Oceanography: Sea, Currents, and Knowledge Systems
For tens of thousands of years, Indigenous peoples of Australia — including the Aboriginal Nations of Victoria and the Torres Strait Islander communities — have lived in deep, reciprocal relationship with the sea. Far from being passive observers, they developed highly sophisticated systems of oceanography: knowledge of tides, currents, winds, waves, and marine ecology that guided travel, ceremony, fishing, and spiritual law (Nunn 2018; Clarke 2007).
In Victoria, coastal Nations such as the Boonwurrung, Wadawurrung, and Gunditjmara maintained oceanographic knowledge that linked them to Bassanian land bridges, tidal rhythms, and marine ecosystems stretching across southern Australia (Clark 1990; Presland 1994).
Indigenous oceanography is not only environmental science — it is a law of relationship. It encodes ethics of care, observation, and belonging to Sea Country. Though colonisation disrupted these traditions, their renewal today informs marine conservation, fisheries management, and climate resilience.
Deep History of Indigenous Oceanography
Living with Changing Seas
During the Last Glacial Maximum (~20,000 years ago), sea levels were up to 120 metres lower, connecting Victoria and Tasmania through the Bassanian Land Bridge.
Indigenous communities lived, traded, and travelled across what is now Bass Strait (Lambeck & Chappell 2001; Nunn & Reid 2016).Oral histories from Palawa (Tasmanian Aboriginal) peoples recall the inundation of Bass Strait around 12,000 years ago — “the drowning of the land” — narratives confirmed by geological and marine sediment evidence (Nunn 2018; Reid 2015).
This demonstrates one of the world’s oldest recorded memories of sea-level rise, a key contribution to global climate history.
Observations of Tides and Currents
Indigenous groups tracked lunar and solar cycles to predict tides, fish spawning, and shellfish harvests (Hamacher & Norris 2011).
Along Bass Strait, knowledge of strong currents and dangerous undertows was passed through story law, warning of “spirit waters” that pulled swimmers or canoes off course — oral metaphors encoding safety and respect for the sea (Clarke 2007; Wadawurrung TOAC 2021).
Indigenous navigators read wave reflection, foam, seabird flight, and bioluminescence as signs of underwater reefs and currents, comparable to Polynesian swell-navigation systems (Lewis 1994; Kirch 2017).
Victorian Indigenous Oceanography
Boonwurrung (Port Phillip and Mornington Peninsula)
The Boonwurrung read the tides and winds of Narrm (Port Phillip Bay) to guide fishing and shellfish collection (Presland 1994; Broome 2005).
Coastal middens show continuous marine use for over 6,000 years — including mussels, abalone, and limpets — revealing long-term sustainable harvesting (Hewitt 2007).
Stories of Bunjil, the eaglehawk creator, controlling wind and sea connected marine phenomena to spiritual law (Clark 1990).
Wadawurrung (Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast)
Wadawurrung Elders read wave and wind patterns to identify safe inlets and fishing sites.
Estuarine fishing around the Barwon and Moorabool Rivers followed lunar-tidal cycles, ensuring sustainable harvests (Wadawurrung TOAC 2021).
Creation stories speak of the sea rising to carve cliffs at Torquay and Barwon Heads — ancestral accounts of post-glacial sea-level change (Broome 2005; Clarke 2007).
Gunditjmara (South-West Victoria)
The Gunditjmara combined inland aquaculture (Budj Bim) with coastal oceanography.
They harvested seals, shellfish, and crayfish along the basalt coastline and understood the Southern Ocean’s currents as domains of ancestral power (McNiven & Bell 2010).
Dangerous currents and reefs were marked through oral mapping and place-names describing movement or spirit presence (Clark 1990).
Oceanography, Law, and Ceremony
Indigenous oceanographic systems were embedded in cultural law:
Tanderrum (welcome) ceremonies sometimes extended to coastal and tidal rights, granting visiting groups permission to fish or harvest shellfish.
Totems — including marine animals such as shark, stingray, or eel — governed who could fish where and when, ensuring ecological balance (Rose 1996).
Ceremonies for sea spirits acknowledged that human wellbeing depended on ocean health, a principle now echoed in global marine stewardship ethics (Nunn 2018; Clarke 2007).
Impacts of Colonisation
Overfishing and pollution by settlers destroyed traditional shellfish beds and estuarine habitats (Broome 2005).
Loss of access through land seizure, fences, and missions severed cultural connection to coastlines (Presland 1994).
Suppression of language and story disrupted oral transmission of tidal and navigation knowledge.
Whaling and sealing industries devastated populations of species integral to Indigenous harvesting and ceremony (Attwood 2003).
By the late 19th century, many Victorian Indigenous communities had been forcibly relocated inland, severing millennia of maritime knowledge transmission.
Contemporary Revival
Indigenous oceanography is being revitalised through cultural, scientific, and policy collaborations:
Sea Country Plans developed by Traditional Owner Corporations (e.g., Wadawurrung, Boonwurrung, Eastern Maar) outline custodial obligations for reefs, tidal flats, and estuaries (WTOAC 2021; EMAC 2023).
Coastal restoration programs integrate Indigenous fire and water knowledge with modern marine ecology (DELWP 2023).
Marine education and tourism, from Apollo Bay to Phillip Island, share ocean stories and stewardship ethics.
Research partnerships between Indigenous communities and marine scientists apply ancestral tide and current knowledge to coastal monitoring and climate adaptation (Nunn & Reid 2016; CSIRO 2020).
Global Analogies
Indigenous sea knowledge systems around the world echo the sophistication of Australia’s coastal traditions:
Polynesian navigators used swell and starlore for ocean voyaging (Lewis 1994; Kirch 2017).
Inuit hunters read sea ice pressure lines and currents to locate breathing holes for seals (Fienup-Riordan 2005).
Māori oceanic law recognises Tangaroa (god of the sea) as kin, linking fishing rights to spiritual obligation (Durie 1998).
These parallels affirm that Indigenous oceanography is a science of relationship — empirical, spiritual, and sustainable.
Conclusion
Indigenous oceanography unites observation, ethics, and law. In Victoria, the Boonwurrung, Wadawurrung, and Gunditjmara peoples read the sea as a living system — tides, currents, and spirits intertwined.
Though colonisation interrupted this deep science, its revival offers profound lessons for marine ecology, conservation, and climate adaptation.
As the ocean warms and rises again, Indigenous knowledge reminds us that survival depends not on mastery of the sea, but on relationship with it — a partnership of respect, responsibility, and care.
References
Attwood, B. (2003). Rights for Aborigines. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Broome, R. (2005). Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Clark, I.D. (1990). Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria, 1800–1900. Melbourne: Monash Publications in Geography.
Clarke, P.A. (2007). Aboriginal People and Their Plants. Sydney: Rosenberg Publishing.
CSIRO (2020). State of the Climate 2020. Canberra: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.
DELWP (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) (2023). Victorian Marine and Coastal Policy. Melbourne: Victorian Government.
Durie, M. (1998). Te Mana, Te Kāwanatanga: The Politics of Māori Self-Determination. Auckland: Oxford University Press.
EMAC (Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation) (2023). Sea Country Plan: Moyjil to Warrnambool Coastline. Warrnambool: EMAC.
Fienup-Riordan, A. (2005). Wise Words of the Yup’ik People: We Talk to You Because We Love You. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Hamacher, D.W. & Norris, R.P. (2011). ‘Bridging the Gap through Australian Cultural Astronomy.’ Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, 424, pp. 221–228.
Hewitt, T. (2007). Shell Middens of Port Phillip Bay: Archaeological Evidence of Coastal Resource Use. Melbourne: Heritage Victoria.
Kirch, P.V. (2017). On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands. 2nd edn. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lambeck, K. & Chappell, J. (2001). ‘Sea Level Change through the Last Glacial Cycle.’ Science, 292(5517), pp. 679–686.
Lewis, D. (1994). We, the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific. 2nd edn. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
McNiven, I.J. & Bell, D. (2010). ‘Fishers and Farmers: Aboriginal Aquaculture and Marine Economy in Victoria.’ Aboriginal History, 34, pp. 131–157.
Nunn, P.D. (2018). The Edge of Memory: Ancient Stories, Oral Tradition and the Post-Glacial World. London: Bloomsbury Sigma.
Nunn, P.D. & Reid, N.J. (2016). ‘Aboriginal Memories of Inundation of the Australian Coast.’ Australian Geographer, 47(1), pp. 11–47.
Presland, G. (1994). Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People. Melbourne: Harriland Press.
Reid, N.J. (2015). Stories from the Sea: Oral Traditions and Sea-Level Change in Australia. Darwin: Charles Darwin University Press.
Rose, D.B. (1996). Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and Wilderness. Canberra: Australian Heritage Commission.
Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (WTOAC) (2021). Sea Country and Coastal Knowledge. Geelong: WTOAC.
Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter 16/09/2025
Magic Lands Alliance
Sharing the truth of Indigenous and colonial history through film, education, land and community.
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Magic Lands Alliance acknowledge the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of communities.