Derrimut was a full initiated tribal man, in his prime when the ‘Ngamadji’ (white men) landed in 1835.

Ngamadji in the local Kulin language means ‘returned dead spirit’. These foreign white men arrived with intent to colonise all the ancestral estates of Derrimut, and indeed take controlling possession of all Aboriginal traditional homelands.

Derrimut enacted astute political diplomacy in an attempt to navigate the very best rights for his people, and his country. He was forced to walk a tightrope between two worlds, the millennia old equilibrium of his ancestors and a dramatic and overwhelming new.

Although Derrimut died greatly honoured by his new white neighbours, he was profoundly disheartened as to what had been wrought upon his much loved people and land.

The picture you see before you is of a proud Yalukit Willam Boonwurrung man.

A man, who undoubtedly danced and conducted ceremony under the shadow of today’s St Kilda Ngargee tree. He would have hunted eel and emu in the rich wetlands we call Albert Park.

Remember him, his Boonwurrung people and his special ancestral country.

DERRIMUT ARWEET

Although very popular today, Point Ormond is a shadow of its original natural and cultural grandeur.

Named Little Red Bluff by the European colonists, it was once a rising headland projecting out into the Bay with cliff-faces a vivid palette of reds, whites and ochres.

This inspired landmark was of incredible significance for the Boonwurrung people. With superb views over their homelands, across both land and sea, with a reef rich in shellfish and marine life. To the north and east, sheltered behind foredunes lay an immense ‘temperate Kakadu’ of local wetlands. A premier site for traditional community gathering.

The abundance of ochres would have been a prerequisite for ceremony, celebrations and trade. The extensive midden cooking sites plus two precious stone axe heads uncovered during the Bluff’s 1970’s excavations are testimony to the sites significance.

The traditional Boonwurrung name for St Kilda is “Yuro-Yuroke” translates as ‘place of the grinding stones’, likely a direct reference to this ancient and very auspicious cultural site.

POINT ORMOND

This image clearly illustrates the open woodlands and wetlands of today’s St Kilda. Many early European colonists remarked how the local landscape reminded them of “an English gentleman’s park”. This open, park-like nature was due not only to geology and climate, but in large part through the millenia use of fire by the Kulin people as a landscape management tool.

The seasonal practice of mosaic burning kept the kangaroo hunting ranges open and encouraged extensive indigenous meadowlands, full of orchids, lilies, and murnong yam daisies, whose richly nutritious tubers ensured a healthy vibrant traditional population.

Within the first decades of European settlement the white colonists with their millions of hard-hooved livestock decimated the indigenous landscapes and wildlife.

Modern conservation efforts across Melbourne today are revegetating indigenous landscapes with the aim to redress the loss of biodiversity, restore some of the balance and hopefully to regenerate some of the spirit back to the land as well.

ST KILDA, YURO YUROKE

Chief Derah Mat (Derrimut) of Port Phillip Benjar Duterrau 5th Octrober 1836 Courtesy State Library of NSW

Coast scene St Kilda Thomas Clark 1857 Courtesy NGV Melbourne

Red Bluff Thomas Clark 1860 Courtesy Port Phillip City Collection

BUNJIL, the all-powerful God of the local Kulin population for time immemorial.

Bunjil is the majestic Wedge-tailed Eagle, and by night the shining star - Altair. As creator he could take any form, and his presence saturated all Kulin landscape, mind and body. Bunjil was supported by a pantheon of Kulin deities - his wife Gunawarra the Black Swan, his brother Pallian the bat, Waa the Black Raven, and a cosmos of other revered spiritual ancestors. They oversaw every facet of people and place.

Traditional Kulin people believed Bunjil moulded man out of the earth and then sung the magic and spirit into all life, into lore and into the land. He bound all as inseparable and demanded respect between all.

Bunjil remains strong for Victorian Aboriginal people today.

BUNJIL, THE GREAT CREATOR

Looking down towards the ancient Birrarung River, ‘the river of mists and shadows’ - today’s Yarra River. Elizabeth St is now lined with shop fronts and high-rise. This 150 year old image shows immense eucalyptus trees that covered what is now Melbourne’s CBD. These ancient woodlands and rolling hills were clear-felled by Europeans within 10 years.

In the early days of Melbourne Elizabeth St was not a street at all, but a creek! After thunderstorms it became a “raging torrent”which could cut the colonial town in two. Now buried under asphalt and trams, this creek still flows its original course as a stormwater outflow into its paternal Birrarung. Although hidden it occasionally still treats modern Melbournians to intense flash floods through its city streets.

BIRRARUNG RIVER

Looking north from what is now Southbank’s Crown Casino towards today’s CBD - note the rolling forested hills, which once abounded with possum and kangaroo.

The deep pool in the foreground was due to an ancient reef of volcanic rock which cut the river in half and created a beautiful serene waterfall. The rocky waterfall allowed the Kulin easy access to cross from one side of their ancestral country to the other. It marked the place where freshwater of the Birrarung met the saltwater from Nerm (Port Phillip Bay). Queensbridge now marks the ancient alignment of this ancient waterfall.

Both waterfall and deep pool were of immense cultural importance for the entire traditional Kulin population. It heralded even deeper significance in 1835 when as “a great place for a village”, the Black universe met the European.

The contact of two worlds changed the ancient Kulin culture, community and country forever.

QUEENSBRIDGE FALLS

Elizabeth Street 1844 G. Stafford Courtesy State Library of Victoria

Melbourne 1836 R. Hofmann Courtesy State Library of Victoria

The once as it was THE ANCESTRAL FAMILYESTATES OF MELBOURNE’S FIRST PEOPLE

WEST BEACH NATURALHISTORY PROJECT.

YALUKIT WILLAM CLAN LEADER, HEADMAN OF THE BOONWURRUNG

NGARGEE TREE

ALBERT PARK

PORT MELBOURNE

SOUTH MELBOURNE

MIDDLE PARK

ST KILDA

ELWOOD

SOUTHBANK

MELBOURNE

PT ORMOND

YARRAVILLE

WILLIAMSTOWN

ANCIENT RIVER COURSE

Land of vast volcanic grass and

wildflower

Land of clearest blue and magenta

fire blooms

Land of gentle hills and

plentiful possum

Land of reeds and rushes

‘our temperate kakadu’

The ancient drowned hunting

grounds

grasslands

mangroves re

ed

be

ds

she-oak

grasslands

she-oak

she-oak

rounded noon-flowers

yam daisies

Tea tree scrub

former coastal foreshore

marshy plains

Rock falls

marshy plains

scattered river red gum

marshy plains

scattered river red gum

river red gum

heathland

old dunes

heathland and low

coastal scrub she-oak and coastal banksia

grassy forest of river red gum

coastal manna gums

old dunes

heathland

she-oak and banksia

scattered river red gums, she-oak

and wattle

major reef, Shellfish

major reef, Shellfish

major reef, Shellfish

tea tree scrub

yam daisies

major reef, Shellfish banksia

Do

lph

ins

Ibis and Scrub Quail

Bush Turkey

Snake

Emu, Kangaroo

Swan, Duck and Geese

Frogs, Eels and Turtles

Emu, Kangaroo, Possum

Emu, Kangaroo

Bush Turkey

Emu, Kangaroo

Frogs, Eels and Turtes

Paperbark

Forested Bushland

Wetlands

Prominent hills

Major shell middens

Tommy McCrae based etchings. Kwat Kwat S-E Victoria 1836-1901 A prolific and major early Victorian Aboriginal artist.

This map is based on the colonial survey maps of the Port Phillip Bay region by Robert Russell 1837 & H.L Cox, Brouchier and McHugh 1864.

Traditional camping

N Traditional Kulin name

Modern suburb name

TROMGIN

TURRUK

PRAHRAN

YURO YUROKE

NERRE NERRE MINNIM

BIRRARUNG YARRA YARRA

BREJERRENYWUN

KERT-BOOR-UC

KOORT-KOORT-BOORK

MARIBYNONG

MIRRING-GNAY-BIAR-NONG

NERM

NERM

BIRRARUNG

This minuscule pocket of green foliage amidst St Kilda’s engineered beaches, is the only example of naturally occurring saltmarsh and dune plant communities surviving in St Kilda - a precious indigenous habitat, and a vital “buckle” in St Kilda’s ‘Sandbelt’ country.

The site has been squeezed between some of St Kilda’s most utilized public spaces, St Kilda’s pier and harbour to its front, Catani Gardens to its south, major kite-surfing beaches and the bustling Beaconsfield Parade. That anything remains of this once abundant indigenous foreshore vegetation is miraculous. Paradoxically, it was the construction of the massive St Kilda breakwater that caused the beach to build up to be colonised and protected by local native plants.

In 1991 Earthcare set out to strengthen the continuity of this unique local landscape with a major local native plants restoration project to provide a window on to the natural history of this area.

WEST BEACH NATURAL HISTORY PROJECT.

Tucked away in the very south-eastern corner of Albert Park, between the Junction Oval and one of the city’s major road junctions, the Albert Park Bushland Restoration celebrates the unique local plants and the precious ‘Ngargee Tree’.

Earthcare St Kilda began to revegetate this area in the late 1980’s. They took a disused park corner with an infamous ablution block and literally planted the seeds for a beautiful indigenous habitat.

In 1998, in response to the new Grand Prix site in the park, local residents concerned about the loss of many indigenous plants and open public space formed the Park Community Association (PSA). With considerable community goodwill, and Centenary of Federation funding, PSA decided to extend and enhance Earthcare’s revegetation work.

The Corroboree Grasslands project was created around the ancient ‘Ngargee Tree’ in the spirit of practical Reconciliation, to honour it and the natural and cultural indigenous landscape.

This special place and the success of the project continues due to enormous support and commitment by unpaid members of the local community.

ST KILDA CORROBOREE TREE GRASSLANDS PROJECT

‘Arweet’ Carolyn Briggs stands in her Boonwurrung walert-gurn, or possum cloak in front of the ancient Ngargee Tree: Two great treasures - two great survivors.

Carolyn Briggs is the Boon wurrung Arweet and Senior Elder, Australian Female Elder of the Year 2011, founder of some of the earliest Victorian Aboriginal organisations, a passionate story-teller and educator, and acclaimed bush tucker restauranteur.

As the latest in the ancient lineage of Boonwurrung Arweets Carolyn joins the names of past leaders like Derrimut, Benbow, Louisa Briggs, Kollorlok and Mooderrgar, to name a few.

Carolyn in turn shall pass her responsibilities on to the next Boonwurrung generation. As it has always been.

TWO LOCAL TREASURES, STILL HERE, STILL STRONG

DISCOVER MORE:www.portphillipwesternport.landcare.net.au/

DISCOVER MORE:www.earthcarestkilda.org.au/

A small patch of Sandbelt country: An echo of the past, and future

Dedicated local Volunteers of Park Community Association enjoy a well-earned break

1952 Acknowledgement Plaque at the base of the Ngargee Tree. Placed on site by the local Council over a decade before Aboriginal Australians were allowed to vote or considered as part of the Australian census.

Port Phillip EcoCentre acknowledges the Yalukit Willam people of the Boonwurrung, and the people past and present of the greater Kulin Nation, whose traditional lands we live and work upon today.

We acknowledge their survival as a cultural people.

We pay respect to their spiritual connection with Country, nurtured over thousands of years, their rich cultural heritage and belief, and to the very lands themselves.

This brochure could not have been produced without the support and valuable contribution from Port Phillip EcoCentre, Boon Wurrung Foundation, Public Records Office of Victoria, Aboriginal Tours And Education Melbourne A-TAEM

Individual acknowledgements must also go to Arweet Carolyn Briggs, Neil Blake, Dean Stewart, John Addie, Meyer Eidelson, Deadly Design team Craig Small & Mark Williams and Designer Marcus Lee and his team.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Modern West Beach paths through an ancient landscape.

In the past 2 decades over $200,000 has been invested in developing and maintaining the West Beach Natural History Project. It includes many thousands of plants, fencing, seating and many thousands of volunteered hours. A 300 metre winding boardwalk made totally from recycled plastic provides open access to the community without destroying this special indigenous asset.

Further enhancements are planned to strengthen the site as a natural habitat and nurture community environmental education and a deeper sense of connection to the land.

The ancestral families of the Boonwurrung Yalukit Willam would have known very well the grey and green textures of this ancient foliage - and with much dedication and hope, so shall the families of today and tomorrow.

“A lot of help, by a lot of people - creating something of local living beauty for all to share”.Former PSA president John Addie

DISCOVER MORE:www.skinc.com.au/

DISCOVER MORE:heritage.portphillip.vic.gov.au/Aboriginal_heritage/Yalukit_WillamThe_River_People_of_Port_Phillip

It is reconciliation, not just between black and white, But a reconciliation of us, as a people, with the land.

We are all caretakers of the land - which we must honour and respect.

For our life, or to our peril. For it is us who are bound to the land, not the land

bound to us.It is solely our responsibility, our imperative

Are we not all custodians?We must continue the legacy of our traditional ancestors,

We must care for our land, and equally the spirit of the land And respect both deeply.

For it is only then that the land shall be able to care for us!

THE ONCE AS IT WAS

JOURNEY SOME OF THE CULTURAL AND NATURAL LANDSCAPES OF TRADITIONAL NERM, PORT PHILLIP. THE ANCIENT ANCESTRAL ESTATES OF THE BOONWURRUNG YALUKIT WILLAM

ST KILDA’S SPECIAL INDIGENOUS REGENERATION PROJECTS.

DISCOVER MORE:www.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/files/...4468.../Yalukit_Willam_ booklet.pdf

DISCOVER MORE:www.yarrahealing.catholic.edu.au/

DISCOVER MORE:www.anbg.gov.au/aborig.s.e.aust/

DISCOVER MORE:www.trusttrees.org.au/

DISCOVER MORE:www.slv.vic.gov.au/search-discover

THE BOONWURRUNG OF THE KULIN NATION‘Boon’ means “how we say no”, ‘Wurrung’ means “language, word”

Today’s Yalukit Willam descendants are custodial owners of the areas known today as St Kilda, Port Melbourne and Williamstown.

The ancestral homelands of the Boonwurrung people took up all the coastal regions of Port Phillip to Western Port Bays, a 200 kilometre arc from Werribee River in the west, around to the sacred Wa’moon, or Wilsons Promontory in the east.

BOONWURRUNG CLAN GROUPS

1. Yalukit - Willam2. Ngaruk - Willam3. Mayone - Bulluk

Yalukit - RiverNgaruk - rocky, stony Mayone - local place name

4. Boonwurrung - Bulluk Boonwurrung - Boon speaking5. Yallock - Bulluk6. Yowengerra

Yallock - vast wetlands Unknown ?

‘Natives of Port Phillip’ 1849 H.S Melville Courtesy State Library of Victoria

Images of the original Kulin people, drawn in the earliest years of European seizure of their ancestral homelands.

It was a collision of two worlds, which overwhelmed every aspect of the Kulin’s landscape; be it natural, physical, social, cultural, and significantly, spiritual.

These individuals bore witness to the end of their traditional world and the full force of an unknown future.

ST KILDA'S ANCIENT ‘NGARGEE TREE’. A SILENT WITNESS

With limbs and fingertips reaching towards the sky, with feet and toes buried deep within the earth …

This majestic survivor, St Kilda’s Corroboree Tree, known today as ‘the Ngargee Tree’, towers resolutely, over its ancestral lands. These great gum trees were common across what is now modern Melbourne. Our modern suburbs were once open bushland, full of Emu and Kangaroo - and, for time immemorial, the ancestral family homelands of the Kulin people.

‘Ngargee’ is a local Boonwurrung word for ‘a gathering, a celebration of community’ This site has always been special. In the mid 1800’s it was recorded as where the Kulin “perform their dances about the old tree”.

This ancient River Red Gum is one of only a handful of remnant pre-contact Eucalypts in the inner city today. St Kilda’s Ngargee Tree is estimated to be up to an astonishing 700 years old! This tree, without question, is one of the oldest living organisms in our 21st century city.

A living breathing testimony to a time long past. Once, as it was!

“ Womin jeka mirambeek beek boonwurrung nerm derp bord-upren uther willam”

Ancient Kulin words, full of identity and ancestral symbolism, still in everyday use today.

Discover your own backyard!

DISCOVER MORE:www.vaclang.org.au/

THE PEOPLE OF THE KULIN NATION‘Kulin’ means ‘man’ or ‘mankind/people’.

The vast region known today as Greater Melbourne, and much of central Victoria is the original domain of a millennia-old Federation of five hereditary estates; respectively the Boonwurrung, Woiwurrung, Taungurung, Dja Dja wurrung and Wathaurung people.

“Wurrung” means language. Each ‘wurrung’ community was, in turn, divided into smaller ancestral family homelands controlled by specific bloodlines, or clans. Each of the clans had a strong independance, with their own dialects and customs.

However all were bound through a common bond of language, marriage, reciprocity, sacred sites, ceremony and judicial law. A pantheon of spiritual ancestors such as Lo-errn (Lohan) - the law maker, Mindeye - the great serpent of retribution, Karakarook - sovereign of earthly matters and women, Pallian -the bat, brother of Bunjil and creator of women, were just some of the myriad of magical and spiritual entities that dictated the lives of all Kulin population.

However their most powerful deities were Bunjil, the Great Creator of all, personified by the Wedge-tailed Eagle, and Waa the Black Raven.

The wurrung groups who made up the Kulin Nation were only 5, of an estimated 38-40 different Aboriginal language groups which made up the lands we call Victoria today.

They represent a dynamic complexity of language, law, religion, customs and cultures a true multi-cultural state of nations.

The Kulin nation continued on their ancestral country while civilizations around the world rose and fell over a sweep of 40,000 years. The culture and connections of Victorian Aboriginal people continue today.

“The culture, community and connections of Victorian Aboriginal people continue today.

Still Here, Still Strong”‘Willam’ means “home, dwelling” ‘Bulluk’ means “people, community”

“Welcome to the beautiful lands. Lands of the Boonwurrung by the two great bays”

Without knowing it most modern Melbournians are using local Kulin Aboriginal language many thousands of thousands of years old. See if you know any!

ST KILDA'S ANCIENT ‘NGARGEE TREE’. A TOWERING SYMBOL

River Red Gums like the ‘Ngargee tree’ were essential for the local Kulin. The extremely tough, and equally beautiful timber was used extensively for the best quality tools and weapons, for versatile containers, for shields, canoes and the bark for making cosy family ‘willams’ or homes.

The leaves and resin had powerful medicinal properties. The trees were carved as tribal markers; others even became final resting places for deceased loved ones - places of reverence.

Just as important, these old trees were home to an array of indigenous wildlife like possum, koala, birds, native bees and their treasured honey. River Red Gum trees were used for thousands of years, until the influx of European people and their ways disrupted and halted most traditional cultural practice.

The ‘Ngargee Tree’ symbolizes all Victorian Aboriginal people. Like this incredible tree, Aboriginal people and their rich culture HAVE survived and adapted despite much hardship and challenge. Along with the Corroboree tree Grasslands project, today there is also much revitalisation and healing occurring.

As humans, we continue to hold this great entity with the esteem and honour it rightfully deserves. As River Red Gums have been known to live beyond 1000 years it may still be alive when we and the paper you are now reading are dust.

DJADJA WURRUNG

DAUNG WURRUNG

BOON WURRUNG

3

45

6

1 2

WOI WURRUNG

11 clans

9 clans

WATHA WURRUNG20+ clans

Clans Meaning

A True Time Traveller. If only this Old Great Grand Father, this beautiful ‘Ngargee Tree’ could talk. Imagine the stories it could tell - imagine the songs it could sing.

NB: this simple comma marks the actual size of an indigenous River Red gum tree seed.

All the genetic knowledge of the centuries old Ngargee tree began as this minute capsule of life.

Port Phillip EcoCentre www.ecocentre.com

Boon Wurrung Foundationwww.boonwurrung.org/