One morning atop a hill in Narooma, Lynne Thomas talks about the songline before her as rain softly falls.
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The songline runs from Bulgarn (Pigeon House Mountain, near Ulladulla) past Gulaga and her children Barunguba and Najanuga through to Biamanga.
As the daughter of Ted Guboo Thomas, Ms Thomas has endless stories about her father and his friends, her culture and the changes she has seen in the land and sea.
The actor David Gulpilil used to dance on the lawn of their Wallaga Lake home and as a school girl she camped with her father outside Old Parliament House with the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
There she heard stories from people like Michael Anderson, one of the four who started the tent embassy, including stories instilling the importance of marine life.
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How marine life, coast have changed
The latter is one of the themes of her cultural tours along Narooma's foreshore, noting the "wonderful bays" along the songline were once much bigger but erosion and silt coming down have made them small.
"Years ago Little Tilba Bay was very big and deep and mother whales brought their calves in there to rest before they continued north," Ms Thomas said.
She talked of the giant crabs that used to come from Tasmania and the eels that came down from the spring on top of Gulaga, passed through the birthing area and the process of change that began when they reached the bar.
"They become like glass so predators can't see them and they go all around the world just like birds.
"I have seen them climbing back to the top of the spring where they came from."
Connecting to country
She spoke of the trees, planted by the old people, that flowered in spring so they could find their way from Eden whaling station back to Braidwood where her father lived.
Ms Thomas often spoke about balance in the context of sustainability such as long Biamanga versus rounded Gulaga.
"That is the balance of our life."
She said when kids see the songline "the lights go on".
"When we look at our landscape we get a better understanding and we all become richer because you have a relationship with that country."
It is another thing she learnt from her father and wants to pass on.
"I teach it because I grew up with it and want the next generation to learn about it and be in the bush finding these places and connecting to country."
Ms Thomas' Malleema Aboriginal Cultural Tours were part of the Connection to Country program of free First Nations experiences that was organised by Southbound Escapes through a grant from the NSW government and Eurobodalla Shire Council.
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