survey undertaken by Government geologist H Brown in 1871. By the late 1870s, thousands of acres in this area had been claimed as pastoral leases. As early as 1893, Wilgie Mia Aboriginal Ochre Mine was also recognised by geologists and others as an ore resource of impressive size and quality, as well as a site of great antiquity. Commissioner of Native Affairs, A. O. Neville, considered that the two mines should remain the property of the Aboriginal people. Rather than allowing mining to be undertaken in the vicinity of either Wilgie Mia or Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue, 10,500 acres of the land surrounding the red ochre deposits was gazetted in 1917 as an Aboriginal reserve under the Lands Act 1898. However commercial removal of ochre from Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue began in 1944. This change is reflected on a broader scale by the shift of government views from a segregationist attitude to one based on the assimilation of Aboriginal people. But it was also likely a financial response to the post-war economy. For a period of approximately thirty years, red pigment was mined from Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue for local, Eastern states and international markets. In 1978, it was estimated 9,131 tonnes had been extracted from Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue over the course of commercial mining at the site. The original Little Wilgie cave was described in historical sources as a cavity approximately seven feet long and four feet wide, extending five feet in depth. There is now no evidence of this cavity. Throughout the commercial mining of Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue, Weld Range Traditional Owners continued to remove red ochre from the place in conjunction with Wilgie Mia for use in Law, ceremony, healing and art, and that use has continued to the present. Ochre is no longer removed from Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue by the Weld Range Traditional Owners. Little Wilgie Ochre Mine, Cue was registered under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 in 2020.

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