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The living treasures of indigenous Australia are more accessible than ever before – despite the unholy vandalisation of many sites exemplified by the destruction of the Juukan Gorge caves in Western Australia by Rio Tinto in 2020. There remains an enormous amount of vital cultural heritage in the form of cave art and walking trails, bush medicine and cultural centres readily available. Presenter Merilyn Sleigh draws attention to Bruce Pascoes’ new book

Loving Country – A Guide To Sacred Australia

co-written with Vicky Shukuroglou, which offers travel tips to 100s of sites such as those to be found while walking the Peaks Trail in Victoria’s Grampian’s National Park. She also covers the Gulaga Mountain of Tilba on the NSW South Coast, the peak of which is a women’s-only area, and Indigenous owned enterprises such as the

Wilpenia Pound Resort

in South Australia, and

Jarramali Rock Art Tours

in Far North Queensland. Although the

Garma Festival

in Arnhem Land has been cancelled this year due to COVID-19 there is hope this unique window into Yolngu indigenous life, hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation will return in 2022.

And if you are city based collections and tours in the Australian Museum, the Art Gallery of NSW, the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Museum of Sydney will provide hours of enriching resources.


Travel Time is presented by Yvonne Hazell and Merilyn Sleigh and broadcasts

every Wednesday and is repeated on Saturday at 8pm. The first airing of this article will be Wednesday 11th August.