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Farm Ridge tree.jpg - Farm Ridge/Bogong. The base photograph for this image was recorded along the now-overgrown Farm Ridge Fire Trail, at the top of a climb up from the Tumut River and several kilometres north of the ruins of the Farm Ridge Hut. It looks south along the ridge towards Mt Jagungal and the Main Range in the far distance.The Aboriginal visitors to this area (which appears to have never had year-round residents) used different names to denote a place, according to their language group, clan membership, level of initiation into sacred knowledge - and even the season. ‘Jagungal’, the name now applied to the largest mountain of the area, is only one of the names transcribed by early European visitors, who also recorded the name as ‘Targil’, ‘Teangal’, ‘Jar-gan-gil’, ‘Corunal’ and ‘Coruncal’. It is no longer possible to know whether the current ‘official’ name ‘Jagungal’ would have been understood by the original inhabitants.It is certain, however, that ‘Bogong’ was widely used to indicate the places where Bogong moths could be found during the summer months, the high country places with granite boulders that were destinations for seasonal migration and feasting. Jagungal was referred to as ‘The Big Bogong’, so as to distinguish it from other destinations such as those now known as ‘Dicky Cooper Bogong’, ‘Paddy Rush’s Bogong’ and ‘Grey Mare Bogong’.The ‘Bogong’ name referred not only to the peak, but also to the surrounding region. The name identified not just a place - but the function and value of the place as well i.e. as country where Bogong moths may be had.The European pastoralists who commenced their own seasonal visits to the region in the around the mid-19th century demanded a more precise and detailed set of names for the topographic features and localities of the area, and set about putting their own names onto the landscape. For them, this naming of places was connected with the assertion of ownership. If I know names for all the places in a region, especially if I have named them myself, then my claim to a legitimate and proprietorial relationship with the place is strengthened. Like the original inhabitants, the mountain stockmen frequently adopted place names referring to some story associated with the place (e.g. ‘Pugilistic Creek’, after two stockmen who rolled into the creek during a fight) or to the function or value of the area. ‘Farm Ridge’, which runs north from near the foot of Mt Jagungal along the Tumut River, is a name which clearly denotes the area as a place for white Australian agriculture - and no longer as a place for feasting on the Bogong moth. (Though, interestingly, the mountain stockmen who visited and worked in this area up until about 60 years ago still referred to Jagungal as “The Big Bogong”.In Farm Ridge/Bogong, I have tried to juxtapose these two opposing visions of the mountain scene. The ‘Bogong’ name is embedded in the landscape (through thousands of years of use). The ‘Farm Ridge’ name is just tacked on, suspended from a tree branch, in a more fragile way, reflecting a shallower connection to the land. Perhaps the country ‘knows itself’ as Bogong, but has not (yet?) come to identify itself as Farm Ridge.What’s interesting to me is that neither name now reflects the actual current human use of the land. No-one comes to harvest the summer Bogong moths any more, and summer grazing of stock in this region, now designated as the ‘Jagungal Wilderness’ within the Kosciuszko National Park, ceased decades ago. But the Bogong moths still come every summer.

Farm Ridge/Bogong. The base photograph for this image was recorded along the now-overgrown Farm Ridge Fire Trail, at the top of a climb up from the Tumut River and several kilometres north of the ruins of the Farm Ridge Hut. It looks south along the ridge towards Mt Jagungal and the Main Range in the far distance. The Aboriginal visitors to this area (which appears to have never had year-round residents) used different names to denote a place, according to their language group, clan membership, level of initiation into sacred knowledge - and even the season. ‘Jagungal’, the name now applied to the largest mountain of the area, is only one of the names transcribed by early European visitors, who also recorded the name as ‘Targil’, ‘Teangal’, ‘Jar-gan-gil’, ‘Corunal’ and ‘Coruncal’. It is no longer possible to know whether the current ‘official’ name ‘Jagungal’ would have been understood by the original inhabitants. It is certain, however, that ‘Bogong’ was widely used to indicate the places where Bogong moths could be found during the summer months, the high country places with granite boulders that were destinations for seasonal migration and feasting. Jagungal was referred to as ‘The Big Bogong’, so as to distinguish it from other destinations such as those now known as ‘Dicky Cooper Bogong’, ‘Paddy Rush’s Bogong’ and ‘Grey Mare Bogong’. The ‘Bogong’ name referred not only to the peak, but also to the surrounding region. The name identified not just a place - but the function and value of the place as well i.e. as country where Bogong moths may be had. The European pastoralists who commenced their own seasonal visits to the region in the around the mid-19th century demanded a more precise and detailed set of names for the topographic features and localities of the area, and set about putting their own names onto the landscape. For them, this naming of places was connected with the assertion of ownership. If I know names for all the places in a region, especially if I have named them myself, then my claim to a legitimate and proprietorial relationship with the place is strengthened. Like the original inhabitants, the mountain stockmen frequently adopted place names referring to some story associated with the place (e.g. ‘Pugilistic Creek’, after two stockmen who rolled into the creek during a fight) or to the function or value of the area. ‘Farm Ridge’, which runs north from near the foot of Mt Jagungal along the Tumut River, is a name which clearly denotes the area as a place for white Australian agriculture - and no longer as a place for feasting on the Bogong moth. (Though, interestingly, the mountain stockmen who visited and worked in this area up until about 60 years ago still referred to Jagungal as “The Big Bogong”. In Farm Ridge/Bogong, I have tried to juxtapose these two opposing visions of the mountain scene. The ‘Bogong’ name is embedded in the landscape (through thousands of years of use). The ‘Farm Ridge’ name is just tacked on, suspended from a tree branch, in a more fragile way, reflecting a shallower connection to the land. Perhaps the country ‘knows itself’ as Bogong, but has not (yet?) come to identify itself as Farm Ridge. What’s interesting to me is that neither name now reflects the actual current human use of the land. No-one comes to harvest the summer Bogong moths any more, and summer grazing of stock in this region, now designated as the ‘Jagungal Wilderness’ within the Kosciuszko National Park, ceased decades ago. But the Bogong moths still come every summer. | Farm Ridge tree.jpg

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