Regions with significant populations | |
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Languages | |
Djargurd Wurrong, English | |
Religion | |
Australian Aboriginal mythology | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Girai wurrung, Gunditjmara, Gulidjan, Djab wurrung and Wada wurrung see List of Aboriginal Australian group names |
The Djargurd Wurrong (also spelt Djargurd Wurrung) are Aboriginal Australian people of the Western district of the State of Victoria, and traditionally occupied the territory between Mount Emu Creek and Lake Corangamite. [1]
The Djargurd Wurrung people spoke the Djargurd Wurrung dialect of the Dhauwurd Wurrung language.
The classification of the Groups on this territory has been subject to controversy. Norman Tindale, referring to the same area, and clans, called them the Kirrae, whose lands he stated comprised in his estimate around 1,900 square miles (4,900 km2) of territory from Warrnambool and the Hopkins River down to the coast at Princetown with the northerly reaches at Lake Bolac and Darlington, and extending easterly beyond Camperdown. [2] The historian Ian Clark states that Tindale "failed to acknowledge the existence" of the Djargurd wurrung, while locating them in the same area. [1] The Djagurd wurrung territory was bordered by the Wada wurrung in the north, the Dhauwurd wurrung to the west, the Girai wurrung to their south, and the Gulidjan in the east. [3]
The traditional lands of the Djargurd Wurrung and Gulidjan, including the Western District Lakes, now a Ramsar site, [4] have been used by the indigenous peoples for thousands of years. There are many archaeological sites registered that include fish traps, surface scatters, middens and burial sites.
At the time of European settlement in the 1830s and 1840s the Djargurd suffered from massacres by European settlers in the Australian frontier wars, and also from attacks by the neighbouring Wada wurrung tribe. Dispossession from their land led to starvation and their theft of sheep resulted in murderous reprisals. In 1839 one clan, the Tarnbeere gundidj, was massacred by Frederick Taylor and others in a site that came to be known as Murdering Gully. [5]
When the Aboriginal reserve was established in 1865 at Framlingham, near Warrnambool, many of the surviving members of the Djargurd wurrung were forcibly relocated. However, a number of elders refused to abandon their traditional country and stayed eking out a meagre living on the edge of towns like Camperdown. They were assisted by people such as James Dawson, a Scotsman, who acted as guardian and supported them with his own money.[ citation needed ]
In 1883 Wombeetch Puuyuun (also known as Camperdown George) died at the age of 43 and was buried in a bog outside the bounds of Camperdown Cemetery. On Dawson's return from a trip to Scotland he was shocked at where his friend had been buried and personally reburied Wombeetch in Camperdown Cemetery. He appealed for money to raise a monument, but with little public support, primarily funded the monument himself. The 7-metre (23 ft) obelisk was erected as a memorial to Wombeetch Puuyuun and the Aboriginal people of the district, [6] and has been described as still inspiring today. [7]
The Djargurd wurrung people had 12 clans under a matrilineal system with a descent system based on the Gabadj (black cockatoo) and Grugidj (white cockatoo) moieties. The clans intermarried with Gulidjan, Girai wurring, Djab wurrung and Wada wurrung peoples. The twelve clans are as follows:-
No | Clan name | Approximate location |
---|---|---|
1 | Barumbidj gundidj | Lake Purrumbete |
2 | Djargurd balug | unknown |
3 | Koenghegulluc | Lake Colongulac and east to Mount Myrtoon |
4 | Korrungow werroke gundidj | unknown |
5 | Leehoorah gundidj | Mount Leura and Lakes Bullen-merri and Gnotuk |
6 | Mullungkil gundidj | south of Lake Purrumbete, including Mount Porndon |
7 | Netcunde | Cobrico Swamp |
8 | Tarnbeere gundidj | eastern bank of Mount Emu Creek |
9 | Teerinyillum gundidj | Mount Elephant |
10 | Uropine gundidj | Darlington |
11 | Wane gundidj colac | near Lake Elingamite |
12 | Worong gundidj | east of Lake Elingamite |
The Taungurong people, also known as the Daung Wurrung, were thirteen clans who spoke the Daungwurrung language and were part of the Kulin alliance of indigenous Australians. They lived to the north of, and were closely associated with, the Woiwurrung speaking Wurundjeri people. Their territory was to the north of the Great Dividing Range in the watersheds of the Broken, Delatite, Coliban, Goulburn and Campaspe Rivers. They were also known by white settlers as the Devil's River Tribe or Goulburn River Tribe.
Wathaurong, also called the Wathaurung,Wadawurrung and Wadda Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin alliance. The Wathaurung language was spoken by 25 clans south of the Werribee River and the Bellarine Peninsula to Streatham. They were sometimes referred to by Europeans as the Barrabool people. The area they inhabit has been occupied for at least the last 25,000 years, with 140 archaeological sites having been found in the region, indicating significant activity over that period.
Camperdown is a historically significant rural town in southwestern Victoria, Australia, 190 kilometres (120 mi) west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2016 census, Camperdown had a population of 3,369.
Lake Bolac is a town in the Western District region of Victoria, Australia, in the Rural City of Ararat, 91 kilometres (57 mi) west of Ballarat. At the 2016 census, Lake Bolac and the surrounding area had a population of 330. The town is on the shores of Lake Bolac, a freshwater lake popular with anglers. The Glenelg Highway passes through the town. Lake Bolac Post Office opened on 1 November 1864.
Framlingham is a rural township located by the Hopkins River in the Western District of Victoria, Australia, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) north-east of the coastal city of Warrnambool. In the 2016 census, the township had a population of 158.
James Dawson was a prominent champion of Aboriginal interests. He was born at Bonnytoun, Linlithgow, Scotland, the son of a whisky distiller. He arrived in Hobsons Bay, Port Phillip, Australia on 2 May 1840 with his wife Joan Anderson Park, niece of Mungo Park. He tried dairy farming in the Yarra valley for a time but moved to broader pastures in the Port Fairy district in 1844. For the next 22 years Dawson was in partnership in a cattle and sheep station, "Cox's Heifer Station" later named Kangatong, some 10 miles east of Macarthur.
The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Their land includes much of the Budj Bim heritage areas. The Kerrup Jmara are a clan of the Gunditjmara, whose traditional lands are around Lake Condah. The Koroitgundidj are another clan group, whose lands are around Tower Hill.
Mount Elephant is a 380-metre-high (1,250 ft) conical breached scoria cone formed by a dormant volcano, located 1 km from the town of Derrinallum in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It is a prominent landmark that forms the eastern gateway to the Kanawinka Geopark from the Hamilton Highway at Derrinallum.
Djadjawurrung or Dja Dja Wurrung, also known as the Jaara or Jajowrong people and Loddon River tribe, is an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands include the watersheds of the Loddon and Avoca rivers in the Bendigo region of central Victoria, Australia. They are part of the Kulin alliance of Aboriginal Victorian peoples. There are 16 clans, which adhere to a patrilineal system. Like other Kulin peoples, there are two moieties: Bunjil the eagle and Waa the crow.
The Jardwadjali (Yartwatjali), also known as the Jaadwa, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria, whose traditional lands occupy the lands in the upper Wimmera River watershed east to Gariwerd (Grampians) and west to Lake Bringalbert.
The Djab wurrung, also spelt Djabwurrung, Tjapwurrung, Tjap Wurrung, or Djapwarrung, people are Aboriginal Australians whose country is the volcanic plains of central Victoria from the Mount William Range of Gariwerd in the west to the Pyrenees range in the east encompassing the Wimmera River flowing north and the headwaters of the Hopkins River flowing south. The towns of Ararat, Stawell and Hamilton are within their territory. The Djab Wurrung Heritage Protection Embassy is located on a proposed highway duplication on the Western Highway south of Ararat. There were 41 Djab wurrung clans who formed an alliance with the neighbouring Jardwadjali people through intermarriage, shared culture, trade and moiety system before colonisation. Their lands were conquered but never ceded.
Murdering Gully, formerly known as Puuroyup to the Djargurd Wurrung people, is the site of an 1839 massacre of 35–40 people of the Tarnbeere Gundidj clan of the Djargurd Wurrung in the Camperdown district of Victoria, Australia. It is a gully on Mount Emu Creek, where a small stream adjoins from Merida Station.
The Gadubanud (Katubanut) also known as the Pallidurgbarran, Yarro waetch or Cape Otway tribe (Tindale), were an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria. Their territory encompassed the rainforest plateau and rugged coastline of Cape Otway. They are thought to have become extinct quickly following the onset of white colonisation, and little is known of them. Some may have found refuge at the Wesleyan mission station at Birregurra and later the Framlingham mission station, and some people still trace their descent from such a remnant.
The Gulidjan people, also known as the Kolakngat, or Colac tribe, are an Aboriginal Australian tribe whose traditional lands cover the Lake Colac region of the state of Victoria, Australia. They occupied the grasslands, woodlands, volcanic plains and lakes region east of Lake Corangamite, west of the Barwon River and north of the Otway Ranges. Their territory bordered the Wathaurong to the north, Djargurd Wurrung to the west, Girai Wurrung to the south-west, and Gadubanud to the south-east.
The Girai wurrung, also spelt Kirrae Wuurong and Kirrae Whurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people who traditionally occupied the territory between Mount Emu Creek and the Hopkins River up to Mount Hamilton, and the Western Otways from the Gellibrand River to the Hopkins River. The historian Ian D. Clark has reclassified much of the material regarding them in Norman Tindale's compendium under the Djargurd Wurrung, a term reflecting the assumed pre-eminence of one of their clans, the Jacoort/Djargurd.
Dhauwurd Wurrung is a term used for a group of languages spoken by various groups of the Gunditjmara people of the Western District of Victoria, Australia. Keerray Woorroong is regarded by some as a separate language, by others as a dialect. The dialect continuum consisted of various lects such as Kuurn Kopan Noot, Big Wurrung, Gai Wurrung, and others. There was no traditional name for the entire dialect continuum and it has been classified and labelled differently by different linguists and researchers. The group of languages is also referred to as Gunditjmara language and the Warrnambool language.
Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, and farming eels in Victoria for at least 40,000 years.
The Wergaia or Werrigia people are an Aboriginal Australian group in the Mallee and Wimmera regions of north-Western Victoria, made up of a number of clans. The people were also known as the Maligundidj which means the people belonging to the mali (mallee) eucalypt bushland which covers much of their territory.
The Bungandidj people are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Mount Gambier region in south-eastern South Australia, and also in western Victoria. Bungandidj was historically frequently rendered as Boandik or Booandik.
Mineng, also spelled Minang or Menang or Mirnong, are an indigenous Noongar people of southern Western Australia.