Heritage Citation Report – Ploughed Field and North Bluff
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Heritage Citation Report – Ploughed Field and North Bluff Heritage Citation Report Name Ploughed Field and North Bluff Address Bentinck Street, Portland Place Type Landscape / memorial Citation Date 28 June 2006 Heritage listings Victorian Heritage Inventory, Ploughed Field (D7221-0030), Glenelg Shire Planning Scheme, HO115 (no extent provided). Recommended heritage protection Glenelg Shire Planning Scheme (PS) Heritage Overlay (HO) Figure 1 : The North Bluff viewed from the south, the four remaining Cypress Pines are evident as are the Norfolk Island Pines lining Bentinck Street Ploughed Field and North Bluff Hermes No XXXX Place Citation Report Page 1 Heritage Citation Report – Ploughed Field and North Bluff Figure 2 : Proposed HO extent (map dated April 2016) Ploughed Field and North Bluff Hermes No XXXX Place Citation Report Page 2 Heritage Citation Report – Ploughed Field and North Bluff History and historical context Indigenous background As noted by other researchers, information which relates to the Aboriginal occupation of the Portland area is derived from publications and other surviving forms of documentation which were compiled by early non- Aboriginal settlers, missionaries and government officials who went to the region during the mid to late nineteenth century (Barwick 1984). The following information was compiled from a number of written sources based on language research and ethno-historic observations. It should be noted that the information provided here does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Gunditj Mirring people regarding their tribal affiliations and boundaries. Aboriginal occupation of the Portland region has been dated to at least 11,000 years ago, with use of the coastal regions demonstrated by the presence of recorded shell middens and artefact scatters (Freslov 1992; Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). Climatic change over the past several thousand years, however, has impacted the coastline of Victoria, and the date ranges may not reflect the full timeline of use (Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). According to Freslov (1992), the last 1,000 years of Aboriginal occupation became more focused on coastal and inland regions, with stable settlements established. This enabled ‘an increasingly specialised use of coastal marine and terrestrial resources’ (Freslov 1992; Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). Prior to the non-Aboriginal arrival and settlement of Victoria, the Portland region was occupied by the Dhauwurd Wurrung (Gundidjmara) people. The Dhauwurd Wurrung (Gundidjmara) language group extended west from Warrnambool (Hopkins River), north to Mount Napier and just south of Hamilton, to just south of Casterton, and along the Glenelg River south to the coast (Clark 1990, p 54). According to Clark (1990, p 54), there were 59 different Dhauwurd Wurrung (Gundidjmara) clans. The Dhauwurd Wurrung (Gundidjmara) language was comprised of eight dialects, on a continuum (Clark 1990, p 23). Population estimates for the Dhauwurd Wurrung (Gundidjmara) range from 3,500 to 7,000 people at the time of non-Aboriginal settlement (Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). Clans comprised the basic 'land owning' group in Aboriginal society (Clark 1990, p 8; Stanner 1965). In Victoria, clans were generally patrilineal descent groups with territories defined by ritual and economic responsibilities, however, the Dhauwurd Wurrung (Gundidjmara) were of matrilineal descent (Clark 1990, p 28). Clark (1990, p 55) has listed the [Ng]Ure gundidj clan for the Portland area. The Dhauwurd Wurrung (Gundidjmara) had two moieties, the Grugidj (white cockatoo) and the Gabadj (black cockatoo); however, it is unknown which clan belonged to what moiety (Clark 1990, p 28). Clan chiefs were known as Wung’it (Clark 1990, p 28). It is thought that the Aboriginal people of western Victoria were in contact with whalers and sealers from the early nineteenth century (at least 1810, according to Clark (1990, p 33)). The arrival of non-Aboriginal fishermen and traders brought violence and disease, although due to their seasonal occupation, contact was not continuous (Clark 1990, p 32; Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). However, Aboriginal lifestyles were soon subject to a different set of constraints: the arrival of the Hentys affected Aboriginal land tenure arrangements (Clark 1990, p 33). Initially, Aboriginal people practised burning-off to drive away the intruders. Robinson, however, noted that the few surviving members of the Portland Dhauwurd Wurrung (Gundidjmara) clans had joined with the Gard gundidj clan of Mount Clay. By 1841, it was said that the Gard gundidj had banned Aboriginal people from going into Portland (Clark 1990, p 33). There are also records of whalers attacking and massacring clans of Aboriginal people. A site now known as the Convincing Ground – approximately 10 km north west of the North Bluff at Portland, at Allestree – was the location of a massacre. Whalers murdered almost the entire Kilcarer gundidj clan, in a dispute over the butchering of a beached whale carcass, potentially in 1833-1834 (Heritage Victoria 2006; Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). There are no registered Aboriginal Places recorded on the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register (VAHR) within the extent of this citation. The following statement was sourced from Parks Victoria (2015) Ngootyoong Gunditj Ngootyoong Mara South West Management Plan about the Sea Country: Ploughed Field and North Bluff Hermes No XXXX Place Citation Report Page 3 Heritage Citation Report – Ploughed Field and North Bluff Defined by the meeting of the fresh and salt water, Koonang Mirring was a place of contact where the earliest Europeans and Aboriginal people first met. A place of conflict over abundant ocean resources, of violence where Europeans massacred Gunditjmara ancestors, of danger with tales of shipwrecks and of abundance of fish, shell fish and birds. The place where eels come from the sea to travel to Tungatt Mirring. Koonang Mirring includes the submerged lands that bear the footprints of Gunditjmara ancestors. It is a place where the spirits of Gunditjmara ancestors cross over the sea to Deen Maar (Lady Julia Percy Island). It is a place of stunning beauty where people flock to have fun, holiday, enjoy nature and solitude. Its coastal cliffs, dune fields, beaches, wetlands and woodlands continue to provide the healthy environment and plentiful resources that sustain communities and wildlife. The coast of Discovery Bay is filled with Aboriginal artefacts that are evidence of earlier ages of plenty and integral to the cultural heritage of the Gunditjmara people. Sealers and whalers massacred almost the entire Kilcarer gundidj clan at the ‘Convincing Ground’ in Koonang Mirring…one of many recorded massacre sites throughout the Countries (Parks Victoria 2015, p 11). The Gunditjmara people state that: ‘For Gunditjmara people, ‘Country’ includes all living things – none better than the other but equal in its importance in forming this diverse natural landscape that is Gunditjmara Country. Country means people, plants and animals alike. It embraces the seasons, stories and spirits of the creation. This flowing, connected cultural landscape possesses its own sacred places, languages, ceremonies, totems, art, clan groupings and law. Our spirit is in this Country, from Koonang Mirring (Sea Country) up through Bocara Woorrowarook Mirring (Glenelg River Forest Country) where Boandik Country north-west of Bocara (Glenelg River) embraces Woorrowarook Mirring (Forest Country) and across the wetlands to Budj Bim and Tungatt Mirring (Mount Eccles and Stone Country). Our Country is a place of belonging and pride that comes with this belonging. We are proud to share many aspects of our land, art and culture with visitors/guests. It is a part of us and who we are, and we ask that you care for it when you visit. It is our responsibility to look after Country, our children will continue to look after Country, because that’s the way it is and will be’ (Parks Victoria 2015, p 23). Early settlement and agriculture The non-Aboriginal use of Portland Bay extends back into the early nineteenth century, where the bay was named by Lieutenant James Grant, Royal Navy, (Captain of the Lady Nelson) in the year 1800, after the Duke of Portland (Kellaway and Rhodes 2002; Turton 1968; Wiltshire 1984). The bay was said to be ‘large enough to anchor all the navies of the world in perfect safety’, however, sealers and whalers were the first non-Aboriginal to operate in the Portland Bay area during the late nineteenth century (Wiltshire 1984). Sealers hunted Australian and New Zealand fur seals for their pelts, which they then traded. Sealers were recorded as working in Bass Strait from 1891-1892, with ships from England, France, and the United States purported to have used the area. Portland Bay was also suggested to have been used to shelter smaller vessels (Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). After seal numbers rapidly declined due to over-predation, international sealers abandoned the area, which allowed ‘colonial gangs’ to continue sealing (Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). Evidence of sealing at Portland dates back to 1822, with a sealer’s grave on Lady Julia Percy Island dated to the same year (Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). Whalers were present in Portland Bay from the 1820s when ‘shore-based whaling was the most profitable means of exploiting the great marine mammals, especially the Southern Right whales, which wintered each year in the bays of south-western Victoria’ (Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). Blubber from whales was boiled down on the beaches, with bone collected for use in women’s fashion accessories, such as corsets (Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). Trading vessels would then collect the oil and bone each season. Over 700 tons of oil were shipped in 1836 (Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). William Dutton was the first to establish a shore-based whaling station at Portland in 1833, at Double Corner (Kellaway and Rhodes 2002). By 1836, almost 100 whalers were Ploughed Field and North Bluff Hermes No XXXX Place Citation Report Page 4 Heritage Citation Report – Ploughed Field and North Bluff operating from Portland and Port Fairy, with over seven whaling stations present at Portland by 1838 (Kellaway and Rhodes 2002).