WHO ARE WE?
INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS
WADA WURRUNG PEOPLEThe original inhabitants of the Borough of Queenscliffe are the Wada Wurrung people. Some texts refer to the Wada Wurrung people as the Wathaurong people. They belong to the Kulin Nation which includes 25 patrilineal clans and covers 75 per cent of what we now call Victoria.
For a video presentation about the Kulin Nation, please see: http://www.yarrahealing.catholic.edu.au/stories-voices/index.cfm?loadref=80 For information on how to politely write about the Indigenous people of Australia (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people), please follow this link: http://www.creativespirit.info/aboriginalculture/people/how-to-name-aboriginal-people The name "Wada Wurrung" tells us these Aboriginal people belong to the same language group.
The Wada Wurrung people's traditional lands are extensive and encompass a variety of different habitats. This map shows us where the Wada Wurrung (Wathaurong) lands are compared to the other Aboriginal groups in the Kulin Nation. The other language groups are the Taungurong, Wolworung, Boonwurrung and the Djadjawurung. For a larger language map, showing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language groups throughout Australia, please see: https://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/default.htm Before non-indigenous settlement in the Borough impacted on the Wada Wurrung people's traditional lifestyle, the Wada Wurrung women and men were agricultural farmers and hunters. They cultivated yam potatoes (murnong): a radish-shaped tuber, which is renewed each year. The tubers were cooked in baskets in an earth oven, producing a dark sweet juice.
For more information, please see: http://steve.global2.vic.edu.au/files/2012/12/Aboriginal-plant-use-list-w-pictures-v447ms.pdf The women also harvested native blushing bindweed, bulbine lily, spint-headed mat rush, watercress, bower spinach, moonah tree flowers and berries. For more information, please see: http://barwonbluff.com.au/archive/koorie/Plants.htm The Wada Wurrung men practised 'firestick farming' which
fertilised the soil with ash and promoted native plant germination. This method of farming also created grasslands making it easier to hunt animals and keep poisonous snakes away. For more information on firestick farming, please see: http://austhrutime.com/fire-stick_farmers.htm The men hunted possums, wallabies, duck, swans, lizards, snakes and fish (flathead, salmon, eels, whiting) which they cooked in a fire pit lined with stones. The men used boomerangs, shields and spears when hunting. Today, you can still see the axe marks on trees where Wada Wurrung hunters made foot and hand hold grooves to climb trees and gather eggs or club possums to eat.
Men and women gathered shellfish (mussels, periwinkles, limpets, warrener, whelks, abalone, anemones, chiton, barnacles, onchidellid, chequerboard snails). For more information, please see: http://lryb.aiatsis.gov.au/our-societies.html https://gorcc.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/acknowledging-our-coasts-original-managers/ The Wada Wurrung people lived in stone, timber and mud buildings. The timber provided the framework of the shelter that was then insulated with mud and bower spinach leaves. Extending from the sides of the timber framework were one meter stone walls. Usually in the top of the timber frame was a small hole. This let the smoke from the fire out. These building were large: they could house approximately 40 people.
As the Wada Wurrung's traditional lifestyle was nomadic (ie travelled around their country during the year as they checked the environment), they also built temporary shelters out of bark. These are called mia mias. They also used ready-made shelters found in their environment such as caves. For detailed descriptions of dwellings found in the Kulin nations, please go to: http://austhrutime.com/aboriginal_shelter.htm For more general information about indigenous dwellings in Australia, please go to: http://lryb.aiatsis.gov.au/people-health-and-homes.html The Wada Wurrung people played sports. Mangrook (or marngrook), a game on which AFL is in part based, was played by men for several hours. The ball was made out of animal skin.
Children played hide and seek together. Boys played spear games. Girls played with dolls. The segregated nature of the latter play reflected the organised nature of Wada Wurrung traditional society in which boys grew up to become both hunters and farmers whilst girls grew up to become mothers and farmers For more information on AFL and marngrook, please see: http://www.foxsportspulse.com/assoc_page.cgi?c=1-5545-0-0-0&sID=220493 For more information on the importance of sport to Indigenous Australians, please see: http://lryb.aiatsis.gov.au/sport.html Music was an important part of Wada Wurrung people's lives. The men played the didgeridoo and the women played clap sticks.
In this photo didge player, Norm Stanley, plays the digeridoo while Uncle David Tournier from the Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative conducts a smoking ceremony in Point Lonsdale to mark the beginning of Reconciliation Week. The Wada Wurrung people spoke their own language. This language could vary between communities/family groups. Today, many of these words are still used. Kardinia comes from the Wada Wurrung word 'Kardineeyo' meaning sunrise; Moorabool means mussel and Geelong is derived from 'Djillong' which means peninsula.
The Wada Wurrung language was an oral one, that is, it was not written down. That is why there can be many variations in the spelling of Wada Wurrung words. For more information, please see: http://www.vaclang.org.au/languages/wathaurong-language-program-geelong.html The Wada Wurrung people have a totem. It is the wedge-tail eagle.
Totemism for indigenous Australians is linked to the Dreamtime - the time of creation - when their ancestral beings, their 'totemic ancestors', created people. For the Wada Wurrung, Bundjil, the wedge-tail eagle created the Kulin lands of which the Borough is a part. They believe that Bundjil looks down on his people today from the sky as a star. You might know his star as Altair in the Aquila constellation. Wedge-tail eagles still live in the Borough today and are Australia's largest birds of prey. They mate for life, share in the duties of parenting and tend to give birth to 1-3 chicks with only one typically surviving per season. The sign in the photo above is found at the Point Lonsdale lighthouse. It welcomes visitors to the lands of the Wada Wurrung people. For more information on these birds, please go to: http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/bird-profile/wedge-tailed-eagle For more information on totems, please go to: http://www.aboriginalculture.com.au/religion.shtml Want to know more?
To learn more about the history of the Aboriginal flag, please click here: http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/main.html The Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative based in Geelong is a centre of education and cultural awareness regarding Indigenous Australian heritage in the area. To learn more about the Wada Wurrung people, please look up 'wathaurong' or 'wathaurung' or 'watha wurrung' or 'wadda wurrung' on these sites: http://www.speakingoftheotways.net/people/watha_wurrung.php www.narana.com.au http://www.visitvictoria.com/Activities-and-attractions/Aboriginal-Victoria.aspx http://www.reconciliationvic.org.au/ www.djillong.net.au http://www.abc.net.au/abc3/myplace/ http://www.wathaurong.org.au/ http://barwonbluff.com.au/archive/koorie/History.htm http://www.mtrothwell.com.au/page.php?sid=0000000009&pid=0000000019 www.antarvictoria.org.au www.nla.gov.au www.nga.gov.au http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/alcv/interviews/index.aspx http://www.vaeai.org.au/ http://www.vaclang.org.au/ http://www.dpc.vic.gov.au/index.php/aboriginal-affairs/victorian-aboriginal-heritage-council http://www.nma.gov.au/collections-search/index.php?p=results&QueryTerms=Basedow_TLF&app=tlf&Startrec=0 http://austhrutime.com/aboriginal_totemism.htm or purchase from the Queenscliff Visitors Centre a copy of The Wadda Wurrung People by Jo Whitehead. |
NON-INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS IMMIGRANTS & THEIR FAMILIESNon-Indigenous Australians first arrived in Australia in the early 1800s. They had come from Europe, travelling by boat for many months. First came the explorers and next, the ships carrying convicts and European administrators looking to establish penal colonies. They were quickly followed by 'free men' looking for a new life and new land in Australia.
Source: http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/items/768081/negative-large-crowd-of-people-on-the-pier-queenscliff-victoria-1914 EXPLORERS
Explorers from Europe first arrived in the area in 1802. A small boatload of men (from the HMS Lady Nelson) with First Mate William Bowen entered Port Phillip on 31 January 1802. They were followed by Lieutenant John Murray aboard the Lady Nelson 14 February1802. Ten weeks later in April 1802, Matthew Flinders arrived on the Investigator and gave the first detailed examination of the bay and the surrounding country. For more information, please go to: http://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/content.php?pid=135047&sid=1157514 http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/landscape/discovery/display/31079-matthew-flinders,-william-bowen-and-john-murray WILLIAM BUCKLEY
Frederick William Woodhouse, The first settlers discover Buckley, 1861, State Library of Victoria The first known immigrant to settle in the Wada Wurrung lands, now known as the Borough of Queenscliff, was escaped convict, William Buckley. He was saved by,and lived with, the Wada Wurrung people for approximately 32 years during which he is rumoured to have married a Wada Wurrung woman and possibly sired a child. Buckley left the Borough to work as an interpreter and builder for John Batman before going to live in Tasmania in 1837. For more information on William Buckley, you can visit: http://www.myplace.edu.au/decades_timeline/1830/decade_landing_17_1.html?tabRank=2&subTabRank=4 http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explore-history/colonial-melbourne/convicts/buckley-and-aborigines GEORGE TOBIN
Inside the Heads, Point Lonsdale 1881. Source: www.nla.gov.au George Tobin in 1839 was the next known immigrant to come to the Borough. He operated a pilot service in the area then known as Whale Head (now called Shortland’s Bluff). Tobin Drive, a street in Queenscliff, is named in his honour. Several other pilot boat operators followed Tobin's example and started up operations in the following years. The original pilots camped on the beach at Queenscliff on the site of the present Pilot Station, and were taken to and from ships by 30ft. whaleboats frequently manned by convicts. The pilot boat operators were preceded by squatters who reportedly first came to Queenscliff in 1836. For more information on the pilot service operators go to: http://www.maritimequeenscliffe.org.au/Pilots.htm http://www.ppsp.com.au/history/history.aspx NON-INDIGENOUS SETTLERS
Queenscliff Life Saving Club, 1950. Source: www.nla.gov.au Land sales began in 1853, the same year the name was changed from Shortland's Bluff to Queenscliff by Lieutenant Charles La Trobe, in honour of Queen Victoria. This marked the beginning of significant non-indigenous settlement in the Borough. By 1854, Queenscliff had a postmaster, a hotel and an Anglican school. Soon after, a health officer settled in the Borough. He was joined by a customs officer to police whale boats passing through the bay. Businesses quickly grew to service the new town. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-factsheet/queenscliff--culture-and-history-20081120-6cb7.html#ixzz2yceUMfQJ Why did the colonial government decide to build a town in Queenscliff? The key reason was to support the passage of gold takings from Geelong to Melbourne during the gold rush in the 1850s. For information on the gold rush, please visit: http://www.nma.gov.au/engage-learn/schools/classroom-resources/units_of_work/gold http://www.heritageaustralia.com.au/search.php?state=VIC®ion=75&view=67 THE FISHING FAMILIES
An early fishing industry developed and by 1865 it was reported in the Geelong Advertiser that there were 130 fishermen of a variety of nationalities (Maoris, Italians, Dutchmen, Frenchmen and Chinese) at Queenscliff. Many of the fish caught were sold to the people working on the gold fields. THE MILITARY
During the 1860S, defence personnel moved into Queenscliff. At first their purpose was to protect the gold-carrying cargo ships but by the 1880s they were manning the Queenscliff Fort which was erected to defend the entrance to Port Phillip Bay against a feared Russian invasion. The Fort was manned as a coastal defence installation continuously from 1883 to 1946. For more information, please go to: http://www.fortqueenscliff.com.au/page7.htm For a video on the Fort, please go to: http://nichecreator.com/Fort_Queenscliff THE RAILWAY WORKERS
The arrival of the railway from Melbourne in 1879 helped to make Queenscliff a popular holiday destination for Melbourne's upper class who, during the 1880s and 1890s, would travel down by train and stay for the weekend. For more information, please visit: http://www.heritageaustralia.com.au/search.php?state=VIC®ion=75&view=67 Want to know more?
Please click on these links: http://www.fortqueenscliff.com.au/page7.htm http://museumvictoria.com.au/collections/themes/2313/municipality-of-queenscliff-victoria http://arts.monash.edu/ncas/multimedia/gazetteer/list/queenscliff.html http://www.maritimequeenscliffe.org.au/ http://zades.com.au/gandd/index.php/bellpen/bellhs http://www.queenscliffe-history.org/ http://zades.com.au/gandd/index.php/geelong/research/gdresc http://nepeanhistoricalsociety.asn.au/ http://www.visitvictoria.com/Regions/Great-Ocean-Road/Destinations/Queenscliff http://www.queenscliff.com.au/ http://www.lighthouses.org.au/lights/VIC/Queenscliff%20Black/Black%20Lighthouse%20Queenscliff.htm http://www.lighthouse.net.au/lights/vic/Queenscliff%20White/White%20Lighthouse%20Queenscliff.htm http://www.army.gov.au/Our-work/Speeches-and-transcripts/Fort-Queenscliff-Farewell-Parade http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;search=list_code%3DCHL%3Blegal_status%3D35%3Bkeyword_PD%3D0%3Bkeyword_SS%3D0%3Bkeyword_PH%3D0;place_id=105417 |