KOOMPKINNING The Pumphrey’s Bridge Storybook

“Noongars camped all around the bush here. Used to be our home.” – Noongar Elder Mervyn Abraham I feel at home. I can feel the presence of my people.

Above: Near the I’m Mervyn Abraham. place of my birth [In] 1938 I was born, under a tree. We was about 5km towards Wandering from camped there, and dad – Sam Abraham – was Pumphrey’s Bridge. working there. We only had horse and cart Above left: My dad them days and they reckon it was too far to go Sam Abraham. to town, so I was born in the bush. Left: I was born between two hills, Most of my relations were born in the bush. behind this farm gate. Some of them were born at Pumphrey’s Bridge. Kaya! (Hi!) Uncle Mervyn Abraham was born 109 years after the life of Noongars (the Aboriginal people of south-west ) was changed forever by the coming of white people. Mervyn’s Contents stories about life at Koompkinning on the 2 Ngala mia (our camp) Hotham River give a glimpse of what life was like This publication was produced and first published 3 Bilya (river) in 2015 by Wheatbelt NRM, through funding from for many Noongars during the twentieth century. the Australian Government’s National Landcare 4 The spring Wheatbelt NRM respectfully thanks Uncle Merv for Programme. 5 Corroboree ground sharing katadjin (knowledge) and photos in this ISBN 978-0-9924243-4-3 6 Moort (family) Any reproduction in full or in part of this publication storybook. We also thank Gary Bennell and Alice must mention the title Koompkinning: The Collard for their contributions. Noongar katadjin 7 Work Pumphrey’s Bridge Storybook and the publisher Wheatbelt NRM. belongs to and remains the intellectual property 8 Marany (food)

Storyteller: Mervyn Abraham of the Noongar communities who shared it. 9 The shop Other storytellers: Gary Bennell and Alice Collard Noongar language is used in this book. There are 10 Day trips from Wandering Mission Interviews/design/photos: Christie Kingston many different Noongar language groups and it 11 The old bridge Printed on 100% post production recycled paper was an oral language (not traditionally written 12 Sport using vegetable-based inks. down), so different words and spellings exist. 13 School Wheatbelt Natural Resource Management Inc 269 Fitzgerald St, Northam, Western Australia This storybook is one of a series that aims to 14 The falling stones PO Box 311, Northam WA 6401 T: (08) 9670 3100 | Fax: (08) 9670 3140 inspire you to learn more about our unique 18 Graves E: [email protected] boodjar (country) and Noongar culture, and help 19 From Pumphrey’s Bridge to Pingelly W: www.wheatbeltnrm.org.au ABN: 61 661 518 664 deepen respect, love and care for our kwobidak 20 Koora, yey, kalyakoorl (beautiful) country. (past, present, forever) WARNING Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are Kerry Collard advised that this book contains names and Aboriginal NRM Project Facilitator images of people who have passed away. Wheatbelt Natural Resource Management Inc 1 Ngala mia Bilya (our camp) (river)

Standing next to the campsite where my Uncle Fred and Aunty Frances Little lived. The upright Mangart / Jam Tree / Acacia acuminata posts in these photos are the original tent posts.

Noongars camped all around the bush here. Used to be our home. My old Uncle Fred Little and Aunty Frances used to have a tent right here. In the front, outside the tent under a shelter, they had a kitchen where they cooked their meals. This is how we used to live. You could have a wash down the river there. Everything was pretty good. Oh, we used to be happy in them days, I know that. Mangart / No hassles. No power bills, water bills or nothing. Jam Tree / They lived there for quite a few years then they moved to Pingelly. Acacia acuminata Flowering (above), and cut (left), at Pumphrey’s Bridge. 27 August 2015

Noongar English The Noongar name for around Pumphrey’s Bridge Kornt / Camping / is Koompkinning — it means plenty of water. kaylap / dwelling The water used to be fresh in those days. karla-mia place Fresh water for drinking, you could drink it, Above: Cyril Penny’s tent at Donaldson’s Pumphrey farm Karla Fire have a cup of tea out of it, wash in it. It’s completely different now. Below: Koolangka (children) Rhonda Penny and Karl-boorn Firewood Right: Mrs Kenny Ugle sleeping inside the tent. The stones Burong / Rain It should be alright when it’s raining, running to the right of the lamp mysteriously fell there Alma Ugle and water, it’s pretty good. But when it stops, without leaving holes in the tent (see page 14). her daughter djart Sandra, that’s when the salinity comes into it. Photos: Weekend Mail, Saturday 23 March 1957 Kep Rain farmers It’s brackish now, gone all brackish. Brian and Ian koorliny coming Donaldson Bilya River and Mrs Lorna Gary Bennell recalls: “We used to learn to swim in that Penny with Maar Cloud Rhonda inside river. We used to go from here in Pingelly out that way. the tent. Mari Rain cloud That would have been in the fifties [1950’s].” Photo: Daily News, warabiny Wednesday 20 2 March 1957 3 The spring Corroboree ground

The spring’s next to the old bridge, on the north side. You get that fresh water all year around there. We’d clean around it, get all the scrub and all the grass from around it, and you’d get the clear, fresh water. Needs to be See the old corroboree ground here? cleaned up and Nothing grows. I was a bit young for it, the water will but I remember them telling me Noongars come up again. come from everywhere. Miles around they’d come here for corroboree. 1942 was the last Gary Bennell time they were here, I think. remembers: “We Used to have a fire in the middle there, had an uncle who dancing around. I was a kid then. I was knee high to a grasshopper. I think my had some mental Grandfather Nabby Abraham was one of the issues. Uncle Jack dancers. Bennell. He was Nice and quiet. Away from the hustle and very quiet, you bustle of everybody. know. He was a big, Noongars came from Albany, Gnowangerup, tall man. He was in Katanning, Wagin, Dumbleyung, Williams, a mental institution Narrogin and other places. By horse and cart and walking. Take a couple of days to get

in . collection Photo: Gary Bennell’s here, a week or something like that. He came home Nice and peaceful out here, isn’t it? Gary Bennell’s parents Alice Hill, daughter and Dad – Andy You can feel it. You can feel a presence of of Charlie and Rachel (nee Abraham), Bennell – used to and Andy Bennell, son of Ned Bennell and Noongar spirits. Christine ‘Kidjen’ (nee Humphries). take him out there The spring is under this grass on the weekends, Gary Bennell says: “Dad used to to sit down and spend time with him. Noongar English Noongar English Kep / kepa Water Midar/kobori / Dance dance there in the corroborees when Us boys would be down the bottom Djooly Dew corroboree he was a young fella. Grandfather swimming and Dad would be up the top Dudja / djindi Mist, fog Dudjarak / Song Ned was working up there on the the other side near the spring. Sit down yewoorl (ceremonial) hill and Dad met Mum there. Dad quiet and just yarn all day, you know. Walken Rainbow Moorditj Strong Kedininy / Sing used to dance there and camp

When we did go near them we’d be very warangka collection. Photo: Gary Bennell’s Moorditjabiny Becoming strong across the road. Ned is Merv’s quiet. So Dad kind of brought him back Wilgi Red ochre grandfather too, and Christine is our (ceremonial) into the community. Work his way back into the community. Like therapy, you know.” grandmother. You feel all the spirits The Kidjen Dancers are there. They’re there.” named after Christine ‘Kidjen’. 4 5 Moort (family) Work

Noongars worked around here, shearing and all that Left image: on farms, clearing, fencing, The plaque to all farm work and that. be installed at Yeah, they was the ones Koompkinning got the farmers going. Pumphrey’s Bridge to They cleared all that land commemorate around that area. the site as My grandfather worked traditional Langie’s farm. He worked camping there just for food. grounds. I remember he never used to have any money.

My My Grandmother, Grandmother Laura ‘Demma’ Abraham (nee Humes), holding baby Laura sang Mathew Abraham next to my all the old Grandfather Nabby Abraham. songs. Wish I had a tape recorder then. She sang

old Noongar collection Photo: Mervyn Abraham’s songs. I don’t remember the songs.

Background photo: Flowering Mangart / Jam Tree / Acacia acuminata at Pumphrey’s Bridge. 27 August 2015

Quite a few families camped around here, quite a few. There’s Abrahams, Bennells, Winmars, Littles, Hills. You know the boys play footy in Dockers and Eagles? They’re from the family around this area. They’re all my relations, they are. Steve Hill’s Dockers. Josh Hill’s Eagles. Nicky Winmar’s from here, it’s his grandparent’s place. Rosie Winmar was Nicky’s aunty and Linda Winmar (nee When I left school and I used to be a good axe You had no permanent Abraham) was Rosie’s mum. Noongars camped here year round. started working, it was man. I enjoyed it. Keep home them days. pretty good then. you fit. Before European Clearing land, cutting Wherever there was colonisation, Noongars Gary Bennell says: “Merv and Jock Abraham were involved in organising trees down. Cutting fence work they camped. travelled wherever there the Pumphrey’s Bridge Reunion in 2009. At the reunion they had fires going posts, jam tree fence Some people camped was food, you know. everywhere, the cover band Red Ochre, plenty of food. Noongars could get up and posts. Mangart trees cut on farmers’ properties. Hunting for food wherever sing. Plenty of dust flying there. They were doing the jive and all this and that.” into fence posts. That’s On reserves around that there was plenty, the main things farmers area. you know, that’s where used to build fences. Gypsies. Camp to camp. they’d go. 6 7 Marron: Dark brown, black and Photo: © Phil Lewis Photo: © Phil Lewis, even blue, marron are an iconic Wyalkatchem WA, July 2011 south-western Australian species. Growing up to 38cm long, marron Marany are the largest freshwater crayfish in WA and the third largest on Earth. They have ten legs including large claws for grasping food, fighting and moving. They live in Photo: © Naomi Kelly (food) (Nabby & Laura Abraham’s great rivers and dams with permanent granddaughter) water, fallen trees and submerged leaves, especially rivers with Moyitj Yerderap Doornat well-vegetated catchments and Common Bronzewing Pigeon Pacific Black Duck Twenty-eight Parrot banks. Marron eat living, dead and Phaps calcoptera Barnardius zonarius decaying plant and animal material on the river or dam bed and are We ate Ducks, twenty-eight parrots, pigeons. Used to Smooth Marron important components of the aquatic kangaroo, be good eating, pigeon stew. Tastes like chicken. Cherax cainii ecosystems. Water rats, tortoises, There’s also a birds, fish and bigger marron eat rabbits, Pluck the twenty-eight parrots, gut them and critically endangered marron. Salinisation of many rivers and all that. cook them. Simple as that. Hairy Marron (Cherax such as the Hotham has reduced tenuimanus) but it’s There used We used to catch them with shanghais only found in the their range; marron are also . threatened by habitat loss, climate to be plenty (slingshots). To make a shanghai you get a stick change, reduced river flow, low around in them and rubber tyre tube, cut two little strips out, oxygen, fishing and feral yabbies. days, rabbits. put them on the stick, and BANG. Good life. Djilgies, they were lovely. All year around. Dig We used to go Djilgi: Light to black-brown Take the rabbits or parrots in our belts. Carry them out of their hole. Get a basket. Same as you rabbit trapping coloured freshwater crayfish that them along. You put the rabbits’ heads through catch crayfish. Put some meat – kangaroo or rabbit, grow up to 14cm long, djilgi when we were the belt, same as the parrots too, and carry whatever meat was available – in the cage, put it in the are endemic to WA’s south- kids. water, come back and pull it out. Half a dozen or more west, occupying a wide range of them along, rabbits and parrots hanging all in there. Same as catching marron. environments including wetlands, Sell rabbits around you. So instead of carrying them streams and rivers. Similar to to the rabbit put them in the belt, have your hands marron, they eat a wide range of buyers who’d Djilgi living and decaying organic matter. free, get some more. Cherax quinquecarinatus come around. Permaculture gardeners use djilgies Used to get bardi (witchetty grubs) in There’s also another in ponds and pools to help clean Sell them common freshwater the mangart. Bardi taste like cheezels crayfish species, the water. Like koonacs (Cherax to shops the koonac (Cherax preissii and less common Cherax when you cook them up, crunchy. preissii). and all that, glaber), djilgi burrow down and supermarkets Only fungus you eat are mushrooms. become dormant to survive drought. Yonga in Perth. While more tolerant than marron to Grey Kangaroo Witchetty grubs low oxygen, they have also been Macropus fuliginosus Photo: wikicommons sputnikcccp impacted by salinity, habitat loss and introduced species.

Feral yabbies: Introduced to WA from eastern Australia in the Photos this page: © David Morgan 1930s, yabbies (Cherax destructor) The shop grow fast, reproduce at a young The pool there on the Easy as that. Didn’t have age and can breed several times in This is what’s left of The shop was straight across the old bridge north side, clean all the to fish for them, just grab one season, so they can out-compete the old shop. sticks out of there and them. We’d cook them WA native freshwater crayfish for We bought flour, sugar, Alice Collard (nee Jones) you could buy ice cream or walk through there and on the fire, on the coals, food and habitat. They are an tea, all that, butter, tin muddy all the water. or whatever. Some wrap important aquaculture species for recalls: “When the parents whatever out of your own many farmers. However, if you catch food and all that. They So that when the djildjit them in a bit of brown come to visit their money. But if you didn’t have a yabby in a river, don’t put it were good people. (fish) – perch and cobbler paper, put them in the back, eat it! children at the Wandering none you didn’t get none. – couldn’t breathe, [you] ashes. Beautiful. The last Mission they used to leave So that’s how it went – most How to tell the difference: grab them, chuck them time I fished in that river some money, so if you go of us, we didn’t have money.” The WA Department of Fisheries Fact into a bucket, or a bag, was about fifty years ago. Sheet called Identifying Freshwater for a Sunday drive or something. Crayfish shows you how. to Pumphrey’s Bridge

Learn more about the native freshwater fishes, crayfishes and mussels of South-western Australia. www.sercul.org.au/ffp.html

Sources: Stephen Beatty of Murdoch 8 University & www.fish.wa.gov.au (19/10/2015) 9 Day trips from The old bridge Wandering Mission

Alice Collard (nee Jones) truck, that we had to all stand remembers: “When we were on. Girls up one end, boys up put in the mission I was six the other. Wherever we had years old. to go, that’s what we were I would have been seven or taken in, a truck. They had the eight when we went down railings, so you’d stand and On the broken old Pumphrey’s Bridge, 25 June 2015. You can see the new bridge in the background. to Pumphrey’s Bridge from lean on the railing. When the Wandering Mission. That’s truck was going around with all the kids on the back, I’d where we used to go once a See that think it was going to go over year to have our picnic, and beam there? sooner or later, but no it never. have a swim for the day. We We’d jump enjoyed it being away and Where the old bridge is, off there. swimming and that. We also that’s where we used to go Sometimes enjoyed our little drink of swimming there, and jumping we’d jump cordial and a biscuit for the off the rope from the tree into from up the Top: Wandering Mission building, summer 2014/2015. day which was really a lot for the water. Used to be a lot of top. Above: Alice in her us at the time. We enjoyed water there. Cos otherwise Oh yeah, it’s confirmation dress at ourselves while we were there you wouldn’t be able to jump deep yeah. Wandering Mission, approx and enjoyed going out for the because of all the trees. They 1959. Used to have  Below: Aboriginal children at day. It was really fantastic. said to watch for the trees sand on Wandering Mission in the late We all were loaded on the that’s fallen into the water. the bottom 1950s or early 1960s. You’d get stuck underneath. there. Photos: Alice Collard’s collection back of a truck, like a sheep We all went exploring You could up and down while see the bottom. we were there, having The old Pumphrey’s Bridge before it fell down a look around to see Photo: wikimedia.org, January 2007 what was there. The old bridge, Always had 25 June 2015 Noongar English Pumphrey’s Bridge in Koorl Go my mind for years but Barn Walk never ever went back Wabiny Play there until recently, Djabaly / Swim just to have a look, djibal-djobaliny see what was there. I Bardang Jump / fly / went there pretty late step then, didn’t I? The Barlanginy Hopping new bridge has been Djabalariny Falling built and the old one’s gone.” Dhabat Fall down 10 11 Sport School

There was a school there five miles away at West Popanyinning. The bus came and pick us up. It was freezing. I was barefoot. Oh, my toes were blue. Didn’t know what shoes were. We weren’t allowed to go to the Pumphrey’s Bridge School, because that was all for the white New Year’s Day they used to people. No Noongars were there, have sports, running, high only wadjalas (white people). jump, and all that, broad jump Nine children from four and swimming. It used to be a families – Marshall, big day down there. All sporting Donaldson, Watts and ground here. Mackwell – went there.* Old footy oval still there. They’re the same age as me, Pumphrey’s Bridge had their them mob. We used to play with own team then. them but not at school. They You know the Marsh brothers, came to Pingelly School after. the cricketers? Well, their The school bus used to come pick grandfather used to play footy with us, old Ted Marsh. He had a farm about 10kms down the At West Popanyinning. The plaque says, “Site of West Popanyinning Top: Trees have grown over the old sports road, down the river. That’s School, church and tennis courts. School opened 1939. Closed 1946. ground on the south side of the river. Erected in memory of former students and teachers. Unveiled by where the Marshes come from. former teacher Theresa Russel (Seeber) 11-9-88.” Above: Tree sapling growing on the footy oval. The bush in the background is The Warburtons were farmers where our camp was. from around here. Good Left: The swimming area between the old shearers and footy players. and new bridges. Quite a good family. Very Below: The Warby Pavilion, named after friendly mob. I think they’ve the Warburtons, next to the footy oval. still got farms around here Photos: 25 June 2015. somewhere.

The Pumphrey’s Bridge School, on the north side of the river Noongar English (off the right of the photo above), operated from 2 February 1944, Katadjin Knowledge/ “until on the 20th July 1948, the children of the region were learning transported to Pingelly to which centre the small schools were consolidated.”* Koorda Friends The building is still there: “A five-roomed farm house… constructed Koordidj Throw of mud-bats and with [a] verandah. The room suitable for the class Daarlnyininy Running room was 14ft x 14ft with an open fireplace and two windows. Board for the teacher [Miss Dorothy Falls, who was paid £229 p.a.], Dja-koorl Run away a separate room, was at the home of Mr L.S. Watts.”* 12 Murdalang Chase *Wandering by Walter Gable 13 The falling stones

“Poltergeists have been blamed for the mysterious fallings at Pumphrey’s and Boyup Brook this week”, Sunday Times, 1955*

When I was 12 or 13, I saw the stones, we everyone was telling me went around and had a about the stones. look. Picked the stone They were falling out up. Some were golfball the back of Pumphrey’s sized, some were a bit Bridge out at bigger than a golf ball. Donaldson’s farm. Leave no holes there, My Uncle Kevin Ugle come straight through and Aunty Alma lived the tin or whatever it in a tent there and is. One hit you on the stones came straight shoulder, bounce off, still through the tent, leave warm. no holes. They moved Unbelievable. from there to And a couple of others, a farmhouse verandah, Cyril and Lorna Penny, stones are still coming a couple of days, they through. were gone. They left Don’t know how that the place. They went happened but people to Narrogin. Yes, come from all over the unbelievable. world. I can’t explain what People come there. Pick happened. Nobody had the stones up, stones any theories. All the were still warm to hot. science and that they So where they come did, where the stones from… even all the big were coming from, took shots didn’t know where them to a lab they were coming from. and analysed them. Crikey. Very strange.

* Overview - Explanations for the ‘Falling Stones’ © Jag Films, for ABC Australia, 2005 The three news articles are part of this book thanks to sources listed in Tony Healy and Paul Cropper’s book Australian Poltergeist published in 2014 by Strange Nation.

14 15 Background: Lichens and tiny plants growing on a tree trunk at Pumphrey’s Bridge, 27 August 2015. Gary Bennell says: “We still tell the young ones about it. We take them out there and show them where the place is. We tell them about the stones falling and they look at you, say, ‘No, I don’t believe you.’ But then you tell the story, then someone else. They’ll back you up and say, 16 ‘Yeah, it’s true.’ Till they see something like this newspaper article here, then they believe it.” 17 Graves From Pumphrey’s

There’s quite a few graves around. At Pumphrey’s Bridge, where they Bridge to Pingelly camped just up the creek, there’s a burial site there up the riverbank, but the farmers ploughed over it. Photo: Gary Bennell’s collection My old Grandfather used to talk about all the graves there, but no one seemed to worry about it. They used to have sticks to mark the graves – they’re all gone. All the markers are all gone. My Uncle Mervyn was born in 1911 and died of pneumonia in 1923. His grave (pictured) is on a nearby farm, where he passed away. My family was camping around there somewhere. We put stones on the grave up out there, about 30 – 40 years ago. This Noongar English sign was only put up about five years Djoorlu Deceased bones Old Uncle Charlie Hill bought a block on Phillip Street ago. My Uncle Stuart Humes is going Mundung/moondoong Ghost / spirit around doing all the graves and that, Gary Bennell explains: “The Noongars were or anything, see. They had lanterns for the put crosses on them. Wirn Spirit looking for somewhere to build a church so night time services, but mainly the services Djin-djin Good spirit my Grandfather Charlie Hill just donated were done through the day. That’s one of the his piece of land. They all built that. It’s got first churches in this town. For the Noongars. Years ago we used to camp around here on the corner of Phillip and hessian bags on the inside and I remember I remember going to this church. I was only Naylor Street in Pingelly. This was our reserve. Come on the weekends, the gravel floors. The church lasted quite a little guy.” camp around here. From country area. We had a few families living here a few years. They didn’t have any power all the time permanent – my aunties and uncles. They used to go work the farms, come back at night. Farmers pick them up and take them out, bring them back, or they had their own horse and cart to go out. Camps right through here, that whole area. Tents, patched up tin and all that, right through here. Old home. Happy memories. We come back and watch a movie in town, walk back home, sleep. Next morning go to the bush again. On the weekends, couple of nights rest here, somewhere, and back to work on farms. I was about 12 [years old], See a possum scratch here? (On the Koomal 13, that age, 14, 15, 16. Clearing land. Common Brushtail Possum tree on the left.) They climb, scratch, Trichosurus vulpecula Still our land. Still our reserves. scratch, scratch. The way the old people Photo: Noongars gradually moved away used to trap possums: put a stick © Mike Griffiths, sensor camera from Pumphrey’s to this reserve here across there from the ground to a low at Boyagin, in Pingelly. fork in the tree, and little copper wire 3 July 2012 tied around there, near the top of the Later, from here we moved to the other stick, and put a noose on it. Possum reserve on Phillip Street. Family moved come down, get caught, strangled. Go there. Old tin houses there, concrete next morning and pick all the possums and tin. up. That's when the possum skin trade 18 was going a while back, years ago. 19 Koora, yey, kalyakoorl (Past, present, forever)

Photo: Mervyn Abraham’s collection Left: Dryandra Woodland Dryandra Woodlands not that far from here. There used to be lots of kangaroos, tammars, numbats, possums there. Beautiful. There’s not so many there now.

Below: cleared farmland near Pumphrey’s Bridge, August 2015.

Photo: Gary Bennell’s collection Before land clearing around here, it used to be like Dryandra.

All this land here. You had to burn for fire Photo: Mervyn Abraham’s collection breaks, clean it up. That’s what we’re going to do with this project for the rangers – care for country, clean up. Rangers make fire breaks, clean up mess, replant trees and that. Get rid of feral cats and foxes and whatever, weeds, all that.

Photos in the row above, and below: Gary Bennell’s collection Left: Ricky Ugle and Tom Garlett planting trees in Quairading in Winter 2015 with an Aboriginal Ranger Program run by Wheatbelt NRM. It’s a different ranger program than our one.

Noongar language sources used in this Noongar English book include us storytellers and: Kwadjet koorl Go forward • Nyungar Budjara Wangany: Nyungar NRM Wordlist & Language Doyntj-doyntj Together Collection Booklet of the Avon Catchment Region, Wheatbelt NRM. Available at www.wheatbeltnrm.org.au Gary Bennell says: “We all get together • The Nyoongar Legacy: the naming of the land and the language of its and bring the young blokes and take them people by Bernard Rooney © Batchelor Press 2011 around the old tracks and tell them stories • Noongar Waangkiny: a Learner’s guide to Noongar around the campfire.” Batchelor Press 2014. Second Edition © Noongar Boodjar Language Centre 2015 20 available at www.noongarboodjar.com.au 21 This publication was produced by Wheatbelt NRM through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme.