IN high schools across the country, local Gunditjmara history and stories are studied through a scientific lens, in a series of textbooks set to be re-released soon.

Aimed at year 7 to 10 students, the books are the product of decades of work by Deakin University academic Dr Theo Read.

While it led to many interesting stories to include in the book, their culture was not why the Gunditjmara were chosen but rather the geographic features of the area.

Along with the Gunditjmara and south west Victoria, the books look at the Pintupi people and their desert home 500km west of Alice Springs, and the Kunwinjku people in Arnhem Land.

“To address the curriculum needs I needed all rock groups - igneous, sedimentary and volcanic and metamorphic, and these three communities give you those,” Mr Read said.

“They also obviously give you a very broad look at what Aboriginal Australia is.”

“The three books cover the (Victorian curriculum) earth sciences for half a year, so the whole idea was to give students a good look through the earth sciences, at Aboriginal Australia.

“It’s earth sciences, but it's a broad spectrum because it looks at science, history and geography, it goes into the history of the Lake Condah Mission and all that sort of thing as well.

“There’s nothing like these, not just in Australia, but anywhere.”

The project evolved from a year-long science teaching position in Darwin in 1992, followed by nearly a decade of work compiling information and building relationships.

They were first published in 2001 and then again in 2007, while in the meantime Dr Read spent seven years working in his PhD, covering the process he went through engaging with the communities to create the books.

Recently, Dr Read was back in Portland, digging through the Observer’s archives to update the Gunditjmara book to include a section on the re-flooding of Tae Rak (Lake Condah).

“What I also did was I interviewed a cross-section of 14 adults in Heywood farmers, obviously a diverse range of opinions on re-flooding the lake,” he said.

“And to go with it, I’m looking for newspaper articles from the time, mostly in 1977.”

Dr Read said with very little research to rely on, finding information is often “painstaking” work going through source material like newspapers and other archives.

“There's nothing set up that you follow because everything you do is sort of groundbreaking,” he said.

“That sounds exciting but it’s really just a pain.

“When you're working with communities, and it's just the nature of the game, you’ve got to take time.

“The Aboriginal people will tell you it's not about getting things done in a hurry it’s getting things done properly.

“All you can do really is rely on advice from people like the senior elders of the Gunditjmara people, and they keep me on track.

“It’s the same with the other two communities as well.”

Without the help of the communities that the books are based on, Dr Read said it would not have been possible to write the book.

“Most of my work was to do with just talking to the people, these books have been done together with the community,” he said.

“I come down here quite regularly to keep in touch, you just make such tremendous friends.”

Dr Read has found a new publisher for a run of the new edition of the series, either later this year or early 2025.