Aboriginal History Journal
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Aboriginal History Volume eight 1984 ABORIGINAL HISTORY INCORPORATED THE EDITORIAL BOARD Committee o f Management '. Stephen Foster (Chairman), Peter Grimshaw (Treasurer/ Public Officer), May McKenzie (Secretary), Diane Bell, Tom Dutton, Niel Gunson, Isabel McBryde, Luise Hercus. Board Members'. Diane Barwick, Gordon Briscoe, David Horton, Hank Nelson, Isobel White. ABORIGINAL HISTORY 1984 Editor and Review Editor: Isabel McBryde CORRESPONDENTS Jeremy Beckett, Ann Curthoys, E.D. Fesl, Fay Gale, Ron Lampert, Andrew Markus, John Mulvaney, Peter Read, Robert Reece, Henry Reynolds, Shirley Andrews Rosser, Charles Rowley, Lyndall Ryan, Tom Stannage, Robert Tonkinson, James Urry. Aboriginal History aims to present articles and information in the field of Australian ethnohistory, particularly in the post-contact history of the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Historical studies based on anthropological, archaeological, linguistic and sociological research, including comparative studies of other ethnic groups such as Pacific Islanders in Australia, will be welcomed. Future issues will include recorded oral traditions and biographies, vernacular narratives with translations, previously un published manuscript accounts, resumes of current events, archival and bibliographical articles, and book reviews. Aboriginal History is administered by an Editorial Board which is responsible for all unsigned material in the journal. Views and opinions expressed by the authors of signed articles and reviews are not necessarily shared by Board members. The editors invite contributions for consideration; reviews will be commissioned by the review editor. Contributions, correspondence and inquiries about subscriptions should be sent to: The Editors, Aboriginal History, C/- Department of Pacific and Southeast Asian History, Australian National University, G.P.O. Box 4, Canberra, A.C.T. 2601. © Copyright 1984 by Aboriginal History Inc., Canberra, Australia. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher. Typeset by Manukailopa Grcic Printed in Australia by ANU Printery, Canberra ISSN 0314-8769 Cover: Designed by R.E. Barwick, from the engraving in R. Brough Smyth’s The Abo rigines o f Victoria, 1878, depicting the memorial design carved in wood for Thomas Bungeleen (1847-1865), the son of Bun-geel-leen, a headman of the central Kurnai. ABORIGINAL HISTORY VOLUME EIGHT 1984 Part 1 Dedication 2 Introduction 4 Charles Dunford Rowley 5 Information for authors 6 R.E. Barwick and A memorial for Thomas Bungeleen 1847-1865 9 Diane E. Barwick Jan Critchett A closer look at cultural contact: some 12 evidence from ‘Yambuck’ Western District, Victoria Tamsin Donaldson What ’s in a name? An etymological view o f 21 land, language and social identification from central western New South Wales Peter Read ‘Breaking up these camps entirely ’: the dispersal 45 policy in Wiradjuri country 1909-1929 Luise Hercus The Marawara language o f Yelta: interpreting 56 linguistic records o f the past Michael Pearson Bathurst Plains and beyond: European coloni- 63 sat ion and Aboriginal resistance Denise Gaughwin and Aboriginal boundaries and movements in 80 Hilary Sullivan Western Port, Victoria VOLUME EIGHT 1984 Part 2 Diane E. Barwick Mapping the past: an atlas o f Victorian 100 clans 1835-1904 Isabel McBryde Exchange in south-eastern Australia: an 132 ethnohistorical perspective Stephen Webb Intensification, population and social change 154 in south-eastern Australia: the skeletal evidence Elizabeth Williams Documentation and archaeological investigation 173 o f an Aboriginal ‘village’ site in south-western Victoria Ben Gunn The rock art areas o f Victoria: an initial 189 comparison Brad Morse Perspectives on land rights 203 Reviews and Book Notes 208 4-4° <DS Eg O £ T3 UIS T3 < & N s Z U o 6 <uI «> Q •S . £* O3 • 2 'S § E ■a t3 b w 5 a « m ? ä .S * 2 | ~ £ Q * a. ABORIGINAL HISTORY VOLUME 8 - ABORIGINAL SOCIETY IN SOUTH-EASTERN AUSTRALIA DEDICATED TO PROFESSOR D.J. MULVANEY DEDICATION At the end of 1985 John Mulvaney retires from his position as Foundation Professor of Prehistory in the Faculties at the Australian National University. When discussing plans for this thematic volume with the Editorial Board I proposed that it should be dedicated to John Mulvaney in recognition of his great contribution to Aboriginal studies. It is also appropriate for us to dedicate this south-eastern volume to him as his teaching of Prehistory began at Melbourne University and his archaeological field work in the south-east. Before the famous excavations in the north at Kenniff Cave and at Ingaladdi that demonstrated unequivocally the Pleistocene antiquity of Australia’s Aboriginal past, there were those at the Fromms Landing rock shelters on the Murray, at Glen Aire and Keilor, and field survey work on the Glenelg. From the Australian National University he returned to field work in the south-east with investigation of sites at Lake Mungo, again uncovering material older than any previously recorded. Research on the history of anthropology and archaeology in Australia has always held a particular interest for John Mulvaney. Here the south-east again is appropriate. The key figures in his studies, Alfred Howitt and Baldwin Spencer, were giants in Mel bourne’s intellectual world at the turn of the century. Their researches, like those of John Mulvaney, were not in any sense local or parochial, but Australia-wide. Yet they also had their intellectual roots in the scholarly activities of the southern capital which his research is now illuminating for us. His biography of Baldwin Spencer So much that is new - Baldwin Spencer 1860-1929 written with John Calaby as co-author is due for publication in July 1985 by Melbourne University Press. So it is with tremendous pleasure that I, as Editor for Volume 8, join with members of the Editorial Board in dedicating this volume on the Aboriginal History of south eastern Australia to Professor John Mulvaney. It is some small tribute from us to mark his outstanding research and leadership in studies of the Aboriginal past, and to express our deep respect and affection for him as a colleague. John Mulvaney at Murramurrang, New South Wales, talking to a student group about problems of site interpretation and conservation. INTRODUCTION This volume of Aboriginal History is devoted to studies of the south-eastern corner of the Australian continent. In the past some volumes have concentrated on a single theme, edited by members of the Editorial Board with a particular interest in that topic. In 1981, for example, James Urry edited volume 5 with its theme of Aboriginal- Asian contact. The prehistory and recent past of the south-east all suggest that this area was one of intense cultural development in the later stages of its prehistory, especially the centuries immediately preceding the European colonisation of Australia Felix and the founda tion of the colony of Victoria. These developments invite research by archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnohistorians, historians and linguists. Yet particularly they invite inter- or cross-disciplinary research. The papers in this issue arose from a series of meetings which I convened with Professor R.W. Dixon in 1981. They involved scholars from the disciplines listed, all concerned with the south-east. As an informal group we gave ourselves the name South-East Australia Study Group. We each discussed com mon issues from the perspectives of our own discipline; yet from the experience of see ing the issues assessed from differing vantage points came new insights and new inter pretations. These meetings were exciting inter-disciplinary experiences, which we hope to share with readers through the papers presented in this volume and later issues. A series of unavoidable difficulties in production has delayed this volume, dated 1984. The winter of 1985 will be well advanced when it appears. However, there is some timely recompense in the delay. The volume appears in the year Victoria remembers the establishment of pastoral settlement in the environs of Melbourne and can join the body of research and publication marking that event and examining its impact on the Aboriginal societies of the region. Isabel McBryde June 1985 CHARLES DUNFORD ROWLEY 1906-1985 As this volume went to press we learned with deep regret of the death in Canberra on 18 September 1985 of C.D. Rowley, a member of the Editorial Board 1977-81. Among his many achievements was a virtual transformation of Australian historical writing about Aborigines following publication in 1970-71 of his The destruction o f Aboriginal society, Outcasts in white Australia, and The remote Aborigines. In his books, and scores of journal articles, letters to newspapers, reports to government and public lectures, C.D. Rowley demolish ed prejudice and suggested practical ways to improve the political and econo mic opportunities of Aborigines. What he fought for was summed up in the title of his 1978 book: A matter o f justice. In his last weeks he was able to correct the proofs of his final book: De-colonising Australia: the politics o f Aboriginal recovery. In Papua-New Guinea and in Australia Charles Rowley fought in justice with honest anger and gentle humour for over forty years. He will be remembered. A fuller appreciation of his contribution to Aboriginal studies will be presented in a later issue. IN FORMA TION FOR A UTHORS Manuscripts must be typewritten, double-spaced and with ample margins to allow for editorial marking. Submit two copies and keep a carbon. Footnotes should be as brief as possible, typed on a separate sheet and numbered consecutively throughout the paper. A short form of citation should be used for references to literature (for examples see current issue). The bibliography, on a separate page, should show the author’s name and full publication details as given on the title page of the work, listed alpha betically by author and chronologically for each author.