THEMATIC HISTORY OF PARRY SHIRE Final Draft John Ferry 15 PARRY SHIRE M ac dona Major Topographic Features ld 6610000N R i Elevation (metres) v e r Above 1300 1200 - 1300 N AN k DE 1100 - 1200 ons e W ats re A W C R 6600000N 1000 - 1100 R ANG Watsons Creek E To Uralla 900 - 1000 AY W 0 5 10 15 20 GH 800 - 900 HI Kilometres D 700 - 800 AN GL NE N M W E Ca lly O rlisl u es G 600 - 700 O 6590000N N B 500 - 600 I To Manilla WY OXLEY H Creek a Bendemeer g n u tt 6580000N A Woolbrook (to Walcha) Attunga RA NGE OXLEY n to iver To er Peel R om Gunnedah S 6570000N k H M e IG o e H ore r W C A Y Moonbi Limbri S Kootingal wa mp r ve O Ri ak 6560000N M E Tamworth C r L n e V r e IL u k L b ck E o C Nemingha Weabonga R A Calala N G E Pe G el 6550000N o o n o R o iv Y e r W G H o C on u r Dungowan ra o D b o u N b Duri u A la L Du C G ng N o r w e E an C e 6540000N reek k W Currabubula E N Niangala C re ek E D I V I D To Wallabadah 6530000N Creek rris We Werris Creek T A To Quirindi E GR 270000E 280000E 290000E 300000E 310000E 320000E 330000E 340000E 350000E 16 Introduction LANDSCAPES OF THE SHIRE arry Shire covers the rich like Niangala, Weabonga and agricultural country surrounding Woolbrook. These small villages are P the city of Tamworth in northern well accustomed to heavy winter New South Wales, and, as well, the snowfalls, and in exceptional seasons the extensive rugged mountain country to Moonbi Pass itself can be closed by the east of the city. The variations in snow or ice. topography and scenery in Parry Shire are dramatic from mountain tablelands The escarpment of the Moonbis is to broken ranges with snow-prone peaks, spectacular and affords splendid views from the narrow valleys of highland of the valley beneath. From lookouts in creeks to the flat alluvial plains of the hills the valley of the Peel can be lowland rivers. The basic drainage encompassed in a glance. It is obviously pattern is in a north westerly direction rich and fertile. The quilt of grey green and the core of the Shire is the valleys of pasture, yellow fields of grain and the the Peel River and its major tributaries chocolate browns of ploughed paddocks the Cockburn River, Dungowan Creek stretch down the valley. The mountains and Goonoo Goonoo Creek. The Peel in meet the plains here with a touch of turn is a major tributary of the Namoi spectacle. This is a type of Australian River which it joins just beyond the landscape beauty that is not rare, but nor Shire’s western boundaries. The Peel is it common. One has to travel to see Valley is the heart of the Shire’s this type of country. For a visitor it is productive economy. memorable. The valley is defined to the east by On the western side of the valley the rugged Moonbi Ranges, a spur of the there is another narrow range of flanking Great Dividing Range. It is in these hills. Due west of Tamworth these hills Moonbi Ranges that both the Peel and are known as the Melville Range. They Cockburn Rivers rise and set off through are much lower than the Moonbis, in fact gorges and narrow valleys. Just behind they are the well-worn residue of an Tamworth the Moonbis afford a pass to ancient range.1 But in themselves these the New England Tableland beyond, but hills are quite dramatic since they seem to the south and north of the Moonbi to rise abruptly from the plains. Pass, the country is rugged, broken, Quaintly named peaks such as Mount heavily wooded and remote. At the top Terrible or Terrible Billy, Mount Duri of the range and within the Shire’s and Slippery Rock Hill stand out on the boundaries lie small highland villages skyline, and can be seen from far away. 17 Beyond this residual range to the west Beyond the boundaries of the lies the pretty valleys of Werris Creek Shire, the larger picture is defined by the and Currabubula Creek, fitful westerly Great Dividing Range, with its rich New flowing streams marked more by gullies England Tableland, separating the New and waterholes than a permanent flow. South Wales north coast from the western slopes and plains. To the south The northern part of the Shire is the great divide becomes the more dominated by the Peel River as it turns definable Liverpool Range that separates due west to make its junction with the the Hunter Valley from the Peel and Namoi. It is joined on its right bank by Namoi Valleys. These geographic tributaries, Attunga Creek and Moore barriers have defined a lot of human Creek, both rising in the northern activity and development in the area. It reaches of the Moonbis. This, too is is the interaction of humans with their fertile country, with generous deposits of landscapes which is the focus of this alluvium from thousands of years of study. So the scene is set to pursue that flooding from both the Peel and the main objective. Namoi. A remoter section of the Moonbi Range north west of Niangala. 18 KAMILAROI LANDS his land of mountains, valleys, Carrabobbila (Currabubula); Werries plains and rivers, diverse in Creek and Wallamoul (Woolomol) were geological forms, diverse in soil Kamilaroi words whose specific T 9 types, diverse in vegetation was part of meaning is now uncertain. the lands of the Kamilaroi people (pronounced Kám-‘l-a-roi with the Most of Parry Shire lies within emphasis on the first syllable and a very the lands that once belonged to the weak second syllable. The initial sound Kamilaroi people. These lands were is somewhere between a ‘g’ and a ‘k’).2 extensive making the Kamilaroi one of The changing language spoken by the largest and most influential cultural hundreds of generations of Kamilaroi groups in Aboriginal Australia. The people over thousands of years, finally lands of the Kamilaroi stretched roughly came to rest in some of the place names from the Upper Hunter Valley along the now intimately associated with this land. western escarpment of the Moonbi and In 1855 an astute English observer noted Nandewar Ranges as far as the upper that the Kamilaroi, like all Aboriginal reaches of the Gwydir River, then along people, ‘have given names to every turn the Gwydir to about where Moree is of the rivers, every hillock and gully’.3 today. From there a rough boundary Europeans picked up some of these place could be defined as moving northwest to names and planted them permanently on take in all the lower McIntyre and the landscapes they were creating. In the Mooni Rivers and both sides of the vicinity of the Shire, known Kamilaroi Barwon River as far as Walgett, then words include Namoi, from ŋamú down to the Warrumbungle Ranges and meaning the breast since the river curves back to the Liverpool Range and the like a woman’s breast; Gunida Upper Hunter Valley.10 This vast area (Gunnedah) the place of white stones; takes in the modern towns of Tamworth, Biridja (Breeza) place of fleas; Worra Werris Creek, Quirindi, Manilla, (Warrah) on the left hand; Munila Barraba, Bingara, Gunnedah, Narrabri, (Manilla) where the river goes round Wee Waa, Coonabarabran, Coolah, about; and Mukai (Mooki) flinty rocky Cassilis, Baradine, Pilliga, Walgett, river bed.4 Within the Shire Turi (Duri) Collarenebri, Mungindi, and Moree. is a water reed;5 Tuckramah (Tucker- aman) is a resting place or camp;6 Trade amongst Kamilaroi people Callala (Calala) was the Kamilaroi name and between the Kamilaroi and other for the Peel River,7 and Goonoo Goonoo groups was extensive, and as might be was the place of faeces or excrement.8 expected, trade routes existed to bring 19 20 the resources of one area to another. executed in red ochre on granite and Much of the western Kamilaroi lands consists mainly of human figures consisted of black soil plains where accompanied by gird tracks, direction suitable stone for axe heads, knives and signs, circles, lines and dots. About five spearheads was not available. In the kilometres west of Moonbi township, are east, however, in the area now known as two large granite rocks showing Parry Shire, there was good quality stone paintings. In the Moore Creek Valley that was easily quarried. The most further to the west there are more impressive of such stone quarries was at paintings of similar type. In the Moonbi Moore Creek on the saddleback ridge Ranges a number of sites have been separating the Moore Creek Valley from located near Bendemeer. On Haning that of the Peel.11 Axes of the material near Watson’s Creek several figures are ground at Moore Creek were traded represented, and high in the mountains extensively along the valleys of the sixteen kilometres west of Bendemeer is Namoi and Gwydir Rivers and artefacts a cluster of sites representing some of of such material have been found as far the finest rock art sites on the away as Wilcannia in western New tablelands.13 Clearly, Parry Shire has South Wales.12 some very significant sites of pre- European occupation, and further Indigenous rock art is also investigation of this heritage should be associated with Parry Shire.