Aboriginal Heritage Assessment

______

Preliminary Environmental Investigation Great Western Highway Upgrade Mt Victoria to Lithgow

Phase 2: Corridor Area Investigation

by Jillian Comber

Report to Sinclair Knight Merz on behalf of the Roads & Traffic Authority

29 September 2009/Report No. 2

Executive Summary ______

The Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) are investigating a feasible option to upgrade the Great Western Highway from Mt Victoria to Lithgow. The options to be considered include a Mt Victoria bypass with an upgrade of the existing Great Western Highway or developing a new route to Lithgow.

Towards this aim the RTA have engaged Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) to prepare a Preliminary Environmental Investigation (PEI). The aim of the PEI is to identify potential environmental constraints, corridor options and route options.

This report identifies areas of high, medium and low cultural heritage significance which will assist the RTA in developing route options. Details of these areas are contained in the summary at the end of this report.

However, it is important that ground truthing of route options occurs to ensure that Aboriginal sites or places that may not have been identified during this desk top review are identified and management recommendations made.

Table of Contents ______

1.0 Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Background ...... 1 1.2 The Study Area ...... 1 1.3 Scope of Work ...... 3 1.4 Authorship ...... 3

2.0 Aboriginal Consultation ...... 4 2.1 Introduction ...... 4 2.2 Consultation ...... 4 2.3 Summary of Aboriginal community consultation ...... 9

3.0 Non-Aboriginal Community Consultation ...... 10

4.0 Environmental Context ...... 11 4.1 Background ...... 11 4.2 Topography ...... 11 4.3 Geology ...... 11 4.4 Vegetation ...... 11 4.5 Landform Mapping ...... 12

5.0 Aboriginal History ...... 14 5.1 Nineteenth Century Records ...... 14 5.2 Exploration and contact ...... 14 5.3 Darug History ...... 31 5.4 Gundungurra History ...... 39 5.5 Wiradjuri History ...... 47 5.6 Aboriginal Communities within the Study Area ...... 55

6.0 Archaeological Context ...... 59 6.1 Introduction ...... 59 6.2 Blue Mountains ...... 59 6.3 Study Area ...... 62

7.0 Predictive Model ...... 65

8.0 Corridor Options ...... 68

9.0 Summary & Recommendations ...... 70 9.1 Summary of constraints ...... 70 9.2 Recommendations ...... 70

References ...... 72

APPENDIX A: ...... 80 APPENDIX B: ...... 82 APPENDIX C: ...... 86 APPENDIX D: ...... 88 APPENDIX E: ...... 90 APPENDIX F: ...... 94 APPENDIX G: ...... 99 APPENDIX H: ...... 114 APPENDIX I: ...... 118 APPENDIX J: ...... 120 APPENDIX K: ...... 122

1.0 Introduction ______

1.1 Background The Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) are investigating a feasible option to upgrade the Great Western Highway from Mt Victoria to Lithgow. The options to be considered include a Mt Victoria bypass with an upgrade of the existing Great Western Highway or developing a new route to Lithgow.

Towards this aim the RTA have engaged Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) to prepare a Preliminary Environmental Investigation (PEI). The aim of the PEI is to identify potential environmental constraints, corridor options and route options.

The RTA requires that the PEI be undertaken in three phases, as follows:

Phase 1: Study area investigations Phase 2: Corridor options investigations Phase 3: Route options investigations

SKM have engaged Comber Consultants to undertake the Aboriginal Heritage Assessment in consultation with RTA’s Aboriginal Culture and Heritage Advisor and with the Aboriginal community.

Comber Consultants have completed the report for Phase 1 and this report provides the assessment that is required for Phase 2. Both reports will inform the Aboriginal Heritage Section of the PEI.

This report was reviewed and discussed at an Aboriginal Focus Group meeting held on 9 October 2009. That meeting agreed to the public release of this document. This public document does not contain records or precise location details of sensitive Aboriginal sites or areas within the study area and surrounds.

1.2 The Study Area The study area extends from the western end of the Soldiers Pinch project, near Browntown Oval, Mount Victoria to the west of the McKanes Falls Road junction, South Bowenfels, to the south of Lithgow. The study area is generally bounded by the Great Western Highway to the south, including the connection with Jenolan Caves Road. Newnes State Forest is situated to the north of the study area. The Blue Mountains National Park is situated along the eastern edge of the study area and Marrangaroo National Park is located to the west of Lithgow. The study area includes the townships of Mount Victoria, Hartley, Little Hartley and Hartley Vale. Please see Figure 1.

The study area is located within the local government area of the Blue Mountains City Council and the City of Lithgow.

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Figure 1: Study area (courtesy SKM)

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1.3 Scope of Work Following is the scope of work for Phases 1, 2 and 3 for the Aboriginal Heritage section of the Preliminary Environmental Investigation. Stage 1 has been completed and this report addresses Phase 2:

Phase 1: Study Area Investigations (completed) Phase 1 of this project is primarily a desk-top review. The consultant has been engaged to undertake the following:

• A search of the Department of Environment and Climate Change’s (DECC) Aboriginal Heritage Information System (AHIMS) to determine the location of known sites within the study area. • Background research to determine Aboriginal land use patterns, previous archaeological work in the area and geomorphological processes which influenced site location. • An analysis and synthesis of the above information to clearly outline the Aboriginal heritage significance of the study area, including mapping of known site locations and areas of archaeological potential. • Identification of broad constraints.

Phase 2: Corridor Options Investigations (the subject of this report) Phase 2 of this project, which is the subject of this report includes:

• A review of Phase 1 information to assist in determining issues associated with the corridor options. • Identification of constraints related to corridor options • “Drive throughs” with relevant Aboriginal stakeholders to familiarise stakeholders with the study area • Outline of Aboriginal views in respect of proposed corridor options

Therefore, this report includes details of the Aboriginal consultation to date, provides the Aboriginal prehistoric and historic context, provides predictive modeling in respect of Aboriginal site location, assesses the proposed corridor options and details constraints in respect of Aboriginal cultural heritage for each corridor.

Phase 3: Route Options Investigations Clarification of community stakeholder issues (if required)

1.4 Authorship The Aboriginal History contained in Section 5 of this report was written by Historian Caroline Plim BA, Assoc Dip Loc & App History and the remainder of the report was written by Archaeologist Jillian Comber, BA, Litt B. The RTA has contributed to the report through reviewing drafts as well as writing major portions of Section 2 in respect of the Aboriginal community consultation.

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2.0 Aboriginal Consultation ______

2.1 Introduction

As detailed in Section 5 of this report the nature and location of traditional boundaries is unclear, although attempts have been made to define such boundaries. Historical evidence indicates that at the time of Aboriginal‐European Contact, the Darug occupied the main east‐west ridge of the Blue Mountains, the northern Blue Mountains and the Cumberland Plain. To the south were the Gundungurra and to the west were the Wiradjuri (Breckell 1993:114‐121; Attenbrow 1993; Attenbrow 2002).

Archaeological evidence indicates that Aboriginal people have occupied the Blue Mountains for a long period of time, possibly for up to 22,000 years before present (BP).

Although the impact of non‐Aboriginal occupation of traditional lands which included forced movement and cultural dislocation, wrought major changes to traditional lifestyles Aboriginal people adapted and developed new communities. Such cultural adaptation showed the dynamic and continuous nature of Aboriginal culture, heritage and spirituality.

Aboriginal cultural heritagee includes th tangible and intangible and links people over time to their community and land. It is therefore important to recognise that Aboriginal people have the right to protect, preserve and promote their cultural heritage. In recognition of this right the RTA undertook consultation with the relevant communities. A key aspect of this consultation process was to ask for cultural knowledge that could have bearing on the development of route options.

2.2 Consultation

The Aboriginal community consultation was primarily undertaken by the RTA. The consultant was only required to attend one Aboriginal Focus Group meeting and to organise “drive throughs” of the study area. Therefore, the majority of the following section of the report has been prepared by the RTA:

The RTA’s Procedure for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Consultation and Investigation provides a staged approach to Aboriginal community consultation.

During the wider study area investigation the RTA approached the relevant Local Aboriginal Land Councils of Bathurst and Deerubbin (LALCs) and registered Native Title groups. Registered Native Title groups were identified by written search request to the National Native Title Tribunal (see Appendix F for Native Title search results). Two registered Native Title claimants exist within the study area (Gundungarra Tribal Council Aboriginal Corporation (GTAC) and Darug Tribal Aboriginal Corporation (DTAC). The solicitors for these groups were contacted to request contact details of the appropriate person to represent the group in early discussions. Appendix G contains details of people contacted and details of community meetings held with these individuals and organisations

The purpose of these early discussions was to gain preliminary knowledge and potential cultural constraints within the study area to assist in the early investigation process. Discussions were

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conducted by the RTA’s Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Advisor, Barry Gunther and the Project Manager, Chris Barnett. Contact was made via the phone and email with the registered Native Title groups and project briefing meetings held with LALCs. To assist in describing the project to these early stakeholder groups, preliminary site drive throughs were provided across the study area.

Where LALCs and Registered Native Title groups identified known community cultural knowledge holders that could provide important early cultural information, these people were also approached. These individuals were Bill Allen, Sharon Riley, Jacinta Tobin and Beverley Eaton.

The RTA requested Jillian Comber to contact Bill, Sharon, Jacinta and Beverley. Following are the results of the consultation with these individuals:

• Bill Allen attended a “drive through” on 30 May and provided information to Jeff Charlton, RTA. This information has been included in this report • Sharon Riley was to attend the “drive through” on 30 May but was not able to attend and has not provided any information to date. • Despite various attempts by the consultant to contact Jacinta Tobin, either directly or via Barry Gunther of the RTA and John Reilly of the Darug Tribal Aboriginal Corporation, to date these attempts have been unsuccessful. • Beverley Eaton advised that neither she nor any members of her organisation were traditional owners of the country within the study area and therefore said they did not feel they had the right to speak for country. She advised that her organisation was made up of Aboriginal people from outside of the Blue Mountains area who were interested in cultural heritage protection.

Stakeholder Advertisement Following the RTA’s Procedure for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Consultation and Investigation an advertisement, requesting Aboriginal people and/or groups who would like to be consulted on cultural heritage issues for this project, was published in the following Aboriginal print media:

o Koori Mail (Wednesday 11 March 2009) o National Indigenous Times (Thursday 19 March 2009)

The same advertisement was published in the following local print media:

o Bathurst Western Advocate (Saturday 7 March 2009) o Blue Mountains Gazette (Wednesday 11 March 2009) o Lithgow Mercury (Thursday 12 March 2009) o Oberon Review (Thursday 12 March 2009)

The template advertisement has been included in Appendix H.

Notification Letters In addition to print media advertising, the RTA notified the following relevant local and state government agencies about the project:

o Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) (Metropolitan and North West Branches) o Department of Aboriginal Affairs o Registrar of NSW Native Title Tribunal o The NSW Aboriginal Land Council

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o Bathurst Regional Council o Blue Mountains Local Council o The Heritage Branch, Department of Planning

The template notification letter is included in Appendix I.

As the study area in the south eastern corner included a small portion of the Blue Mountains national park, a search request was submitted to the Office of the Registrar of the Aboriginal Lands Right Act. This was to find out if there were registered Aboriginal Owners for the National Park and therefore should be notified and included in project consultation. The search revealed no registered Aboriginal Owners (see Appendix J for search results).

Appendix K lists the individuals and groups who registered their interest to be consulted during the project as a result of advertising and letter notification.

Aboriginal Focus Group (AFG): May All registered stakeholders were invited to an Aboriginal Focus Group (AFG) meeting on 7 May 2009 at Katoomba. The purpose of the AFG was to welcome stakeholders to the project, outline the project environment scope and programme of works, present early known cultural heritage constraints, to seek the identification of cultural knowledge holders and answer questions the group had. The RTA’s Procedure for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Consultation and Investigation was discussed to introduce stakeholders to the agencies stages consultation process. Stakeholders requested that drive throughs be offered to all AFG members. Tory Stening of Comber Consultants attended this meeting.

Drive Throughs At the request of the RTA, the consultant organised the “drive throughs”. This section of the report outlines the timing, attendance and outcomes for these drive throughs.

Drive Throughs Drive throughs were conducted on: • 30 April 2009 • 5 May 2009 • 30 May 2009 • 4 July 2009

Details of the drive throughs are as follows:

Thursday 30 April 2009 The consultant organised the logistics of the drive through and attended the drive through. In accordance with the RTA's Procedure for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Consultation and Investigation, invitations were sent to:

• Deerubbin Local Aboriginal Land Council (DLALC) • Bathurst Local Aboriginal Land Council (BLALC) • Darug Tribal Aboriginal Corporation (DTAC) • Gundungurra Tribal Council (GTC)

The DLALC advised that they would be attending, however, on the day they were unable to make it.

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The Gundungurra Tribal Council advised that they would be unable to attend on 30 April, so another drive through was organised for them for Tuesday 5 May 2009

A representative from The Bathurst Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Darug Tribal Aboriginal Corporation attended the drive through.

Following are the people who attended the drive through on 30 April 2009.

Bathurst Local Aboriginal Land Council: • Warwick Peckham

Darug Tribal Aboriginal Corporation • John Riley

Roads & Traffic Authority • Barry Gunther • Luke Day • Jeff Charlton

Sinclair Knight Merz • Yvette Sheedy

Comber Consultants • Jillian Comber • Ken Stanhope

Warwick Peckham from the BLALC advised that he would report back to the Land Council and contact the consultant or Barry Gunther of the RTA, if there were any issues. The BLALC have not contacted the consultant.

John Reilly from DTAC advised that he would report back to the members and Executive of DTA. On 13 July the consultant spoke to John Reilly. John advised the consultant that Sandra Lee, the Chair of the DTAC was still consulting with their members. On 23 July the consultant spoke to Sandra Lee. She advised that DTAC would like a detailed survey undertaken when the final route was selected. They would like to attend and will provide advice once the survey has been undertaken.

Tuesday 5 May 2009 As the Gundungurra Tribal Council were unable to attend “drive through” on 30 April, another “drive through” was organised for the 5 May at which two representatives attended:

Gundungurra Tribal Council • Sharon Brown • Tony Cooper

Comber Consultants • Tory Stening • Ken Stanhope

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Saturday 30 May 2009 Following requests by the broader Aboriginal community at the Aboriginal Focus Group meeting another drive through was organised. The following organisations were invited to a drive through on 30 May 2009:

Scott Franks Shaun Hooper Wargon & Burra Aboriginal Centre Muru Mittigar

Gordon Workman Brad Moore Darug Land Observation Blue Mountains City Council

Suzanne Ingram Helen Riley & Sharon Riley Shady Players Group Mingaan

Merle Williams Bill Allen Gundungurra Aboriginal Heritage Assoc Wiradjuri Bathurst

Brian Grant Robert Clegg Wiradjuri Traditional Owners Leanne Watson Gordon Morton & Celestine Everingham Darug Custodian Aboriginal Corporation Darug Cultural Heritage Assessments

The following people attended the drive through:

Darug Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessments • Gordon Morton • Celestine Everingham

Darug Land Observations • Gordon Workman • Ron Workman

Roads & Traffic Authority • Barry Gunther • Jeff Charlton

Sinclair Knight Merz • Yvette Sheedy

Comber Consultants • Jillian Comber • Ken Stanhope

During this drive through an artefact scatter was identified and recorded.

4 July 2009 As not all of the people invited to the drive through on 30 May were able to attend, but did express an interest, another drive through was organised for 4 July. Invitations were sent to the following people:

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Scott Franks Brian Grant Wargon & Burra Wiradjuri Traditional Owners

Shaun Hooper Sharon Riley Muru Mittigar Mingaan

Leanne Watson Bill Allen Darug Custodian Aboriginal Corporation Bathurst Wiradjuri

Subsequently, the following people attended:

Bathurst Wiradjuri • Bill Allen • Robert Bugg

Wiradjuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation • Brian Grant

Roads & Traffic Authority • Gretta Logue • Jeff Charlton

Sinclair Knight Merz • Yvette Sheedy

Comber Consultants • Jillian Comber • David Nutley

Report Reviews The draft version of this technical report was forwarded to all AFG members to seek comment on the content and approval prior to its public release. Stakeholders were allowed three weeks reviewing time prior to being invited to an additional Aboriginal Focus Group (AFG) to discuss any final issues.

Aboriginal Focus Group (AFG): October This AFG was held on 9 October 2009. The purpose of the AFG was to discuss the final report findings and public and confidential versions of this report.

Ongoing Consultation As the project moves forward the RTA continue to engage and consult with the registered stakeholders.

2.3 Summary of Aboriginal community consultation

As a result of the Aboriginal community consultation information relating to various site and areas of Aboriginal significance was recorded. All of these sites/ areas have been recorded on an Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System (AHIMS) site recording form and forwarded to AHIMS, DECC.

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3.0 Non-Aboriginal Community Consultation ______

During consultation with the Non-Aboriginal community information relating to various Aboriginal sites was recorded. All of the identified sites will be recorded on AHIMS site recording forms and forwarded to AHIMS, DECCW.

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4.0 Environmental Context ______

4.1 Background The information contained in this section of the report will facilitate an understanding of environmental determinants which influenced Aboriginal land use and occupation. Such information will assist in assessing areas of potential which may contain evidence of occupation and might place constraints upon corridor options.

4.2 Topography The study area is located within the area known locally as the Upper Blue Mountains. The natural environment of the Upper Blue Mountains, though having some similarities to the lower elevations is a distinct assemblage of features. Valleys have been incised by tributaries of the Grose River into Middle Triassic sedimentary rocks. This has led to the formation of escarpments with talus slopes rising above an undulating plain. The steep escarpments include the Newnes Plateau to the north, Mount Victoria, Mount York and Sugarloaf Mountain to the east and Hassans Walls to the north west.

The general drainage in the Blue Mountains is from west to east by way of the Grose River, which flows through the Grose Canyon. The Coxs River, which flows to the west of the study area, forms part of the catchment for Warragamba Dam. The largest river which flows through the study area is the River Lett which is a major tributary of the Cox’s River. Using the Horton-Strahler stream order (Horton 1945; Strahler 1952 & 1957), the River Lett is classified as a “third order stream”. Blackmans Creek, Kerosene Creek, Boxes Creek and Butlers Creek (all “second order streams”) are tributaries of the River Lett. A number of unnamed creeks which only contain water during and following periods of rain flow through the study area and are classified as “first order streams”.

As well as providing excellent water resources and ecological diversity, particularly in the drier months, these well watered valleys, drainage basins and mountain passes would have facilitated inter and intra-territory movement, for the local and visiting Aboriginal groups.

4.3 Geology The geology of the study area is of the Narrabeen Group consisting of undifferentiated sandstone, shale and tuff. Gravels including quartz fragments were noted in the area (Sydney 1:250,000 Geological Map). The sandstone forms the escarpments within the study area and varying quality of sandstone outcrops occur on the plateau in hills above the escarpments. Granite outcrops occur between Mount Victoria and the valley floor and include outcroppings in the Hartley Valley.

Lithic materials such as quartz and tuff are suitable for small tool manufacture whilst sandstone is suitable for axes. The sandstone also provides shelter and a suitable surface for sharpening axes. Rock outcrops suitable for habitation or protection from the weather will be located within the study area, as will stone artefact scatters.

4.4 Vegetation The vegetation of the study area consists mainly of dry sclerophyll or open woodland on the higher sections of the study area where the soils are sandy and well drained. The gullies would contain

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species consistent with the community described by Keith and Benson (1988) as Blue Mountains Sedge Swamp.

The open woodland would include Silvertop Ash (Eucalyptus siberi), Sydney Peppermint (Eucalyptus piperita), Scribbly Gum (Eucalyptus sclerophylla), Blue Mountains Ash (Eucalyptus oreades), with an understorey of Old Man Banksia (Banksia serrata), Hairpin Banksia (Banksia spinulosa) and various Acacia spp. Flowering shrubs would include Waratah (Telopea speciosissima) and Native Rose (Boronia serrulate) whilst groundcover species would include Grevillea laurifolia and Persoonia chamaepitys. Within the gullies the various sedge species including Pink Swamp Heath (Sprengelia incarnate), Coral Fern (Gleichenia dicarpa) and King Fern (Todea Barbara) (Baker et al 1986).

Such vegetation provides a rich and varied food source. Flowers from the Eucalyptus and Banksias provide a rich nectar. Acacia pods can be eaten and the bark used medicinally. The centre and tips of ferns are also edible.

Bark and wood suitable for spears, shields, water and/or food vessels (coolamons) and other implements would have been available from large trees.

This vegetation also supports a variety of animal life associated with Aboriginal diet. This includes possums, various wallabies and other small marsupials as well as birds and lizards. In addition the gullies and nearby creeks provide habitat for swamp wallabies, antechinus and yabbies.

4.5 Landform Mapping Landform mapping combined with archaeological data can provide a tool for modelling the regional cultural heritage landscape (Guilfoyle 2006:47). Using data developed by the Department of Environment and Climate Change (Guilfoyle 2006:47) and the environmental data detailed above, the landform units of the study area have been mapped and are shown at Figure 2. This data will be combined with the archaeological data to provide a predictive model for the study area.

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Figure 2: Landform units within study area

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5.0 Aboriginal History ______

5.1 Nineteenth Century Records Nineteenth–century explorers, travellers and settlers’ records can contribute to a picture of the environment and Aboriginal society in the nineteenth century; albeit from the European perspective of the era in which they were written, and informed by contemporary values and individual biases. Diaries of settlers make a few brief references to Aboriginal people in districts where they settled, however they are often in the context of employment rather than a record of Aboriginal culture. Official records such as census and blanket returns begun by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1816 are another source that can be used as a guide to the number of Aboriginal people who lived in an area, sometimes providing an indication of how people identified themselves in post-contact Australia. Census returns are limited in their use as they only document individuals in settlements and reserves who were present at the time of recording. Similarly, blanket returns only include individuals who presented themselves to claim a blanket in the districts in which they were distributed. Missionaries also made records relating to the people in the districts in which they were active, however none are located in the immediate Study Area. It is quite likely that Aboriginal people who settled on missions and reserves outside the Study Area once identified with the land within its boundaries (Appendix A contains a timeline of exploration; Appendix B contains a Return taken at Bathurst in 1833; Appendix C contains a Blanket Return of 1834 and Appendix D contains a list of sources consulted but not cited as they did not refer specifically to the study area).

5.2 Exploration and contact

Cultural Information Official journeys of exploration were sometimes guided by detailed instructions of what records should be noted. The expedition led by John Oxley in 1817 was instructed to record ‘all their circumstances, however minute’ in as ‘circumstantial’ a way as possible. The instructions from London made by J.T. Campbell, Secretary of State in 18 Apr 1816, included to record, …the general appearance of the country, its surface, soil, animals, vegetables and minerals, everything that relates to the population, the peculiar manners, customs, language, &c., of the individual natives, or the tribes of them that [they] may meet with [cited in Oxley 1820: 360].

Interest was shown in the Aboriginal occupants and all aspects of their traditions and lifestyles. Instructions included making detailed records of:

…the description, and characteristic difference, of the several people whom he may meet; the extent of the population, their occupation, and means of subsistence; whether chiefly, or to what extent, by fishing, hunting or agriculture, and the principal objects of their several pursuits.

A vocabulary of the language spoken by the natives whom he may meet, using in the compilation of each the same English words.

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If the people are sufficiently numerous to form tribes, it is important to ascertain their condition, and rules of their society; their genius and disposition; the nature of their amusements; their diseases and remedies, &.; their objects of worship, religious ceremonies; and the influence of those ceremonies on their moral character and conduct [cited in Oxley 1820: 360].

Indigenous people were integral to many non-Aboriginal journeys of exploration in Australia. In many instances Aboriginal people acted as guides as well as sharing their knowledge of the environment which they knew intimately. When they knew the language or dialect they acted as interpreters.

The first Non-Aboriginal person to venture into Gundungurra territory is thought to have been ex- convict John Wilson in 1792 when he lived with the Gundungurra for several years in the Bargo- Picton area, to the south-east of the study area. Subsequent contact is known to have been made by Dr George Bass who ventured into the Burragorang Valley in 1796. Lt Ensign Francis Barrallier led an expedition up the Nepean Valley and then to the west to the Nattai River in 1802. Two Aboriginal men, one known as Gogy accompanied the party. During a number of subsequent expeditions Aboriginal people assisted the party with making bark huts at Nattai and Barrallier sought advice from Bungin, a Gundungurra man, about routes and tracks over the mountains. None of these expeditions led into the present study area [Johnson 2007: 31-32].

After the crossing of the Blue Mountains by Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth in 1813 others who followed reported on contact or assistance from Aboriginal people whom they met. In 1818 Sir John Jamieson included Gilderoy (also known as Bob), a Darug man in his party. Jamison hoped to clarify the relationship between the Nepean and Cox’s Rivers by following the Nepean upstream but their journey was interrupted by damage to their boat. At the behest of Jamison, Thomas Jones later led another party including Gilderoy, Millot (Joe) and Nagga (Jack), all Darug men to trace the Cox’s River from Hartley. The route through the Hartley and Kanimbla Valleys skirting the northern side of Bill Healey Mountain (named after a Gundungurra man) brought them to the camp of Gundungurra people whose route they followed down the river [Johnson 2007: 33].

Jones’ expedition caught up with the Gundungurra group downstream of Goolara Peak. The Darug men in the party referred to the Gundungurra as Condonora and nervously presented them with their only tomahawk and as a mark of ‘peace and friendship’ they exchanged waistbands and sashes. The expedition was advised that they would come upon three rivers that flowed into the Cox’s River. The rivers known as the ‘Barragarang (now Kanangra), Barnalay (now Kowmung) and Condongbarrow (Wollondilly)’ and which rose in ‘Nattie, Condonora and Merrigang countries’. After reaching the junction of the Warragamba and Cox’s River Jones hoped to return via the location now known as the Blue Labyrinth but was cautioned not to by his Darug guides [Johnson 2007: 33].

In 1819 Charles Throsby of the Cowpastures undertook an expedition with a Gundungurra guide to the Bathurst area. The party including Coogoogong, ‘Chief’ of the Burra clan, and Duel and Bian of the Cowpastures area, followed an ancient Aboriginal route through the Southern Highlands to the Shooters Hill area, near what became Oberon, and then on to Bathurst. Around the same time hostilities between Aboriginal people and settlers around Bathurst began to escalate and the party was informed by a group of Aboriginal people returning from Bathurst that four Aborigines had been killed and others injured. The route skirted the south-western perimeter of the Study Area [Johnson 2007: 33].

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Accounts of journeys of non-Aboriginal exploration show that the routes taken by some explorers relied on Aboriginal guides from the localities through which they travelled. The routes within the traditional homelands of Aboriginal people often followed annual migration routes. The route showed to Charles Throsby linked the Gundungurra people’s summer camp in the Burragorang- Camden area and the winter camps around the head of the Cox’s River. The same routes were later adopted by settlers for travel and trade [Johnson 2007: 34, 55].

In the early nineteenth century explorers and visitors to the area west of the Blue Mountains recorded that a different language was spoken on the Bathurst Plains. Governor Macquarie and his aide-de-camp, Major Henry Antill noted in 1815 that Sydney Aborigines could not understand those at Bathurst although John Oxley observed that the language at Bathurst, Wiradjuri, was understood to the south and west. The Wiradjuri language was later found to be one of the most widespread in New South Wales [Towle n.d.: 26-27; Mathews 1897: 112 cited in Towle n.d.: 27; Antill 1815 www.library.mq.edu.au].

A list of documented expeditions, travel and residence in the area between the Blue Mountains and Bathurst is included in the Appendices.

Historical Environmental Information On viewing the valley west of Mt York in 1813, Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Wentworth found it to be ‘covered with grass, and well-watered by a small stream running easterly, and which was subsequently found to fall into the Nepean River’. The explorers travelled westerly for eight or ten miles the latter part of the journey being largely open country, but ’broken into steep hills’ [Oxley 1820: viii].

Later in 1813 Deputy Surveyor George Evans carried out a survey to investigate the area’s potential for grazing. Crossing mountainous broken country, later named the Clarence Hilly Range, the grass was found to be good, animal life abundant and the valleys well-watered. Evans named a small stream running westerly through the area, the Fish River and others such as the Campbell and Macquarie Rivers [Oxley 1820: ix-x].

Barron Field (1786-1846), a Judge in the Colony of New South Wales started the account of his 1822 journey at Emu Ford at the foot of the east side of the Blue Mountains. His account closely observed and recorded features of the environment noting aspects of the topography, geology and flora. They descended the mountains via Mt York arriving at the bottom of Cox’s Pass. The following day they travelled 21 miles (33.8 kms) via the Cox’s River stopping that evening to camp on the banks of the Fish River, to the west of Lithgow. Field described it as not as picturesque as Cox’s River but a ‘full and rapid stream with rippling falls, and equally rich in flowers’ [Field 1823: 464, 468].

Frenchmen Dumont D’Urville and René-Primevère Lesson arrived in Australia in 1823 as part of Lieutenant Louis Duperrey’s expedition. On 29 January 1824 they departed from Sydney for Bathurst with Lesson recording his experiences of their journey and their impression of the unfamiliar, but impressive Australian landscape. Arriving near Mt York on 2 February he made observations of the terrain at the ‘termination of the Blue Mountains’ where a steep slope connected it with the deep valley, the Vale of Clwydd to the west. The valley he thought was ‘European in appearance, with familiar plants growing in a thick carpet’, terminating at the Cox’s River six miles (9.66 kms) distant. Lesson thought it charming in contrast to the rocky, sparsely timbered, mountains. Cox’s River was found to be picturesque especially the little rapids or falls created by granite rocks in the river [www.lithgow-nsw.com/GlenroyH6.html].

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Figure 3: The Vale of Clwydd as depicted by Henry G. Lloyd in 1880. Although many years after D’Urville and Lesson visited the area it provides an impression of the landscape that they viewed. (ML SLNSW Small Picture File ZDL PX 43 f.250)

Captivated by the spectacular landscape, many travellers attempted to capture its beauty in sketches and paintings. Lady Georgina Sherbrooke (Mrs Robert Lowe) was one of the earlier and more proficient artists who recorded the view from Mount Victoria. The image reproduced below provided a record of the landscape that Europeans were gradually coming to know and which Aboriginal communities had known intimately for countless generations.

Figure 4: View ‘from Mount Victoria, Bathurst Road, Weatherboard’ drawn by Lady Georgiana Sherbrooke (Mrs Robert Lowe), 1842-1850

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(ML SLNSW Small Picture File Z PXD 390 f.22)

Bathurst District provided equally beautiful scenery and was assessed by explorers and travellers alike as having great potential for settlement and with reliable water sources. The same places were equally highly valued by the Aboriginal communities who had lived there for countless generations and whose lives and culture were inextricably connected to the landscape. The image below was originally reproduced from a sketch by Surveyor Evans and published with John Oxley’s journal of exploration.

Figure 5: Bathurst’s Falls by Major Taylor from a Sketch by Mr Evans (Oxley 1820: 300-301)

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Population The country between Mt Victoria and Lithgow north towards Newnes and south to the Cox’s River is associated with the Wiradjuri, Darug and Gundungurra people. These distinctions were not known by the first Europeans to venture west of the Blue Mountains although over time travellers became aware of the different Aboriginal communities with whom they met and their languages, territories, customs and affiliations. Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth’s exploration of the Blue Mountains and a suitable route to the west brought them into contact with the land’s traditional owners between Mt Victoria and the plains to the west. Although only a few brief accounts are recorded they provide a glimpse of contact that occurred. The party had seen camp fires in the distance and seen a group of about thirty people moving about at a distance during their journey between Wentworth Falls and Mt Victoria. Having descended Mount York on 29 May 1813 they proceeded north-westerly about two miles camping on the banks of a ‘fine stream of water’ later named the River Lett (thought to be derived from the word ‘rivulet’). Smoke from Aboriginal camp fires was again seen to the west on the 31st May. Remains of their old fires were found as well as traces where they had sharpened their spears. The party noted that marks on the trees indicated that their method of climbing trees differed little from Aborigines of Sydney. Although camped a short distance away, no contact was initiated by either party [Lee 1925: 155-156]. Allan Cunningham’s journal of his expeditions in 1817, 1823 and 1825 do not to provide any record of contact with Aboriginal people between the Blue Mountains and Bathurst [Lee 1925: 170-213, 501-510, 540-543].

In comparing historical accounts of the population and territories of Aboriginal communities in the early nineteenth century C.C. Towle in his literature review ‘The Aborigines of the Western Road: a Brief Survey’points out the lack of understanding of most observers of the organisation of groups of Aboriginal people they met, the size of the groups and their respective territories. The word ‘tribe’ was generally used, while Barron Field in 1822 used the term ‘family’ to describe some Aboriginal people from Bathurst whom they met near the Cox’s and Fish Rivers. Field estimated their territory to be about 30 or 40 miles (38 or 62 kms). On a journey west to Bathurst Lieutenant William Henry Breton estimated ‘tribal grounds’ as extending over 20 to 30 miles (32-38 Kms). Towle pointed out that tribes were made up of hordes and the size of each horde was dependent upon the extent of their territory and its capacity to provide food supplies [Towle n.d.: 9-10]. Today the term ‘clan’ is generally used in preference to ‘horde’.

In the early nineteenth-century the Aboriginal population was observed to be sparse, both east of the Blue Mountains and to the west in the region around the Bathurst Plain. John Oxley made note of it in his journey in 1817, especially between Wellington and Bathurst, west of the study area. René-Primevère Lesson observed however that the population west of the Blue Mountains in 1824 was greater than they had seen in the settled areas around Sydney [Dyer 2005: 179-180]. He noted in his journal that the:

Environs of Bathurst are inhabited by about sixty aborigines, true nomads who have no fixed abode, but who for the most part follow the banks of the rivers and streams [cited in Towle n.d.: 11].

Lesson concluded that the Aboriginal population of New South Wales was considered small overall and that Mr Oxley in all his journeys had never seen as many as four hundred. Although Lesson provided detailed descriptions of the landscape and the flora of the region west of the Blue Mountains, his observations of the Aboriginal people are brief and not particularly revealing [Lesson 1824:n.p., translation cited in Mackaness 1951: 72]. He described the Aboriginal people of Bathurst as ‘less tractable’ than those of the coastal areas, whereas on meeting a group of Aboriginal people in Bathurst in 1822 Barron Field found them to be friendly. Noting that their numbers were

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diminishing he estimated that the ‘circumference of each family’s peregrinations’ or wanderings extended to thirty or forty miles (38 to 64 kms) [Field 1823: 465].

The general paucity of detailed reports of Aboriginal people encountered in the area between Mt Victoria and Bathurst could suggest that the population of the mountains was smaller than in other districts such as Bathurst or the Cumberland Plain and therefore less visible to explorers or travellers who spent little time in any one place on the route. Similarly, the smallpox epidemic of April 1789 might have spread to the mountain people depleting their population as it had the people of the Cumberland Plains [Attenbrow 2009: 108]. It is also likely that that Aboriginal people concealed themselves from early explorers to avoid contact, the impact of which was not known.

Charles Darwin was one of few nineteenth-century travellers making the trip to Bathurst in 1831 who made comment on what he saw as the reasons for the rapidly declining Aboriginal population. Darwin recorded in his journal the sighting of only two groups of Aborigines with the exception of ‘some boys brought up in the houses’. He explained the marked decrease in the population as ‘partly owing to the introduction of spirits, to European diseases (even the milder ones of which, such as the measles, prove very destructive), and to the gradual extinction of the wild animals’ [cited in Mackaness 1951: 39].

It was not until the late nineteenth century that greater attention was given to the inclusion of Aboriginal people in the New South Wales census. Prior to this time surveys were made at larger settlements and were usually linked to records kept for the distribution of blankets as has been noted previously. No comprehensive survey was made to determine the size of the Aboriginal population, where they were living, nor their living circumstances as began to be done for the European population.

Lt Richard Sadlier of the Royal Navy was commissioned in 1826 and 1827 to make an estimate of the population of the ‘various tribes of Aboriginal natives’. The report was by no means comprehensive as the report noted that ‘several tribes were not visited’ including those along the coast between Sydney and the Shoalhaven. Sadlier estimated the total Aboriginal population of New South Wales at 2,710. Those recorded in the vicinity of the study area included thirty people at Bathurst. Aboriginal people living in areas to the south included communities at Nattai [sic] with a population of 62, and at Burra Burra described as being ‘very numerous’ [Census of New South Wales 1891: 194- 5].

In the early 1830s Lt William Breton noted that the Aboriginal people gathered near Bathurst numbered between 100 and 200, a large number given previous reports, possibly indicating that the location was a gathering place for a number of local clans or possibly with people from neighbouring regions. Official Returns taken at Bathurst in May and July 1833 provide a more detailed guide to Aboriginal people living in and around the district (See copy in the Appendices). The records included each individuals ‘English Name and Native Name’, ‘Probable Age’, ‘Number of Wives’, ‘Children – Male, Female’, ‘Description of Tribe’ and ‘Place or District of usual resort’. In early lists only the names of males were recorded although this list includes one seven year old girl. Fifty-nine men and one child are named in the list, while sixty nine women and twenty-four children were tallied but not named. The total number present was one hundred and fifty three [SRNSW Col Sec, Special Bundles, Reel 3706 2/22919.1].

Tribes or clans identified and the number of men represented included those from Bathurst (15), Mudgee (7), Patricks Plains (9), Capertee (2), Dabee [Dubbo?] (1), Balubla [Belubula River near Canowindra] (3), Mandorama [Mandurama near Carcoar] (4), Warwick [between Cowra and Canowindra] (13), Kings Plains (1), Cox’s River (1) and Coornbing [Cooranbong] (1). The details of

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two men included in the count were not included in the list. Fifteen men, twelve women and five children were from a clan of the Bathurst district, while one man and three women were from the Cox’s River [SRNSW Col Sec, Special Bundles, Reel 3706 2/22919.1]. Blanket Returns for Bathurst in 1834 indicate the recipients totalling 170, including 69 men, 1 orphaned girl, 61 women and 39 other children. Seventy-nine people identified with the Bathurst clan with none from the Cox’s River clan as had been present in the previous year. Many Aborigines included in the return identified with clans from the wider district surrounding the township of Bathurst.

Aboriginal communities continued many traditional practices after settlement despite the disruption. In the early nineteenth century corroborrees and other ceremonies were reported as being held in the Bathurst District and at times observers were permitted at gatherings. Annabella Boswell in her recollections of Australian Aboriginal people recorded a ‘great gathering’ near Bathurst in 1837. It included visitors from distant ‘tribes’ including people from the Hunter River, Goulburn and the Maneroo [Boswell 1890: 8; Towle n.d.: 13]. Other accounts of the 1830s noted visits by Goulburn Aboriginal people to attend a corroboree at Bathurst [Meredith 1973: 101]. Numerous early nineteenth-century reports of gatherings near Bathurst, rather than at other locations to the east closer to the Blue Mountains, suggest that this location could support and was suitable for large gatherings of local bands as well as groups visiting from distant areas [Towle n.d.: 13].

Blanket Returns from Hartley between 1838 until 1842 provide an indication of Aboriginal people living in the area between Mt Victoria and Bathurst during this period [Col Sec, Special Bundles Reel 3706 4/1133.3] (See copy in Appendices). The Police Magistrate who compiled the list noted that although a total of 82 individuals were recorded it:

…[did] not by any means comprise the number of Aborigines belonging to the District for in consequence of their being at war with a neighbouring tribe, nearly all the women and a number of the men were afraid to come up to apply for Blankets [Col Sec, Special Bundles Reel 3706 4/1133.3].

In 1838 men and women were listed in the Blanket Return with both their English and Aboriginal names. The number of a man’s wives and children were recorded. In the following year Hartley was listed as a Station with a population of 45, including 14 men, 15 women, 11 boys and five girls. The 1841 Blanket Returns provided more detail about the Hartley Aboriginal community at this time. The names of the 17 men, 24 women and 12 children are included (total of 53), and all are identified as Cox’s River people residing in the Hartley District. The probable ages of the men are listed. It is not known if the wives and children of the men (tallied next to each man’s name) are also included in the returns for women and children. If not, the population present to claim blankets totalled eighty-seven [Col Sec, Special Bundles Reel 3706 4/1133.3] (The returns are included in the appendices).

Blanket Returns for Hartley taken in 1842 record similar details to the previous year. Men, women and children are listed by name (English and Aboriginal), and the number of wives and children of the men are noted, but not named [Col Sec, Special Bundles Reel 3706 4/1133.3]. No further Blanket Returns or census data was found for Hartley after 1842. Due to scarcity of data kept on Aboriginal populations during the mid nineteenth-century it is difficult to come to any conclusions about the Cox’s River people at Hartley between 1838 and 1842. Hartley stands in contrast to other settlements such as Bathurst, and Penrith where Aboriginal people identified with many districts which were often distant, although within the territory of their language group.

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In 1845 the NSW Legislative Council designated a Select Committee to investigate the conditions of the Aborigines in various districts in the colony. A survey was sent to magistrates in districts such as Bathurst and they were answered with varying attention to detail (See copy in the Appendices). Other districts surveyed in adjacent regions included Windsor, Picton, Berrima, Bungonia and Goulburn. The answers to the survey were brief and its accuracy open to question. The population of the Bathurst Police District was recorded as 150, with equal numbers of men and women. It was estimated that the population had diminished by thirty percent over the preceding two years, due to ‘natural causes and their wars’. Some Aborigines were eating traditional foods including animals and fish, while others were provided with supplies by local stations. Opportunities to continue to hunt native animals for food were diminishing due to the reduced number of kangaroo and emus in the district [NSW Legislative Council, Report from the Select Committee1845: 32-35].

Some of the questions in the survey sought to address the health and welfare of Aborigines. The informants at Bathurst noted that the last issue of blankets had taken place in the previous year and it was suggested that more should be distributed due to the cold climate. Recommendations were that the well being of Aborigines would be promoted through the allocation of woollen clothes, blankets and basic provisions in winter. Some of the Aboriginal community were ‘accepting’ medical treatment at the hospital or surgery when required. Only one person, Jemmy Nyrang was given permission to be admitted, with the expenses guaranteed by Messrs Kinchela and Jones. Relations between settlers and Aborigines were reported as being ‘friendly’, with no ‘collisions whatsoever having occurred’. It further noted that a few Aborigines had been killed by ‘hostile tribes’ [NSW Legislative Council, Report from the Select Committee1845: 32-33].

In 1871 Aborigines were included in the total population of the colony, although it only included people in settled areas [Coghlan 1894: 194-5]. In 1891 a more detailed census was carried out. The exact population of the Study Area is not able to be determined from the available data however 91 Aboriginal people were recorded as living in the County of Cook, 37 in the County of Bathurst and 10 in the County of Westmoreland. The total population of Aboriginal Australians recorded in New South Wales and the adjacent colonies was 8,280. Most of the Study Area is in the County of Cook. It is probable that many Aboriginal people were not included in the census of the area with which they traditionally identified. It is also likely that unless Aboriginal people were living in towns or villages they were not included in the census. Aborigines were listed under the categories of employers, contractors and the unemployed, with the largest group being wage-earners. No distinctions were made as to the place of residence of the individuals [Coghlan 1894: 312, 732-3].

Food Sources Food sources utilised by Aboriginal Australians were diverse and used according to their seasonal availability within a community’s home territory. Aboriginal bands did not regularly travel over the full extent of their territory. Except for ceremonial purposes or in good seasons, only areas with the best living conditions and most reliable food sources were frequented. This could result in a considerable distance between hunting grounds of neighbouring groups [Towle n.d.: 14].

Early nineteenth-century explorers made a number of useful observations about the variety of foods consumed by Aboriginal people. Major Antill’s journal made during a trip to Bathurst as the Aide-de- Camp of Governor Macquarie in 1815 recorded that the Bathurst Aborigines domesticated the ‘native dogs’ and made use of them in hunting game such as kangaroo and emu [Antill 1815 www.library.mq.edu.au]. René-Primevère Lesson observed in 1824 that fishing was also a principal activity at Bathurst [Towle n.d.: 17]. In 1839-40 Louisa Meredith recorded that the Macquarie River was a valuable source of food. The fishing skills of Aborigines were considered expert and they showed ‘patience and ingenuity’ in making and using snares to catch prey [1973: 104]. Possum and kangaroo formed a major part of the diet of Aboriginal people around Bathurst and they were

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roasted whole with few parts of the animal wasted. They also ate turtle, fish, wild turkeys’ eggs, ‘guanas’, snakes, and large grubs which were considered a delicacy [Meredith 1973: 94].

John Oxley noted in 1817 that the inland people did not use a hook and line for fishing, while Louisa Meredith in 1839-40 observed that the spear was used for this purpose. Early writers do not mention any use of fishing nets or traps [Meredith 1973: 105; Towle n.d.: 22]. In 1813 Gregory Blaxland observed an Aboriginal camp near the River Lett where flowers of the honeysuckle tree were used for food [Towle n.d.: 18]. Tree climbing to catch the possums was a common hunting technique aided by the cutting of notches in tree trunks for foot and hand holds. This was noted in despatches by Governor Lachlan Macquarie as being carried out by Aboriginal people at Bathurst who carried ‘stone implements like an axe’ for this purpose. John Oxley made similar observations of this hunting technique used by coastal and people west of the mountains [Towle n.d.: 22].

Garments, Decorative Objects and Accessories European observers made note that unlike the Aboriginal communities of the Sydney area, those west of the mountains were equipped with rugs and cloaks made of skins to protect themselves from the colder weather. Men and women also wore decorative objects and headwear. In 1802 Francis Barrallier described the women of the Burragorang Valley, to the south of the study area, as having head dresses made of bands on which kangaroo teeth were strung. The men wore necklaces of reeds wound round their neck a number of times with a length hanging down their backs. They wore cloaks made from the hide of various animals stitched together with sinew [Johnson 2007: 25]. In 1815 Major Antill noted that Aborigines near Bathurst wore cloaks of kangaroo and emu like those worn to the east that were carved on the inside with a variety of figures. The cloaks were worn for warmth rather than modesty, and women wore them in a way that they could carry their children in them. Macquarie exchanged yellow cloth for the skin cloak of one of the men [Antill 1815 www.library.mq.edu.au; Towle n.d.: 37]. In 1822 Barron Field met a group of Aborigines from Bathurst. Field noted that the people spoke a different language to coastal Aborigines and wore cloaks. The cloaks of skins were described as neatly sewn together with ‘the sinews of the kangaroo and emu’. The insides were carved with ‘a world of figures’. They were worn for protection from the cold and were thrown back across the shoulders when the weather was warm [Field 1823: 464, 468]. As shown in the image below a man noted as being a ‘Chief’ of Bathurst drawn by J.W. Lewin and published with Oxley’s Journal provides an indication of how cloaks were worn and the fine decorative work on the skin side of the pelt [1820: 302-303]. A woven cord is worn in the man’s hair.

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Figure 6: ‘Windradyne, Aboriginal Warrior of the Wiradjuri Nation’ drawn by J.W. Lewin and engraved by R. Havell & Son (Oxley 1820: 302-303)

The cloaks and accessories worn by Bathurst Aboriginal people bore similarities to those worn in the Wellington Valley described by James Henderson in 1835 [cited in Mackaness 1951: 23]:

The flesh side of the rug is turned outward, and is ornamented by a number of lines, forming oblong compartments and undulation, cut into the skin, and marked with red pigment. They likewise carry with them, skin bags, with the fur outside, containing a few wooden implements for digging up roots, and taking up grubs, also vessels for water made of the large, tubular excrescences of the gum-tree, hollowed out, which are here called calabashes.

Dr John Henderson in 1830, James Backhouse in 1835 and James Gunther, a missionary in the 1840s each observed that elaborate headdresses were also worn by people further west in the Wellington Valley [Towle n.d.: 39]. It is quite likely that the Aboriginal people between Bathurst and the Blue Mountains wore similar attire, with some local variations influenced by differing customs and traditions.

In 1835-40 Annabella Boswell described the process of collecting possum skins that she observed in Bathurst and how the best skins were reserved for making cloaks and rugs. It should be kept in mind that Boswell was ten or eleven years old at the time of observing the practices, including them in her recollections written in 1890. She recalled that each skin was pegged out tightly on a sheet of bark with the ‘raw’ side facing out. They were placed near the fire and occasionally rubbed with fine wood ash until they had dried. The edges of the skins were trimmed and then marked with ornamental patterns to make them ‘soft and pliable’. The patterns were made by doubling the skin and scraping with glass or flint. The skins were then rubbed with grease and sewn together by piercing the pelt with a finely pointed bone and threading through the hole ‘a thread of lint, or opossum wool’. Boswell estimated that it took 30 to 40 skins to make a good sized cloak or rug. When moving camp, women would put on all the blankets and cloaks, suspending them under their left arm and fastening them over their right shoulder with a wooden pin [Boswell 1890: 6-7].

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The fur from remaining possum skins was used for ‘spinning’, a process described by Boswell as ‘much like the old distaff and spindle’ to make a strong thread. The cord was used to make ‘nets’ for the men’s belts and girdles and sometimes for nets for the hair and small bags. Men were described as wearing a belt through which narrow strips of possum skin were suspended. The ‘linen’-like thread used for making the women’s bags and nets was immensely strong and durable which was essential as they were used for carrying all their possessions [Boswell 1890: 6-7]. The neat baskets and bags of Aboriginal women described by Louisa Meredith in 1839-40 were woven of ‘fine long dry grass’. The ‘currijong’ bark was also used for this purpose and used to carry their belongings [Meredith 1973: 107].

Weapons, Tools and Implements A variety of weaponry was used by people west of the Blue Mountains. Surviving descriptions are mainly from the Bathurst district and north-west in the Wellington Valley. Early nineteenth-century European accounts include references to spears, woomeras, shields, clubs and boomerangs. Annabella Boswell’s recollections describe men carrying spears and nulla nullas, ‘a sort of rude club’, as well as their boomerangs which they carried in their belt [1890: 7].

In 1839 Louisa Meredith noted that some Bathurst Aborigines carried shields, spears, woomeras, clubs and boomerangs. Meredith described fishing spears as of twelve or fourteen feet long and a type brought to a fine point. A number of other European observers such as James Gunther further west in the Wellington Valley observed similar weapons. Descriptions of tools such as hafted stone axes, stone knives, digging sticks, a wooden shovel, water containers and bags carried by women are found in accounts such as that of Louisa Meredith at Bathurst [Meredith 1973: 105-7; Towle n.d.: 72- 74].

Meredith’s descriptions are quite detailed going into the description of weapons and tools and the techniques used in their application. Meredith makes a distinction between the hunting and a fighting spear, with the latter being shorter (about seven or eight feet long) and thicker. The spear is barbed with fish bones or worked stone flints, or notched at a distance from the point. A ‘wammera’ (woomera) or spear thrower was described as being two feet long. Other fighting weapons included in Meredith’s written recollections included the ‘nullah-nullah’, of hardwood, with a round handle widening towards the end into a broad knob, well sharpened on the lower side; and the boomerang, an ‘ingenious invention’ and used with accuracy. Shields were made of a long, solid piece of ‘diamond shape’ timber of about two feet in length. It was hollowed on the inner face into which was fixed a loop or handle [Meredith 1973: 105-7].

Axe grinding grooves are known to be located near the Cox’s River in the south of the study area. Such sites are usually utilitarian although are sometimes reported adjacent to ceremonial rock carving sites [Towle n.d.: 87]. A number of items linked to Bathurst and Hartley are held in the Australian Museum.

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Figure 7: A club found at Hartley provides an indication of the type of weapons made and used by Aboriginal people in the Study Area (Australian Museum Aboriginal Collection Patrick & Simmons 1994: 25)

Camps The recollections of Annabella Boswell published in 1890 provide some insight into the way of life of a small extended family group of Aboriginal people who camped near the family’s property in the Bathurst district between 1835 and 1840. Boswell identifies them as the ‘Capita Tribe’ (Capertee, to the north east of Bathurst) of which she noted there were only seven left. The family were sometimes accompanied by a neighbouring ‘tribe’ or ‘strangers’ from the Hunter River. The Aboriginal family camped on a ‘grassy flat near the creek’ and:

…in fine weather their camps were composed of a half circle of green boughs interlaced so as to form a sheltering wall about three or four feet high. In wet or stormy weather they stripped sheets of bark from the tall gum trees or stringy bark trees, and sticking two forked posts into the earth about eight feet apart, put a ridge pole across between them. Against this rested the bark slanting… [Boswell 1890: 4]

The men stripped off the bark and constructed the gunyah while the women made the fire and prepared the food.

Traditional Medicine and Health Practices Bush medicine continued to be practiced by Aboriginal communities in the mid nineteenth-century. Annabella Boswell observed some of the practices of an Aboriginal family of the Capertee people who camped near Bathurst between 1835 and 1840. A ‘primitive sort of hot bath’ described by Boswell was used to treat a bad cold. A hole large enough to lie in was dug in the earth and then lined with river stones. A fire was lit in it and when the wood was burnt away the ashes were swept out. It was then lined with young gum leaves over which water was poured creating steam. The person being treated then lay in the hole and was covered with a possum skin with the steam heating their body [Boswell 1890: 5].

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Artistic, customary and ceremonial practices Artistic, customary and ceremonial practices were of great interest to European visitors to the colony and many accounts include descriptions in varying detail; not all are first hand or precise. Only a few accounts of corroborees were made by women one being by Annabella Boswell during her stay in Bathurst between 1835 and 1840. She recalled that she thought it was held in 1837 and that it appeared to mark the ‘conclusion of some religious ceremony or consultation, as there was a great gathering of strangers from distant tribes’, possibly from the Hunter River, Goulburn and Maneroo areas. The settler’s and their families were invited to observe the ceremony [1890: 7-8]. Boswell described the scene which was lit by campfires with the women seated around the fire beating on their ‘opossum cloaks’ which were gathered up into pads. The muffled drumming sounds accompanied their singing. The men were painted with pipe-clay and danced slowly and then more quickly sometimes imitating the movements of emus and kangaroos. The Aboriginal gathering broke up the following day [1890: 8]. A great deal of trouble was gone to in preparing for corroborees with the men in particular painting their bodies and hair with grease and pipe clay. Louisa Meredith described the preparation of the pipe clay by softening in the mouth and then when of the right consistency it is applied with a finger. An ‘infinite regard’ was paid to ‘the general effect of the pattern’ [1973: 98].

Artistic and customary practices observed in the early 19th century in the central western region of New South Wales include rock carvings, painting, charcoal drawing, tree carving and stone mounds. Louisa Meredith’s journal made note of rock carvings near Bathurst that displayed the feet of the subject turned in the opposite direction. The images were reputed to illustrate the legends told by the Aboriginal people of the area. Stone cairns were located at Mt pleasant near Bathurst [Towle n.d.: 82-86]. Initiation rites varied among different language groups although it is thought that the knocking out of a front tooth was universally practiced in the area west of the Blue Mountains, extending to the central west of new South Wales [Meredith 1973: 96; Towle n.d.: 76].

During her stay in Bathurst in 1839-40 Louisa Meredith noted that the clear quartz crystals of the district served a ceremonial purpose for Aboriginal people. She noted her husband, Charles Meredith’s observation that Aboriginal doctors or ‘Crodjees’ (karadji) gave them to people as charms for use in a variety of ceremonies [Meredith 1973: 91]. Great respect was held for the elders in Aboriginal communities and as observed by Louisa Meredith in 1839-40, age and valour were considered significant distinctions of rank [1973: 96].

Accounts of artistic, customary and ceremonial practices linked to the Darug, Gundungurra and Wiradjuri people are discussed in other sections of the report (See Darug History, Gundungurra History, Wiradjuri History).

Burial Customs European explorers and visitors to the colony showed extreme curiosity in Aboriginal burial sites, their placement and construction, as well as the rituals that were practiced during burial ceremonies. Again, accounts vary in their details and accuracy. René-Primevère Lesson made observations about Aboriginal burial customs in his journals made during his visit to the colony of New South Wales. It is unclear as to the location of the ceremony he witnessed, however he noted that while children who had died were buried, the bodies of adults were burnt. The ashes were then placed ‘under a mound after enveloping them in foliage, they engrave hieroglyphic epitaphs on the bark of the trees nearby’. Lesson did not know what ideas Aborigines had about religion however understood that they believed in a spiritual life after death, honouring their dead through elaborate ceremonies at the burial places. Some tombs he noted have ‘three furrows cut into them, and placed in semi-circles’ [cited in Dyer 2005: 174-175, 222].

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Annabelle Boswell visited two graves of Aboriginal men at Bathurst in 1840. One she recorded as being that of Jacky Ranken whom she had known. The graves were located on the brow of a hill with the trees closest being carved to mark the location. Boswell noted that one of the trees had fallen and the other was dying. The mound which was once raised a few feet above the ground had eroded [1890: 7]. Numerous references can be found to burial sites and ceremonies in the Wellington Valley around this time however there are few others made that refer to the area between Bathurst and the Blue Mountains [Towle n.d.: 59]. A more recent reference providing evidence of similar burial practices in the vicinity of Hartley comes from William Foster in ‘Hartley – Gateway to the West’ published in 1932. Foster noted that a burial ground was located at a site at Bowenfels south of Hassan’s Walls. Carved trees once marked the location not far from a creek, while today it is possible that the only discernible landmark is the private European cemetery nearby.

Leaving the road at the gateway of Drew’s orchard, a rustic pathway leads us to the rear of the apple orchard, where stands the historic cemetery of the district. Nine headstones in excellent state of preservation will be seen, but old inhabitants declare that they originally numbered twenty. Behind the graves is the old burial ground of a tribe who lived in the Valley. Mr James Field gave me interesting information concerning this historic ground. As a young boy, he witnessed the burial of a member of the tribe. After the body had been placed in the ground in the manner usual to aboriginal burial, the trees were marked for some distance around in order to indicate to all that here was hallowed ground [Foster 1932: 242].

The site known as the Hassan’s Walls Aboriginal Burial Place is recorded in the Lithgow Heritage Study [SHI No: 1960043].

Accounts of burial rituals linked to the Gundungurra people are discussed in other sections of the report (See Gundungurra History).

Conflict between Settlers and Aborigines Following the crossing of the Blue Mountains and the survey of the area, plans were made to build a road. To assist in road construction and settlement in the districts west of the Blue Mountains a Government provision depot was built at the Cox’s River. No official records have been located that indicate any conflict between Aboriginal people and European expeditions and travellers prior to this date but in 1816 it was reported that the Cox’s River Provision Depot was ‘attacked and Plundered’. Orders from Governor Macquarie indicate that the ‘Body of Hostile Natives’ had ‘recently crossed the Blue or Western Mountains from this side to the New discovered Country’. The document dated 22 April 1816 does not reveal which district they came from. A Detachment directed to the area was given orders that should armed Natives approach they were not to permit them closer than sixty yards to the post. They were to be fired on if they refused to retreat. If then they did not ‘retire’ they were to be taken prisoner and escorted to Parramatta [SRNSW Col. Secs Reel 6065 4/1798]. At this time no subsequent altercations were recorded at the Cox’s River Depot.

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Figure 8: Cox’s River Stockade Convict stockade at Cox's River Crossing near Hartley, Artist unknown (ML SLNSW Picman Call No: XV/1)

By 1824 conflicts were occurring in the Bathurst District with attacks and reprisals on both sides being reported in official and unofficial sources. The renowned Wiradjuri leader, Windradyne (c.1800-1829) of the Sofala district in central-western New South Wales was associated with defensive raids against settlers in the 1820s. Windradyne was a key protagonist in the period of conflict between settlers and the Wiradjuri later known as the ‘Bathurst Wars’. Also known as ‘Saturday’, in December 1823 he was identified as an instigator of conflicts that resulted in the death of two convict stockmen at Kings Plains and was captured and imprisoned at Bathurst for one month [Roberts 2005: 408-9].

Other violent incidents during the period of conflict included the killing of seven stockmen in the Wyagdon Ranges north of Bathurst, and the killing of Aboriginal women and children by ‘settler- vigilantes’ at Raineville in May 1824. As a result of brutal clashes, on 14 August 1824 Governor Brisbane imposed martial law on the western district. Increased numbers of troops were posted to the Bathurst district and Magistrates were permitted to administer summary justice, without recourse to a formal trial or the usual procedures of the Court. The crisis settled and martial law was repealed on the 11 December 1824. Two weeks later Windradyne was pardoned by Governor Brisbane. He returned to Bathurst and in later years was reported to be involved in clashes with settlers in the Lake George District. In 1829 Windradyne was injured in a tribal fight on the Macquarie River, dying in Bathurst Hospital on 21 March [Roberts 2005: 408-9]. Windradyne was respected for fairness in leaving unharmed settlers who showed respect for Aborigines [Read 1988: 10; Roberts 2005: 408-9].

The conflict was a significant event in the district’s history and was still recounted decades later. In 1852 Colonel Mundy, a visitor to the Bathurst district wrote:

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Dreadful tales of cold-blooded carnage have found their way into print, or are whispered about in the provinces, and although there be Crown Land Commissioners, police magistrates, and settlers of mark, who deny, qualify, or ignore these wholesale massacres of the black population, there can be no real doubt their extirpation from the land is rapidly going on [Mundy cited in Read 1983: 25-26].

Examples of punitive and unprovoked attacks on Wiradjuri in the late 1830s and the 1840s are recorded by Judith Monticone in Healing the Land: a closer look at needs of the Australian (re)conciliation movement [1999]. None of the attacks recorded by Monticone are within the study area.

Accounts of resistance linked to the Wiradjuri people are discussed in other sections of the report (See Wiradjuri History).

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5.3 Darug History

5.3.1 Traditional Boundaries of the Darug of NSW The Darug people are the traditional owners of the land in the eastern-most part of the Study Area. Historical evidence indicates that the Darug people occupied the main east-west ridge of the Blue Mountains, the northern Blue Mountains and the Cumberland Plain. Their traditional boundaries border on those of the Gundungurra to the south and the Wiradjuri to the west. The precise nature and location of traditional boundaries is unclear.

Mapping presented here is based on western geographic mapping and may not accurately reflect traditional tribal boundaries. Figure 9: Map showing the extent of the territory associated with the Darug people. The boundary between the Darug, Gundungurra and adjacent language groups is unclear (Horton 1994: 1009)1

Research BY R.H. Mathews, a pioneer linguist and anthropologist, in the early 20th century revealed that the Darug or Dharruk people as he referred to them inhabited an area adjoining the ‘Thurrawal’ (Dharawal) to the south and Wiradjuri in the west. Their territory was described as extending along the coast to the Hawkesbury River and inland to Windsor, Penrith and Campbelltown; then from the mouth of the Hawkesbury River to Mount Victoria [Mathews 1901d: 155; Mathews 1901a: 140].

1 The word 'Eora' was used by several colonists around the time of contact in historical accounts as the word for 'men' or 'people', but nowhere, Attenbrow asserts (2002: 27, 35) was it given as the name of a 'tribe' or 'place'. It was only after the 1870s that the word Eora was used to refer to a language in various documents, but the origin of the name was not given (Attenbrow 2002: 31). After the publication of NSW Aboriginal Place Names and Euphonious Words in 1943 by the Australian Museum, 'Eora' was listed as the 'Blackfellows of Sydney district'. Since then Eora has been used widely as a tribal name, most notable by Tindale in his Aboriginal Tribes of Australia map. In more recent times it is being acknowledged by linguists that Eora was the Sydney language word for an Aboriginal 'person' (Troy cited in Attenbrow 2002:36).

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The anthropologist Norman B. Tindale described the boundaries of the Darug people as extending from mouth of the Hawkesbury River inland to Lithgow and the Newnes Plateau [Tindale Catalogue, SA Museum]. Bowdler argues that the boundary noted by Tindale was actually a ‘zone of interaction’ between the Wiradjuri, the Darug and the Gundungurra people [Bowdler cited in Cardno 2008: 18]

Study Area

Mapping presented here is based on western geographic mapping and may not accurately reflect traditional tribal boundaries.

Figure 10: Norman B. Tindale’s map of Aboriginal Australia showing the extent of the traditional territory recorded as part of his research [Tindale Catalogue, SA Museum]. Val Attenbrow indicates that the boundaries recorded by Tindale are principally linguistic [2003: 33].

Val Attenbrow’s examination of archaeological and historical records in ‘Sydney’s Aboriginal Past’ shows three distinct groups – the coastal, hinterland and mountain Darug. It is not clear whether the Darug north-west of Mount Victoria would have been considered part of the Mountain Darug or whether they formed another discrete group [2003: 23]. Attenbrow suggests that at the time of British settlement ‘the Darug inhabited lands including the lower Grose Valley and adjacent parts of the main east-west ridges separating the catchments of the Cox’s Grose and Colo Rivers’. She argues that Norman Tindale’s 1974 map showing boundaries as ‘almost straight lines extending west as far as Lithgow, cannot be considered correct’ [Attenbrow 2009: 120].

Sandra Bowdler argues that the boundary between Wiradjuri, Darug and Gundungurra territory recorded by Tindale was actually a ‘zone of interaction’ rather than a strictly defined area [Bowdler cited in Cardno 2008: 18]. Today it is thought by some anthropologists that in pre-European times Aboriginal communities were not separated by ‘inviolable boundaries’ and that some flexibility allowed for people to move into or through neighbouring territories [Bowdler 1983: 334]. Bowdler also proposes that given an assumption of a fluidity of movement, that it could be assumed that there was a degree of cultural similarity between the Gundungurra, Darug and Wiradjuri communities at or near the zone of interaction. Gaynor MacDonald proposes a similar theory of ‘fluid or negotiable areas’ in her assessment of literature relating to pre-contact boundaries of Wiradjuri territory. This is not to say that they reflect boundaries as they are understood today

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[MacDonald 1983: 26]. The area of interaction proposed by Bowdler at the junction of the boundaries of the Wiradjuri, Darug and Gundungurra people corresponds with the Study Area.

5.3.2 The Study Area and the Mountain Darug If strictly defined the Study Area extends between Mount Victoria in the east, Lithgow in the west, the Great Western Highway in the south and Bell’s Line of Road in the north. Given the scarcity of historical records of the Aboriginal community within this geographical area and the assertion that this was an area of interaction and cultural similarities existed between neighbouring language groups, it is useful to expand the area of study. It is proposed for the purpose of historical investigation that the area of investigation be expanded to include Bathurst in the west, Wallerawang in the north, and Katoomba and Kanimbla and Megalong Valleys in the south-east. The area of interaction proposed by Bowdler [1983] at the junction of the boundaries of the Wiradjuri, Darug and Gundungurra people corresponds with the enlarged Study Area. It includes the Gully in West Katoomba to reflect post-contact migration and settlement at this location however studies suggest that this area might well have been a traditional campsite used by both the Darug and Gundungurra people [Johnson 2009].

The traditional land inhabited by the Mountain Darug corresponds with the eastern part of the Study Area near Mt Victoria. The boundaries between Darug and neighbouring language groups in the Blue Mountains are not known and information about the lives and material culture of the Mountain Darug community is scarce. Historical and anthropological suggests that despite regional differences they shared similarities with Darug people on the Cumberland Plain as well as with neighbouring language groups [Attenbrow 2009: 106].

This section of the report draws heavily on Val Attenbrow’s research published in ‘The Mountain Darug’, in Blue Mountains Dreaming: The Aboriginal Heritage [Stockton & Merriman 2009].

5.3.3 Language Val Attenbrow’s research into historical records suggests that the Darug people spoke different dialects depending on the location of their home territory. The dialect in coastal areas varied from the mountains which was known as Muru-Marak or ‘mountain pathway’ [Attenbrow 2003: 34; www.environment.nsw.gov.au/bioregions/Sydney Basin, 11 Mar 2009].

R.H. Mathews noted in his research in the early 1900s that the Darug and Gundungurra people were able to converse with little difficulty, indicating many similarities in their languages or between dialects. He noted correspondence in the grammatical structure of their languages and vocabularies [Mathews 1902: 49]. Mathew’s descriptions of the extent of the country where Darug was spoken and its boundaries with the Wiradjuri in the west, the Gundungurra in the south and the Darginjung in the north were not precise. As already described, Darug territory at the time of British settlement is thought to have included the lower Grose Valley and contiguous parts of the main east-west ridges separating the Cox, Grose and Colo River catchments. It should be emphasised that it is likely that the boundaries between language groups shifted over time influenced by resource availability, population size and climatic change. British colonisation would also have had a significant impact [Attenbrow 2009: 121].

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5.3.4 Population Although the exact size of the Aboriginal population of the greater Sydney Region when the British arrived (including the lower Blue Mountains) will never be known it has been estimated at between 4000 and 8000 [Attenbrow 2003: 17]. Research has not located an estimate of the pre-contact Darug population in the area around Mount Victoria or the Upper Blue Mountains. Although treating the interpretation of the archaeological evidence with caution, Attenbrow suggests that the density of sites was 8 to 10 sites per square kilometre in the central Blue Mountains, with up to 17 sites per square kilometre. This is comparable or higher than some areas to the east. Site densities suggest that the mountains were ‘not unfavourable to occupation by Aboriginal people’ [Attenbrow 2009” 110]. Attenbrow emphasises that clan boundaries, or the number of their members, is unlikely to be known. Despite estimates varying from 25 to 60 individuals (with the average usually below 50) in anthropological studies of other parts of Australia, none deal with populations that were unaffected by colonisation. Colonisation undoubtedly caused the dislocation of people from their traditional territories and redistribution to other areas, therefore distorting even some of the earliest observations [Attenbrow 2009: 122].

5.3.5 Way of Life and Environment The Sydney Basin offered the Darug diverse environments ranging from the sea to the ranges. They were reliant on the environment and the changing climate to provide food and other resources, resulting in impacts on the size of the population, social interaction and the degree of mobility required to fulfil their needs. The seasonal diet varied dependant upon proximity to the coast or waterways and the season. Possum, kangaroo, vegetable roots, seeds and berries formed an important part of the Darug people’s food resources. While Sydney populations had wider access to estuarine and coastal fish and shellfish, inland populations relied on riverine species [www.environment.nsw.gov.au/bioregions/Sydney Basin, 11 Mar 2009].

Food resources on the plateaux of the mountains have been described as being scarce, however a comparatively diverse range of edible plants and animals can be found in the forests and watercourses. All of the animals and some of the plants noted in historical accounts as having been eaten by Darug people in other regions occur in the Blue Mountains [Attenbrow 2009: 111].

The Darug people led a mobile existence travelling between camping sites located where food and water resources were available. People stayed at each camp site while food resources lasted, especially those that were seasonal, or moved when prompted by a particular event. Journeys were made for ceremonies or rituals and to acquire raw materials for medicines and body decoration, and tool, weapon and clothing manufacture. Change in seasons also prompted movement of camps. Dwellings are thought to have consisted of two-sided bark structures or gunyahs, while rock shelters were used in extreme weather [White & Murray 1988 cited in www.environment.nsw.gov.au/ bioregions/Sydney Basin, 11 Mar 2009].

5.3.6 Tools, Equipment, Weapons and Hunting Strategies There are no firsthand accounts of tools, equipment and weapons used by the Mountain Darug. Attenbrow suggests that the suite of items would have been similar to those used by the Darug of the Cumberland Plain, the Gundungurra and the Wiradjuri; however with some variation due to material availability. For example, worked stone might have been used instead of shell as a

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component in tool making. Weapons and tool types included spears, spear throwers, shields, clubs, boomerangs, hafted, edge-ground axes, digging sticks, containers including bark baskets and net bags, and cord, string or twine. Nets and traps of varying types were used to catch small mammals, birds and fish. Many articles were made of plant or wood although some had stone or bone components. Food procurement techniques included burning the undergrowth to flush out animals and promote bush regeneration; use of dingoes in hunting; and climbing trees to catch tree dwelling animals. [Attenbrow 2009: 111].

It is unlikely that canoes were used in the shallow streams found in the rugged, mountain terrain [Attenbrow 2009: 111]. Excluding stone artefacts, few items of material culture survive from the Blue Mountains. Attenbrow notes that the Australian Museum houses a boomerang found during the surveying or building of the Western Road in 1813-14. The exact location that it was found was not recorded. A wooden club was found in a rock shelter at Faulconbridge and shares similarities with one described as a ‘Wooden Hatchet’ and illustrated by William Govett in his ‘Weapons of the Natives of New South Wales’ [Attenbrow 2009: 112-113].

5.3.7 Kinship, Social Organisation, Traditions and Alliances The Darug people are thought to have lived in communities of around fifty members, maintaining their own hunting areas through which they moved depending on the season and available resources, with neighbouring bands collaborating in some hunting and social activities. [White & Murray 1988 cited in www.environment.nsw.gov.au/bioregions/Sydney Basin, 11 Mar 2009]. Mountain Darug communities had a rich cultural life expressed through dance, song and storytelling as part of everyday life as well as ceremonial activities. Artistic endeavours included incising or engraving surfaces such as the cloaks previously described and other materials such as stone or wood. They also used ochre paints and charcoal to decorate weapons, tools and rock surfaces in shelters [Attenbrow 2009: 113].

The main method of organisation of the clans of south-eastern coastal New South Wales, including the Darug was based on patrilineal descent whereby children inherited the totems of their fathers. It differed from the Wiradjuri where a class system with moieties and sections operated. Darug individuals had personal totems such as a plant or animal that was associated with a significant site, for example their birthplace. Clan membership and totemic affiliations informed the selection of appropriate marriage partners, usually by elders or parents [Attenbrow 2009: 118-9].

People within a clan were of different status. Some individuals such as karadji who were ceremonial leaders and healers had greater power and influence. Individuals identified by British colonists as ‘chiefs’ were not always elders or karadji, but clan members who took the role of communicators. Information on Mountain Darug individuals at the time of exploration in the early 19th century is scarce. The earliest images of Blue Mountains Aborigines, identified by name are Hara-o and Karadra drawn by Alphonse Pellion at Springwood in 1819 [Attenbrow 2009: 119], is shown below. Karadra, an older man is identified as ‘supreme chief or king of that part of the mountain’. Other portraits include Aurang-Jack, ‘chief of Spring-Wood’ and his two wives, and two other individuals [Stockton 2009: 68-69].

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Figure 11: An illustration of Hara-o and Karadra, Blue Mountains Aborigines made by Alphonse Pellion in 1819. It provides a rare record of people of the area in the early 19th century (Merriman, reproduced in Attenbrow 2009: 68)

Figure 12: Portraits of Blue Mountains Aborigines drawn by Alphonse Pellion in 1819. The portraits included Aurang-Jack ‘chief of Spring-wood’ and his two wives (Blue Mountains City Library reproduced in Attenbrow 2009: 69)

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5.3.8 Resources and Procurement Animal and plant material, as well as stone found in the Blue Mountains were utilised by Darug people to make tools and other items of material culture. Flaked and ground stone assemblages and grinding grooves are evidence that tools, weapons and other equipment were made on the plateau. The raw materials identified suggest where Darug people might have travelled to procure them. Some materials used for stone artefacts are found in local geological formations, while others were from distant locations such as the Grose River Valley and the Jamison Valley. It is likely that some were acquired through trade or exchange with neighbouring groups. Transactions sometimes occurred through extended trade networks whereby the materials acquired might have come a great distance changing hands a number of times [Attenbrow 2009:114-115].

Supporting evidence for the existence of trade survives in the materials of which items were made and the absence of this material in the location that they were found and sources of it at distant sites. An edge-ground hatchet head made of meta-dolerite found at Vaucluse provides support for theories that trade networks were responsible for the movement of finished objects or stone materials. A possible source of the stone was the Bathurst District, suggesting a trade network through the Blue Mountains to the east coast site where the hatchet head was found [Attenbrow 2009: 115].

5.3.9 Garments, Decorative Objects and Accessories Like the Gundungurra and Wiradjuri of the mountains and the inland valleys, the Mountain Darug used skin cloaks. William Bradley described a skin cloak seen in the vicinity of the Nepean- Hawkesbury River. The description bore similarities to cloaks observed in the inland areas to the west of the mountains and were worn for warmth rather than to cover their bodies. The cloak was,

…made of the skins of small animals sew’d or laced together, somepart [sic] was of the Opossum Skin, the rest of some animal the fur much superior; these were curiously carved on the inside, every skin having a different pattern… [Bradley cited in Attenbrow 2009:113]

The needle with which it was sewn was described as,

…a hard piece of wood much in size and shape as of a small bodkin, with which they make holes (it not having an eye) to receive the thread which was found and appears to be the sinewy fibres from the tail of some small animal … [Bradley cited in Attenbrow 2009:113].

The only other body coverings were pubic aprons worn by girls after puberty. Decorative items included headbands, armbands and necklaces. Body painting with red and white ochres was commonly used for ceremonies and corroborees. Men and women displayed raised scars or cicatrices on their bodies, some of which were indicative of phases of initiation that they had reached [Attenbrow 2009: 113].

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5.3.10 Spiritual Beliefs, Rituals and Ceremonies From the late 19th century anthropologists such as R.H. Mathews and A.W. Howitt observed Aboriginal beliefs and ceremonies recording it from a European perspective. Investigations show similarities in the beliefs and practices of the Aboriginal people of south-eastern Australia. It is likely that the practices and beliefs of the Mountain Darug people were comparable (but with some variation) to that of their neighbours, the Gundungurra, Wiradjuri and Darkinjung.

Karadji were the spiritual leaders who played leading roles in performing rites in ceremonies and as healers in Aboriginal communities [Attenbrow 2009: 116]. Aboriginal people of south-eastern Australia believed in supernatural beings that had special powers. The names and roles of these beings varied between regions. Fear of retribution from supernatural beings encouraged people to conform to the rules of their society. Although their names and relationships varied in some regions, Baiame and Daramulan were supreme creative beings known to people of the central and south coasts. Darug and Dharawal oral tradition tells of duwan, a black bird that is an evil omen, predicting bad news. Kohen suggests that in its animal form it ‘may be a white winged chough or a large owl’ [Attenbrow 2009: 117]. Given its prominence in the landscape, the geological formation known as the Three Sisters is likely to have been part of the belief systems of the Aboriginal people of the locality. Darug and Gundungurra people today consider it to be associated with ‘Seven Sisters Dreaming’ which is a legend shared by many Aboriginal peoples [Attenbrow 2009: 118].

Initiation was an important rite of passage for Aboriginal men in many parts of south-eastern Australia. Initiation was held at Bora grounds that consisted of two oval areas connected by a path. Representations of ancestral beings and totemic figures were integral to the ceremony and were carved on tree trunks or made from mounds of rock or earth with other materials used to depict distinctive features. Tooth extraction was an element of ceremonies in some regions. Historical records do not document carved trees as being associated with Darug initiation ceremonies and none have been located in Darug country. If carvings had been made into the bark, as opposed to the heartwood it is possible that the markings would not have survived. Ceremonial bora grounds have not been definitively identified in Darug country [Attenbrow 2009: 117].

No Aboriginal burial sites are known on the Blue Mountains plateau. Coastal Darug people are reported in historical records as conducting burials sometimes preceded by cremation, with personal possessions often buried with the individual. The age and status of the individual informed the type of ritual that was carried out [Attenbrow 2009: 118].

5.3.11 Traditional Migration Routes and Pathways The Mountain Darug travelled along paths and routes in their everyday activities in the mountains. It is thought that regular routes might have followed ‘sections of the main ridges, and the subsidiary spurs and waterways’. It is not known if there was a single, negotiable route east to west across the mountains [Attenbrow 2009: 116].

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5.4 Gundungurra History

5.4.1 Traditional Boundaries The Gundungurra (also known as Gandangarra) people are the traditional owners of the land in the south-eastern part of the Study Area. Historical evidence suggests that the Gundungurra people occupied the area to the south-west of the Blue Mountains. Their traditional boundaries bordered on those of the Darug to the north and the Wiradjuri to the west. The precise nature and location of traditional boundaries is unclear however the general area is shown in the map below.

Mapping presented here is based on western geographic mapping and may not accurately reflect traditional tribal boundaries. Figure 13: Map showing the extent of the territory associated with the Gundungurra people. The boundary between the Darug, Gundungurra and adjacent language groups is unclear (Horton 1994: 1009)2

The anthropologist Norman B. Tindale described the Gundungurra as occupying an area extending south to Goulburn and Berrima; down the Hawkesbury River (Wollondilly) to the vicinity of Camden as recorded in the map below. He recorded that the name Gundungurra incorporated terms meaning ‘east’ and ‘west’. Tindale recorded the name ‘Gundungurra’ as ‘Gandangara’ with alternate names including Gundungari, Gundanora, Gurra-gunga and Burragorang [Tindale Catalogue, South Australian Museum].

2 The word 'Eora' was used by several colonists around the time of contact in historical accounts as the word for 'men' or 'people', but nowhere, Attenbrow asserts (2002: 27, 35) was it given as the name of a 'tribe' or 'place'. It was only after the 1870s that the word Eora was used to refer to a language in various documents, but the origin of the name was not given (Attenbrow 2002: 31). After the publication of NSW Aboriginal Place Names and Euphonious Words in 1943 by the Australian Museum, 'Eora' was listed as the 'Blackfellows of Sydney district'. Since then Eora has been used widely as a tribal name, most notable by Tindale in his Aboriginal Tribes of Australia map. In more recent times it is being acknowledged by linguists that Eora was the Sydney language word for an Aboriginal 'person' (Troy cited in Attenbrow 2002:36).

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The boundaries recorded by Tindale are principally linguistic [Attenbrow 2003: 33]. More recent studies include that by Val Attenbrow, Jim Smith and Dianne Johnson. Attenbrow broadly describes the territory of the Gundungurra as extending along the ‘southern rim of the Cumberland Plain west of the Georges River, as well as the southern Blue Mountains’ [2003: 34]. Smith describes the country of the Gundungurra speaking people as encompassing most of the ‘Cox and Wollondilly catchments and some adjacent areas west of the Great Dividing Range’ [Smith 2009: 131]. Gundungurra speakers came from a number of clans some of whose names have not been recorded or forgotten over time.

Study Area

Mapping presented here is based on western geographic mapping and may not accurately reflect traditional tribal boundaries. Figure 14: Norman B. Tindale’s map of Aboriginal Australia showing the extent of the traditional territory recorded as part of his research [Tindale Catalogue, SA Museum].

The territories of clans in the vicinity of the Cox’s River on the southern perimeter of the Study Area were the Therabulat, Wywandy and Wallerawang [Smith 2009: 131]. Johnson suggests that the Gundungurra inhabited land adjacent to the Blue Mountains including the Megalong and Hartley Valleys which are included in the Study Area [Johnson 2007: 19].

Sandra Bowdler argues that the boundary between Wiradjuri, Darug and Gundungurra territory recorded by Tindale was actually a ‘zone of interaction’ rather than a strictly defined area [Bowdler cited in Cardno 2008: 18]. Today it is thought by some anthropologists that in pre-European times Aboriginal communities were not separated by ‘inviolable boundaries’ and that some flexibility allowed people to move into or through neighbouring territories [Bowdler 1983: 334]. Bowdler also proposes that given an assumption of a fluidity of movement, that it could be assumed that there was a degree of cultural similarity between the Gundungurra, Darug and Wiradjuri communities at or near the zone of interaction. Gaynor MacDonald proposes a similar theory of ‘fluid or negotiable areas’ in her assessment of precontact boundaries of Wiradjuri territory. This is not to say that they reflect boundaries as they are understood today [MacDonald 1983: 26].

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5.4.2 The Study Area and the Gundungurra Due to the dearth of information about the Gundungurra people in the Study Area some of the information used here relies on surviving records about the Gundungurra people who associated with the Burra Burra area. The Burra Burra people were possibly more than just a ‘clan’ and more a ‘confederation’ of clans linked through family ties and cultural responsibilities. It has been argued that the people with responsibilities for country in the Burragorang, Nattai, Jingery, Bunally, Kedumba, Megalong, Kanimbla, Hartley, Upper Cox and O’Connell districts might have been sub- groups of the Burra Burra. Many Gundungurra descendants can trace their ancestry to the Burra Burra people [Smith 2009: 133]. It also includes the Gully in West Katoomba to reflect post-contact migration and settlement at this location however studies suggest that this area might well have been a traditional campsite used by both the Darug and Gundungurra people [Johnson 2009].

This section of the report draws heavily on Dianne Johnson’s research published as Sacred Water: the Story of the Blue Mountains Gully Traditional Owners [2007].

5.4.3 Gundungurra Language R.H. Mathews noted in his research in the early 1900s that the Darug and Gundungurra people were able to converse with little difficulty, indicating many similarities in their languages or between the dialects. He noted similarities in grammatical structure of their languages and vocabularies [Mathews 1902: 49]. Reports dating to the 1830s show that Gundungurra language was spoken at Bathurst. Although there are few post-contact ethnographic and linguistic sources providing information about the Bathurst area Jim Smith’s research suggests that Gundungurra creation stories are set in areas to the north-west of Bathurst. Smith argues that it is possible that the disruptions caused by European settlement due to dispossession, conflict and disease led to the gradual diffusion of Wiradjuri populations into traditional Gundungurra territory [Smith 2009: 131- 2].

5.4.4 Way of Life and Environment The Gundungurra people inhabited an area within the South Eastern Highlands bioregion which provided a diverse range of food resources. Yam daisy tubers were available in the spring, summer and autumn, wattle seeds were plentiful in July and August and orchid tubers were collected in August and September. Between September and May fish and crayfish were caught in the rivers while possums and kangaroo were hunted all year round [www.environment.nsw.gov.au/bioregions /SouthEasternHighlands, 11 Mar 2009].

5.4.5 Kinship, Social Organisation and Alliances The Gundungurra people took their name from the country to which they were associated and to which they recognised responsibilities and obligations. After negotiations and observing various rules at times clans would visit the country of other clans for particular purposes. Aboriginal man Billy Russell (Werriberrie) believed that Gundungurra clans were friendly with each other although at times they Gundungurra people would fight with Wiradjuri people of Bathurst and Yass and ‘Dharruck and the Camden tribes’ [Johnson 2007: 24]. The Gundungurra had a complex system of social organisation, living in small social and economic groupings, today more commonly referred to as bands, clans or kinship groups. R.H. Mathews, a

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surveyor and ethnologist who studied Aboriginal kinship systems asserted that Gundungurra marriage patterns differed from that of other groups and marriages were controlled by betrothals, based principally on a relationship of nanaree. Nanaree was decided by a council of male elders with the first stage being to select the mother of a young man’s prospective wife. Elders looked for one or more male cross cousins3 of the man’s father, each of whom would have been considered nanaree. Mathews explained that nanaree precluded unacceptable kinship relationships between individuals who were too closely related. A Gundungurra myth about the Eaglehawk and the Willy- wagtail was a cautionary tale illustrating the need to avoid inappropriate relationships between proscribed individuals. Marriages between families ‘strengthened their claims to consideration in the tribal councils’ and integral to establishing a hierarchy in a community [Johnson 2007: 22, 24]. Mathews study explained that the exogamous patrilineal totems used by Gundungurra people assisted elders in making decisions about nanaree through identifying their lineage. Totems or buddyangal were inherited from the male parent and were usually animals, natural features of the land or climate, or a man-made object. Individuals with the same totem could not marry [Johnson 2007: 22]. The anthropologist A. P. Elkin emphasised that the Gundungurra people observed the proscription of marriage between people of the same locality [Johnson 2007: 22-23].

5.4.6 Ceremonies and Initiation Documentary sources providing information about the ceremonial life of the Gundungurra people in the vicinity of the Study Area are scarce. Accounts of ceremonial life include the important use of ochre with both white pipe-clay and yellow clay being used. William Russell (1830-1914) observed Aborigines at Craig-end (the property of Thomas Inglis Snr) mixing and painting clay on their bodies for a ‘korroberry’. Red earth or Bulber (oxide of iron) was roasted in the fire to brighten the colour. It was then mixed with fat or grease and applied using a brush made from a green twig or branch that had been bruised. Russell recalled that ‘Old Boyne’ was often selected as the artist due to his talent in applying designs [cited in Johnson 2007: 25]. Mathews asserted that the initiation or Bunan ceremonies of the Gundungurra were the same as the Darug and other peoples of the coastal areas from Sydney to Twofold Bay. Mathews made detailed records of a ceremony that he observed near Berry in 1887. The Bunan ground was prepared by building raised earth walls in connected circles. Tree trunks flanking a track connecting the circles were marked with geometric patterns and ‘indistinct animal forms were constructed’. The Dhuramoolun spirit was associated with the ceremony and with dhunnunggallung that were ‘warty excrescences or calabashes growing on trees’ that where the spirit was thought to live [Johnson 2007: 25].

The ceremony, parts of which are described here, was led by the ‘headman of the tribe’ and other bands were invited to attend. Messengers were decorated with yellow and white ochre and carried a bullroarer and bag containing quartz crystals, weapons and sometimes a message stick. Invited bands met at the Bunan ground where meeting ‘protocols’ were observed. A guardian was nominated for each initiate and would accompany initiates into the bush to a selected camping ground. Initiates took part in secret rituals and activities including the knocking out of a tooth. Mothers of initiates and other women took part in separate rituals. The initiates who had been given a belt, kilt, head band and other men’s equipment were then welcomed back to the camp with great formality. Following a smoking ceremony performed on the guardians at another camp, the initiates were formally ‘ranked’ as men. A corroboree followed with restrictions placed on their

3 ‘Cross cousins’ means the son or daughter of a person’s mother’s brother or a father’s sister. That is, the person in the preceding generation of the opposite sex.

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behaviour for several months after which the young men were accepted back into the band although still restricted from contact with young women [Johnson 2007: 26]. A Kudsha was another ceremony for the initiation of young men which only involved closely neighbouring bands. It would be undertaken when a young man had to be initiated but the holding of a Bunan was not possible. The Kudsha or Narramang, a shorter but still important ceremony, was held on a clear and level space near the main camp. Further instruction was undertaken at the subsequent Bunan [Johnson 2007: 26]. In his research into Aboriginal tribes R. H. Mathews made detailed observations of the ceremony in particular the networks or associations integral to the important communal activity [Mathews 1896].

Some aspects of ceremonial activities continued to be practised by Gundungurra people until 1896 when a Yubbin or corroboree is reported to have been held in the fringe camp near the Glen mining settlement in the Megalong Valley. Merv Cooper, a Gundungurra man claims that ceremonial life continued in the Gully at Katoomba until at least the early 1920s [Johnson 2007: 27].

5.4.7 Burial Rituals Gundungurra people of the Burragorang Valley selected special places to bury their dead based on their beliefs about spirits and their fear that they might come back to haunt them. The locations as close as possible to the Wollondilly and Mulwaree Rivers were favoured, with burials taking place on the side of the river opposite from where they died. This was to prevent the spirit of the person from returning to haunt them [Johnson 2007: 27]. Although outside the Study Area, it is possible that the rituals practiced by Gundungurra people to the north-west were similar. In the 1830s William Govett observed Aboriginal women in mourning at Mt Wayo in the Southern Highlands. Govett described the scene of three women sitting round a mound of earth striking their heads with a tomahawk and wailing loudly. The mound of earth,

…might have been about three feet high; it was shaped as a dome, and built of a reddish clay: it was surrounded by a kind of flat gutter or channel, outside of which was a margin, both formed of the same material. The staves of the women were leaning upon it, and their nets, with their contents, thrown aside. … The trees all around the tomb were marked in various peculiar ways, some with zigzags and stripes, and pieces of bark otherwise cut… [cited in Johnson 2007: 27]

Burial and mourning rituals were also observed and documented by others including that in 1886 by H.J. McCooey, a settler of Burragorang, and by Bernard Patrick Carlon of Burragorang who related his experiences to W.A. Cuneo of Thirlmere. In the 1890s Cuneo published Carlon’s reminiscences of the death and burial of Moyengully, a Burragorang Gundungurra elder [Meredith 1989: 30].

5.4.8 Traditions and Beliefs The Gundungurra had a complex system of dietary restrictions limiting what band members, in particular women and initiates were prohibited from eating. Some animals were not allowed to be killed or injured due to the belief that they protected members of the band. Gundungurra people had strong beliefs in good and bad spirits that frequented various locations in the bush. Traditional stories of spirits told to children included those about Kubba (Gubba or Gub-bah), a hairy man who had his feet turned backwards and a thirty foot long tail and Dthu-wan-gong (Doowong), who lived among the rocks and had large wings that blew out camp fires [Johnson 2007: 29].

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Mythical stories were told about ancestral spirits, and the creation of the earth and the sky, fire and water, and many features integral to the environment. The legends were told through storytelling, dance, song, art and in ceremonies [Johnson 2007:29]. Many myths and legends of the Gundungurra have been recorded by non-Aboriginal people including those about the Gunyunggalung or the dreaming, involving Burringilling, the creation spirit. Artwork in the mountains has been linked to the rich stories and myths of the Gundungurra people [Johnson 2007: 30].

5.4.9 Totems R.H. Mathews recorded some of the totems, traditions and beliefs of the Gundungurra people in his notebooks not all of which are included in published articles. Dianne Johnson elaborates on these aspects of Gundungurra life in Sacred Waters: the Story of the Blue Mountains Gully Traditional Owners [2007]. Older Gundungurra people linked to the Gully in Katoomba new their totems and those of their families. The totem or buddyangal of Billy Lynch, the son of a Gundungurra woman of the Cookmai band area around Crookwell and born around Bungonia was maundbawari or bandicoot. The totem of Rose Anna (Fanny) Page, a Hartley Aboriginal woman and the wife of Billy Lynch was a burru or kangaroo. The totem of their daughter Fanny was an eaglehawk or mullian (or mulyan). [Johnson 2007: 55].

5.4.10 Traditional Migration Routes and Pathways Non-Aboriginal explorers often relied on guidance from Aborigines in the localities through which they travelled. The routes within the traditional homelands of Aboriginal people often followed annual migration routes. The route showed to Charles Throsby in 1819 linked the Gundungurra people’s summer camp in the Burragorang-Camden area and the winter camps around the head of the Cox’s River. The same routes were later adopted by settlers [Johnson 2007: 34, 55]. Other tracks and pathways linked to traditional routes include the Six Foot Track known as Kooranbarook, a route from the Megalong Valley to the tablelands via Narrow Neck ridge, Kedumba Pass from the Cox’s River to King’s Tableland and a route via Blackheath Glen [Johnson 2007: 56]. Other traditional Gundungurra travel routes included the ‘Burra Burra Trail’ between Burra Burra Lake and the O’Connell Plains near Bathurst. This is the route shown by Coocoogong, a Burra Burra man to Charles Throsby a settler and explorer in 1819. The route to the west of the ranges ensured easy access to the rivers for fishing to replenish food supplies [Smith 2009: 141].

5.4.11 European Occupation and the Gundungurra of the Study Area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries European settlers in the valleys on the western side of the Blue Mountains had ‘friendly contact with Aboriginal people who lived and worked’ there. The Aborigines had enviable bush knowledge and survival skills which they shared with their neighbours. While living in the Megalong Valley, Keith Duncan [Johnson 2007: 18-19] recalled being taught,

…how to climb trees by cutting small notches in the bark for toe grips, easy ways to find bees’ nests in the bush, how to predict rough and wet weather by observing the habits of animals and insects, the best places to find species of animals or birds and the times of year to find fish or eels in the creeks.

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Other skills included the snaring of possums and tracking. The significant changes that European settlers imposed on the environment over time could not be ignored. In an interview in the Sydney Mail on 12 December 1896 William ‘Billy’ Lynch, then aged 55 years old, noted the massive reduction of native species - plants and animals - in the Mountains areas and the impact that it would have on his people who were living in the Megalong Valley. Within a matter of years Lynch and his family moved out of the Valley to settle in the Gully in Katoomba [Johnson 2007: 18-19]. As pointed out by Dianne Johnson in Sacred Waters: The Story of the Blue Mountains Gully Traditional Owners the sorrow and distress of Lynch, a speaker of the Gundungurra language and a keeper of his people’s traditional knowledge, was due to his keen awareness of the inevitable loss of cultural knowledge and traditions resulting from the occupation by settlers and his people’s dispossession [2007: 19].

William Lynch (c.1841-1913) was born in the Kanimbla Valley and has lived the Mountains all his life, except when he was working as a Government tracker, a skill for which he was noted. His knowledge of the mountains, its flora and fauna and his people’s native traditions was extensive. Lynch recalled the days when ‘the only European settlements were at Kanimbla, Hartley and Lyttleton (now a suburb of Lithgow)’ [cited in Johnson 2007: 19].

According to Lynch there were never a large number of Aborigines on the mountains and the ‘tribes’ lived generally out west of the range. There was once a great deal of wildlife with ducks, kangaroos and shags plentiful and the ‘rivers and ponds full of black fish, perch, sprats, mullet and eels’, especially in the Cox’s River. Bream and cod were caught in rivers on the other side of the range. Bird life such as lowries, king parrots, rosellas, cockatoos and lyrebirds were seen in great numbers brightening the bush with their plumage. Many animals, birds and fruit he noted were now gone or their numbers diminishing.

Next to the fruits and berries the Aboriginal relied on the opossum - and that the white man’s guns had made scarce – fish, the kangaroo (known to the hill tribes as ‘buru’, the ‘bugong’ (porcupine), the ‘balu’ (a piglike, burrowing beast, known also as the ‘gulbug’) and the ducks [cited in Johnson 2007: 20].

Native fruits such as the geebung, burramung, wild cherry and habuba were also increasingly scarce. Old Billy Lynch, as he was known, spent his last years in the Gully at Katoomba [Johnson 2007: 20]. European settlers admired the skills and knowledge that local Gundungurra people such as Billy Lynch displayed. The people who settled in the Gully retained many traditional skills and on camping and hunting trips would ‘sun the bees’ in order to discover the location of their nests. This entailed waiting until sunset when the rays of sun would shine through the wings of the native bees making them easier to track. On locating the nest they would collect the honey. On fishing trips to the Cox’s River they build lean-tos in which to camp. They would trap rabbits, catch wallaby and cook damper the dough for which they mixed in a ‘cudji’ (cogie) or bark dish sometimes known as a coolamon. The cogie were made from burls or protuberances of bark that form on trees [Merv Cooper cited in Johnson 2007: 57].

As expressed so poignantly by Dianne Johnson in a history of the Gundungurra people of the Katoomba Valley, by the 1890s their gradual departure from their once rich river valley homeland was well underway. Resistance gave way and family groups began to gather at a fringe camp near the Glen Shale Mine village in the Megalong Valley. Leaving what remained of their country and the small parcels of land to which they formally held title, Gundungurra people were progressively moved into camping reserves and settlements at La Perouse, Salt Pan Creek, Mittagong, Bowral, Camden, Megalong Valley as well as the Gully in Katoomba [Johnson 2007: 20]. Some Aboriginal

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people managed to avoid moving to resettlement camps and reserves. An elderly man known as ‘Black Jerry’ lived in a cave near the Cox’s River [Merv Cooper cited in Johnson 2007: 58].

The Glen Shale Mine closed in 1897 and most of the residents of the Nellie’s Glen camp moved to the newly formed Kurranburrock Reserve on Pulpit Hill Creek in the Megalong Valley. This traditional campsite became an officially designated camping and water reserve in 1892 and as such was a relatively safe place to camp where they would not be trespassing. In recognition of their occupation of the reserve in 1897the Aborigines’ Protection Board gazetted the 22 acre (8.9 ha) site as an Aboriginal Reserve (No.25297). A small number of people such as the Lynch and Cooper families chose to retain their independence living at Green Gully in the Megalong Valley, although supported by rations from the Aborigines’ Protection Board [Johnson 2007: 21]. They were later to move to the Gully at Katoomba were they also retained their independence from the strictures imposed elsewhere. Conditions in the early 1900s including a drought and a bushfire in the Megalong Valley and Cox’s River country gradually forced Aboriginal people from the Aboriginal Reserve. It was left vacant for many years and in 1912 it was revoked by the Board [Johnson 2007: 20].

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5.5 Wiradjuri History

5.5.1 Traditional Boundaries The Wiradjuri people are the traditional owners of the land within which the western-most part of the Study Area is located. Wiradjuri land is part of the Riverine region of New South Wales, on the central-west slopes and plains and extends from Nyngan to Albury, and Bathurst to Hay covering over 80,000-100,000 square kilometres [Horton 1994 (2): 1189; Macdonald 2004: 22; Macdonald 2001: 1]. In the 19th century the traditional boundaries of Wiradjuri territory generally encompassed the area around the Lachlan, Macquarie and Murrumbidgee Rivers [Read 1983: 1].

Mapping presented here is based on western geographic mapping and may not accurately reflect traditional tribal boundaries.

Figure 15: Map of the Riverine Region reproduced from the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia [Horton 1994 (2): 946]

Historical evidence indicates that the Wiradjuri people occupied an area to the west and south-west of the Blue Mountains. Their traditional boundaries bordered on those of the Darug to the east and the Gundungurra to the south [Tindale Catalogue: Wiradjuri, South Australian Museum]. The precise nature and location of traditional boundaries is unclear. Norman B. Tindale recorded the Wiradjuri people as occupying an area,

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…on the Lachlan River and south from Condobolin to Booligal; at Carrathool, Wagga- Wagga, Cootamundra, Cowra, Parkes, Trundle; east to Gundagai, Boorowa, and Rylstone; at Wellington, Mudgee, Bathurst, and Carcoar; west along Billabong Creek to beyond Mossgiel; southwest to near Hay and Narrandera; south to Howlong on upper Murray; at Albury and east to about Tumbarumba [Tindale Catalogue: Wiradjuri, South Australian Museum].

Study Area

Mapping presented here is based on western geographic mapping and may not accurately reflect traditional tribal boundaries.

Figure 16: Norman B. Tindale’s map of Aboriginal Australia showing the extent of the traditional territory recorded during his research published in 1974 [Tindale Catalogue: Wiradjuri, SA Museum]. Val Attenbrow indicates that the boundaries recorded by Tindale are principally linguistic [2003: 33].

The boundaries of Wiradjuri territory are largely, traditionally defined by rivers and landforms, as well as access to the diverse seasonal resources of the environment. Norman B. Tindale [1974] recorded the distinguishing features of the boundaries as well as mapping them based on his 20th century investigations published as Aboriginal Tribes of Australia (See map reproduced above). Sandra Bowdler argues that the boundary between Wiradjuri, Darug and Gundungurra territory recorded by Tindale was actually a ‘zone of interaction’ rather than a strictly defined area [Bowdler cited in Cardno 2008: 18]. Today it is thought by some anthropologists that in pre-European times Aboriginal communities were not separated by ‘inviolable boundaries’ and that some flexibility allowed people to move into or through neighbouring territories [Bowdler 1983: 334]. Bowdler also proposes that given an assumption of a fluidity of movement, that it could be assumed that there was a degree of cultural similarity between the Gundungurra, Darug and Wiradjuri communities at or near the zone of interaction. Gaynor MacDonald proposes a similar theory of ‘fluid or negotiable areas’ in her assessment of literature relating to pre-contact boundaries of Wiradjuri territory. This is not to say that they reflect boundaries as they are understood today [MacDonald 1983: 26]. The area of interaction at the junction of the boundaries of the Wiradjuri, Darug and Gundungurra people as proposed by Bowdler corresponds with the Study Area of this report.

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The Wiradjuri are one of the largest Aboriginal populations in Australia once inhabiting the biggest area of traditional land [Horton 1994 (2): 946]. As pointed out by Gaynor Macdonald, maps drawn by non-Aboriginal people since the mid-19th century including that shown above are surprisingly similar to those prepared by Wiradjuri people today, ‘despite extensive changes in the meaning of Wiradjuri as ‘a region over time’. Boundaries changed over time due to shifting allegiances based on various agendas, resources and geographical centres such as towns and cities.

Wiradjuri region

Mapping presented here is based on western geographic mapping and may not accurately reflect traditional tribal boundaries.

Figure 17: Map showing the extent of the Wiradjuri Regional Aboriginal Land Council [NSW Aboriginal Land Council Website www.alc.org.au]

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5.5.2 Language The word ‘Wiradjuri’ is thought to mean ‘people of three rivers’, the Macquarie, Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Rivers which roughly form the boundaries of their traditional land. Differences in dialect were evident in some areas, notably around Bathurst and near Albury [Tindale Catalogue: Wiradjuri, South Australian Museum]. Wiradjuri language was spoken throughout their traditional land and also understood by people living in neighbouring territories. The language name was derived from their word for ‘no’ or ‘wirai’ and the suffix meaning ‘having’ or ‘with’. The different words for ‘no’ distinguish a number of Aboriginal peoples in New South Wales with the limits of usage defining territorial boundaries [Read 1983: 5; Kabaila 1999: 116-7]. The language united numerous smaller groups within the territory, with some language variations evident between groups at the furthest extremities of the region [Green 2002: 15].

Wiradjuri language was an oral tradition used with other forms of communication including signs and symbols inscribed or painted on surfaces within the landscape. Hand signals and subtle body language contributed to the richness of the language [Green 2002: 63]. As a result of colonial history few Wiradjuri today speak the language fluently; however efforts are being made to record the language that survives and to stimulate its use within the community [Macdonald 2004: 22]. Language is acknowledged as integral to perpetuating cultural knowledge from one generation to the next and it is therefore essential that the language continues to be used in everyday life [Green 2002: 63].

Distinctive features of Wiradjuri language, including vocabulary, grammar and structure, are outlined in ‘Wiradjuri Heritage Study for the Wagga Wagga Local Government Area of New South Wales’. Some speech sounds and grammatical attributes are shared with other Aboriginal languages in mainland Australia [Green 2002: 63-66]. Some Wiradjuri words are recorded in Rita Keed’s Memories of Bulgandramine Mission [1985: 24].

5.5.3 Population At the time of European contact the Wiradjuri population was estimated at 3,000, with larger groups occupying some parts of the territory, in particular around Tumut. Estimates made by European explorers such as Charles Sturt should be used cautiously as they had little knowledge or understanding of the country or its people. As argued by L. R. Smith, it is probable that to some extent official estimates reflected the ‘attitudes and desires of white people’ [Smith cited in Read 1983: 3-4]. Peter Read in A history of the Wiradjuri people of New South Wales reveals that research into population densities of a number of regions in NSW in the 1980s shows that Sturt’s estimate was reasonable although possibly slightly low [Read 1983: 3-4]. Population estimates by Crown Land Commissioners in the mid-19th century are also thought to have been low, exaggerating the decline in the population following European incursions into Aboriginal traditional territories. For the period between 1840 and 1845 Commissioners and district magistrates estimated the Aboriginal population at Bathurst as having declined by thirty percent [Read 1983: 3]. Despite errors in official estimates, the effect of disease and restrictions on access to traditional food sources had a detrimental effect on the health of the Wiradjuri, resulting in disruption to traditional lifestyles, forced movement and a decline in the population [Read 1983: 4].

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5.5.4 Kinship, Social Organisation, Traditions and Alliances As with other, Aboriginal societies, the Wiradjuri were not a single political unit, although they shared the same language. They generally lived together in small separate family groups. They all shared a system of beliefs. Politics operated at a local level and was advised by respected, local, senior men and women who had a wide range of skills and extensive knowledge. Each local group remained autonomous within their ‘home’ territory, usually near permanent water, and over which they held rights. Elders with particular skills or expertise might exercise influence beyond their local group, with wider kinship networks. Groups were also advised by ‘clever’ men and women who were skilled in ritual knowledge and practices [Macdonald 2004: 22; Read 1983: 7]. Wiradjuri ceremonies, kin-groupings and organisation had common attributes with those of neighbouring language groups. Maintenance of a cycle of ceremonies required movement around the whole tribal area contributing to ‘tribal’ coherence [Tindale Catalogue: Wiradjuri, South Australian Museum]. R.H. Mathews the pioneer anthologist wrote in 1906 that the Wiradjuri,

…comprise a number of sub-tribes, or independent groups, each of which has its recognised hunting grounds in some part of the tribal territory and is known by a name derived from some local feature of its district, or other distinguishing nomenclature. Every sub-tribe is still further divided into smaller groups, consisting, for example, of an old man with his wives, his sons and their wives, and the families of the latter [R.H. Mathews 1906 cited in Read 1983: 6].

In the Bathurst region three major clans centred on Wellington, the area around Mudgee and Rylstone, and Bathurst [Pearson, 1981 cited in Read 1983: 6].

The social system of the Wiradjuri was based on a two moiety matrilineal arrangement whereby descent was recognised through the female line, with the section and totem of an individual differing from that of the mother but the same as that of the grandmother. The system had similarities to that of the Kamilaroi people [Read 1983: 8]. Extended family groups travelled periodically over long distances to link up with kin groups, and occasionally with neighbouring language groups, for ceremonies, marriage or trade [Read 1988: 3; Macdonald 2004: 22; Tindale 1974: 201]. Despite general similarities, there were variations in cultural practices and social organisation between the northern, southern and central Wiradjuri groups [Macdonald 2004: 23]. Today distinguishable local groups continue to identify with their own territory, as well as its custodians. It is estimated that there are approximately twenty local communities of varying sizes within Wiradjuri country today. Many social and political activities of the Wiradjuri people are carried out as a regional body however the identity and autonomy of local groups, such as the Bogan River Wiradjuri, is retained [Macdonald & Powell 2001: 1].

5.5.5 Way of Life and Environment Perceptions of what is considered to be traditional ways of life are distorted somewhat by the effects of European settlement which were well underway when records began to be made. The disruption and dislocation imposed on Aboriginal communities is likely to have caused alterations to practices and behaviours that existed in the pre-contact period. Similarly, observations and interpretations made in accounts reflected contemporary European mindsets and individual biases, and should be read with this in mind.

The Macquarie, Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Rivers, the smaller waterways, and the surrounding land provided Wiradjuri people with their livelihood, supplying diverse and abundant food provisions. In dry seasons their diet was supplemented by kangaroos and emu hunted for meat as well as fresh

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food such as fruits, nuts, yam, daisies, wattle seeds and orchid tubers gathered from the diverse environments which they inhabited [www.environment.nsw.gov.au/bioregions/South Western Slopes, accessed 11 Mar 2009]. Few non-edible parts of animals were wasted with skin, bone and sinews being used for making garments, bags and tools. Wiradjuri people moved around in small groups seasonally making use of open land, waterways and river flats on a regular basis. Evidence of the use of areas survives in some areas in the form of occupation sites as well as axe grinding grooves and carved trees [www.environment.nsw.gov.au/ bioregions/South Western Slopes, accessed 11 Mar 2009].

5.5.6 Cultural Landscapes Rivers were integral to the cultural landscape of Wiradjuri people. They were part of their identity and sustained their existence by providing food such as fish and attracting bird life. Fish traps made of river stones could once be seen on the Bogan River at the location where a weir was later built. Structures such as weirs and dams have altered the river ecosystem diminishing the fish stocks that once fed Wiradjuri and were an important part of their diet [Macdonald & Powell 2001: 4]. None are known of in the Study Area.

Ceremonial stone circles or bora rings occur in Wiradjuri territory as well as on the coast of NSW. Surviving scarred trees, especially in the northern Wiradjuri lands is evidence of the practice of a cultural tradition marking significant sites. Carved trees were part of the cultural landscape of the Wiradjuri people and while a large number survive in the northern part of Wiradjuri country there are only three near the Murrumbidgee. The present day incidence of carved trees does not necessarily reflect their numbers or distribution in the past [NSW NPWS 2003: 1]. Carved trees were used to mark burials and initiation sites. It is thought that they might have been carved as part of ceremonies and the geometric patterns are similar to those found on skin cloaks. The designs are likely to be linked to individuals or clans of the artist of the person it commemorated. Carvings might also have indicated relationships to country. There were several methods of carving; including incising into the bark and removing portions, or removing the bark completely and incising directly into the timber [Horton 1994(1): 182-3].

In the early 20th century carved trees could still be seen along rivers and waterways. Many of the trees marked graves and others were made for other ‘special purposes’. Boomerangs, shields and nulla nullas also displayed intricate carving such as that on trees. The geometric patterns or images of animals illustrated aspects of Wiradjuri people’s spiritual beliefs representing ‘ancestors, kin or places’. Few carved trees are found today due to many being lost to land clearance or removed by non-indigenous collectors. Museum collections hold a number of Wiradjuri carved trees or weapons. Wiradjuri traditionally used Myall (Acacia pendula) and Yarran (Acacia omalophylla) for making weapons and hunting implements [Macdonald & Powell 2001: 76-77].

5.5.7 European Impact The alienation of land, followed by closer settlement through the Free Selection Acts from 1861, brought thousands of settlers to Wiradjuri territory [Read 1988: 26]. The establishment of towns and villages had increasingly detrimental effects on the traditional lives of Aboriginal people of the region. In the 1860s some Wiradjuri men and women found employment on stations and occasionally on small holdings, but on an irregular basis [Read 1988: 26]. Settlement reduced the territory and resources of Wiradjuri, offering little in return with which to sustain themselves,

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especially in dry seasons. As a result Wiradjuri communities became increasingly dependent on settlers especially for food and shelter. To settlers in the nineteenth-century the Wiradjuri population and its traditional culture appeared to be in decline. By the 1880s large ceremonies and rituals were rarely taking place, with initiation ceremonies being practiced intermittently [Read 1988: 27]. Peter Read in A Hundred Years War: the Wiradjuri People and the State explains that some of the necessary participants of ceremonies might have been away working, elders present might not have had the correct community standing to perform them, or there might not have been sufficient food to feed the large numbers attending. Sometimes landholders used ceremonial gatherings as an opportunity for surprise attacks on Wiradjuri making them dangerous to hold in known ceremonial grounds [1988: 27].

Government blankets were distributed in towns or stations in the district increasing contact and building reliance of the land’s traditional owners on the government and settlers. Larger stations relied on Aboriginal labour and, with decreasing access to traditional resources Wiradjuri became reliant on non-traditional food and materials. Despite some freedoms, there was pressure on Wiradjuri to discontinue cultural practices including speaking their own language and the marriage of older men to younger women. By 1900 most were marrying according to European conventions, although elders attempted to uphold traditional kinship laws. As relations with settlers increased Wiradjuri adopted European names, with some taking the surname of the station owner or the station name. Wiradjuri names were retained for use in traditional contexts such as kin identification or ceremonies [Macdonald & Powell 2001: 9].

The Aborigines Protection Act (1909) took effect in 1910. The Aborigines Protection Board, who administered the Act consisted of the Inspector General of Police and ten Board members appointed by the Governor whose duty it was ‘to exercise general supervision and care over all matters affecting the interest and welfare of Aborigines and to protect them against injustice, imposition and fraud’ [Concise Guide to the State Archives]. During this period increasing pressure was placed on Wiradjuri communities living on pastoral stations to move onto Aboriginal reserves, losing more of their freedom and autonomy. Closer Settlement Acts also brought changes for Wiradjuri living on stations. It resulted in the subdivision of many large pastoral stations into smaller allotments, in turn leading to fewer employment opportunities for Aboriginal people. Seasonal work and a few permanent positions continued to be available [Macdonald & Powell 2001: 10].

Despite the loss of their traditional places, their language and many rituals and ceremonies Wiradjuri maintained their sense of community and were able to continue some traditions, unobserved by settlers [Read 1988: 28]. The gradual loss of language and secret knowledge, and the undermining of the authority of elders were all detrimental to Wiradjuri culture, however in its place was an emergence of a new sense of self which was to sustain them into the 20th century.

5.5.8 Resistance Instances of Wiradjuri resistance to European settlement are well documented in official and published sources. Those by Windradyne (c.1800-1829), the famous Wiradjuri leader whose country centred on Sofala, are probably the most widely known and written about [Read 1988: 9- 10]. Self-defence attacks by Aboriginals on stock and settlers in the Bathurst region resulted in the declaration of martial law at Bathurst in 1824. Both the attacks and brutal, covert reprisals by settlers provide a picture of the intensity of the conflict that led to a sharp decline in the population of Wiradjuri communities in the region due to the number of casualties and the gradual dispersal of communities to other areas.

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Not all Wiradjuri were involved in active resistance but implemented other strategies in the struggle to maintain links with their traditional land. Some regarded local pastoral stations as part of ‘the exploitable environment’ settling there with the permission of station holders whose custom it was allow ‘native families belonging to the nearest tribe to remain about the grounds or premises as much as their wandering will admit of, to keep off strange blacks who might otherwise make dangerous incursions’ [Saturday Magazine 25 June 1836: 242, cited in Read 1983: 28]. In this way some Wiradjuri managed to maintain a link to the land and its resources, although without security of tenure and many limitations on the practice of traditional ceremonies and rituals. As pointed out by Peter Read in A Hundred Years War: the Wiradjuri People and the State, ‘such relationships were seldom permanent and always superficial’. In eastern Wiradjuri country such relationships were a rarer occurrence than in cattle country to the west [1988: 25].

The establishment of the Aborigines Protection Board in 1883 imposed great changes on Wiradjuri people. By this time the social organisation of Wiradjuri communities had changed beyond comparison to their pre-contact existence. Families were living on Aboriginal Reserves (some established as early as 1861), on pastoral stations, and in camps on the fringes of towns and villages. Despite the drastic changes in their lives and their living circumstances many Wiradjuri managed to maintain some of their language and core cultural practices integral to community life.

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