Grattan Mullet – manager/custodian

Grattan Mullet is a member of the Brablong tribe, from around Bairnsdale. The Brablong are part of the Gunai/Kurnai people, whose lands start at Wilsons Promontory and extend to the Snowy River around Orbost.

Grattan is one of eight children. His parents were born at Lake Tyers. The family moved around to find work at sawmills and seasonal picking. When they moved back to Lake Tyers in 1980, Grattan began to get to know family and elders and learnt about history, culture and tradition.

'Taking up a traineeship here at The Keeping Place in 1995, made me the person I am today, a lot stronger as an Aboriginal person.'

Grattan manages Krowathunkooloong Keeping Place, the local cultural centre in Bairnsdale. The general public, schools and groups go there to understand the local indigenous culture and history of Gippsland. And the local Indigenous community gathers there for barbecues, dancing workshops, story telling or boomerang and spear throwing.

The region is home to the world-famous Gippsland Lake System, a beautiful coastline, forests and the mountains, landscapes that sustained the original inhabitants.

Visitors can see Indigenous Gippsland via a cultural trail – as a self-guided discovery or part of a tour group guided by local Aboriginal people. The trail extends from Sale to Cape Conran in the East of Gippsland and takes in sites where Indigenous people camped, and sourced food, as well as red gum and stringy bark scarred trees (from which bark was cut to make canoes), and stone tool manufacturing sites.

The Keeping Place was established so that cultural materials could be displayed along with photographs, earlier arts and crafts, and artifacts, which have been returned after 100 years in the Melbourne Museum collection.

'A group of our elders worked closely with the museum to identify a lot of our Gippsland material, so that they can then be returned back to the community.'

Developments have also exposed artifacts, including stone tool material, burial sites, or even camping grounds.

Grattan sees opportunities for Indigenous knowledge to inform land management across Gippsland, with job opportunities to follow.