The Aboriginal heritage of Murrumburrah
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Searching, searching ......
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| Murrimboola Creek, Murrumburrah |
When a non-Indigenous person in Australia goes looking for local evidence of First Nations / Aboriginal culture and history in any given locale, it is not easy to find. Why? Because, in 1788 the British invaded Australia and a substantial amount of cultural genocide subsequently took place, decimating the local population and destroying much of its culture. That shameful act, carried out over the years since and still in play, has never been fully recognised or addressed. The story below is one small effort on the part of one of those whitefellas to uncover some of that history and recognise that Australia is older than Captain Cook.
Searching
Upon arrival in Murrumburrah, New South Wales, early in 2021, the author was not initially able to locate any substantial information in regard to the Aboriginal heritage of the area. It was referred to as Wiradjuri country, located adjacent to the Ngunawal / Kamberri people of the Canberra region. According to the most recent census, there were Aboriginal people in the town, just as there are in every other part of Australia. First Nations people had inhabited the area for more than 100,000 years, though one source said it was only 20,000, such are the vagaries of the archaeological record and the limited research carried out in the region to date. It is likely that humanoids - Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis, Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans - have inhabited South-east Asia and Australia for hundreds of thousands of years, as evidenced by the 1.3 million year old humanoid fossils found in nearby Java, Indonesia. In fact, the Australian Aborigines are the oldest surviving race on the planet, as is their language and culture.
A year after the author's arrival in Murrumburrah, during February 2022 he was introduced to Gabrielle Chan's autobiographical Rusted Off: Why country Australia is fed up? (2018). Chan had moved from Sydney to Harden in 1996 and Rusted Off was an account of, and commentary upon, her experiences as a journalist in adapting to life in country Australia. One section of the book included a retelling of her own search for the area's Indigenous history and subsequent discoveries following meetings with Roy 'Jacko' Levett (b.1951) and his daughter Amanda. The son of an Aboriginal man from Wombat, a small town located west of Murrumburrah, and Maisy Bush of Boorowa to the north east, Roy was himself born at Mittagong in the Southern Highlands to the east. Upon settling in Murrumburrah later in life he began to look into its Indigenous history and set about raising its profile based on his discoveries. Roy did this by walking the land and developing an understanding of the Country around him. He noted in his talking with Chan that there were few stories passed down of the original people as there did not appear to be any of their descendants still living in the area. His discoveries in that regard were limited. The only account mentioned in the book was that the local tribe, prior to the arrival of settlers, camped during summer by the creek that runs through the town and is called Murrumboola Creek. In addition, during the often cold winters they set their camp upon a nearby hill. He also was aware that: The Murrumburrah post office was built on their camp on the creek (Chan 2018). This is a vague historical reference, as the post office was located in a number of places - one down on the flat near the creek - prior to the erection of the current, no longer used, building located further to the south in the main street of Murrumburrah. Chan also noted that, in recent times, a group of local environmentalists and scientists had worked with the Levetts to develop a document and statement that could bring together Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal perspectives on the importance of the land - the Country / place - in which they all lived and worked. The Levetts had also taken on the task of liaising with the Young Local Aboriginal Lands Council, with the local schools and also government relations in regards to Hilltops Council and beyond.
All of this information was a welcome revelation to this author in revealing what was happening, largely behind the scenes, in regards to the Indigenous cultural heritage of the Murrumburrah area. It also appeared to highlight something which was unfortunately common throughout the settled areas of south-eastern Australia, namely, the disconnect between the past and the present as a result of the dispossession of land, the dispersal of Aboriginal tribes, and the largely successful efforts by non-Aboriginal society over the years to discriminate against the promulgation of Aboriginal heritage and culture alongside the mistreatment of First Nations peoples. The true history of what happened to the original tribes of the region is hidden, unknown - some accounts state that it was a peaceful one, whilst other note conflict between the locals and the new settlers. None reflect the truth in that this was an invasion in which the rights and law of the Aboriginal people were ignored and their culture largely destroyed. As Chan noted, the horrific story of the nearby Cootamundra Training Home for Aboriginal Girls was evidence enough of efforts to assimilate First Nations peoples into white society, and in many instances forbid then to engage with their traditional culture through language, story telling, ceremony and attachment to place. It was largely as a result of these actions that upon arrival in Murrumburrah that the author was not able to see, or even sense, an Aboriginal presence - either now or in the past. The only hint was the name - Murrumburrah - which itself was a European adaptation of the original Murrumboolla which in turn referred to the creek system and original camp site referred to above. A journey of discovery was required, the results of which are presented in this blog.
Finding evidence of the past
In 1987, as the Australian Bicentennial year approached, the author was encouraged by a friend to compile anything and everything he had come across in regard to the Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines prior to 1850 into a book. The subsequent 640 page document was published by the Aboriginal Education Unit at the University of Wollongong in 1989. It was primarily a resource, with reproductions of original, unedited archival records and extracts from print material such as books, magazines and newspapers. A second volume appeared in 1994. Both were accepted by both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities as important in rediscovering and retelling aspects of local history beyond that normally seen in history books. The compilation of this material revealed to the author that the history of Australia did not begin with Captain Cook in 1770 but, in fact, went back thousands of millennia. Perhaps it was time to do the same for Murrumburrah. As noted about, the few publications on the local history made scant, if any, reference to Aboriginal society and culture. So, where to begin? The following is a chronological listing of references and stories located of relevance to Murrumburrah and the nearby region, north to Young, south to Yass and the Gundagai area, east to Binalong and Boorowa and west to Wombat and Wyalong. This is part of what is now referred to as Wiradjuri country - a vast area of western New South Wales, extending from Bathurst and the Blue Mountains in the north to the border with Ngunawal country in the south. Defined as such by non-Indigenous anthropologists, it is likely that the numerous family groups and tribes who lived in the area prior to 1788 did not necessarily see themselves in such a light.
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* pre 1800s - Murrumboolla camp site
In searching for a local Aboriginal cultural heritage, the name of the town was/is a good starting point - Murrumburrah - an Anglicised spelling of the original Murrumboolla / Murrimbula. This was the way the first settlers wrote it down when told so by the local Aboriginal people. As their language and pronunciation was very different to English, often the settlers found it difficult to spell out the words, and mistakes were made. The word they heard referred to the large creek system which flowed in a southerly direction through the town and on into the Murrumbidgee River, meeting up with it at Jugiong. Murrimbula was basically the same word as the south coast town Murimbula, and this is common throughout south-eastern Australia, with many Aboriginal words utilising root elements such as bula, murra, gunda, gong and ong. As a result, in 1860 when the local post office was set up the spelling Murimboola was changed by an official in Sydney to Murrumburrah in order to remove the confusion. A similar event happened with nearby Binalong, which was initially called Benelong, similar to the name of a famous Sydney Aboriginal man and also allocated to a town. These Anglicized words remove important elements of the original Aboriginal names, and thereby the connections with the land. As noted by Roy Levett, the initial post office opening in March 1860 operated out of a local inn - possibly the Criterion on Albury Street - and then in a hut on the eastern side of the creek (the Aboriginal camp site), away from town, until February 1865 when it was transferred further west on Albury Street to the T. & G. Barnes store.
According to Levett, Murrimboola was the traditional name of the local tribe, and the word referred to "two canoes on their way to the ceremonial ground" (Levett 2007). A linguistic analysis of the word identifies it as comprising two root elements - murrim = canoe and bula = two (Woolych 1857).
The campsite was a natural place to gather, providing water and food for the local people. It would also likely have been associated with a ceremonial ground, though these were often local on, or near, high places away from camps and with specific used for women, men and ceremonies such as initiation, teaching and death. Families, and tribal groups, had specific attachments to Country - equivalent to the European concept of ownership - though Aboriginal society viewed their association with the land as one of custodianship, not strict ownership as in the European sense. Murrumboola therefore "belonged" to the local people and people from outside the area needed to follow certain protocols when visiting for ceremonies and other reasons such as travel through the district. Little is known of the everyday life and custom of the local people during those thousands of years of occupation, though we can speculate based on accounts and reconstructions based on areas nearby or in other parts of New South Wales and further afield. There is no doubt that Aboriginal society was, following its extensive period of development, complex and unique. It was this element of First Nations civilisation that the Europeans, following their arrival in 1788, failed to recognise or respect - a situation which unfortunately continues through to the present.
* 1810s - First settlers
The first Europeans to visit the area may have been escaped convicts from the penal settlement which arrived at Sydney in January 1788. Word of its creation travelled quickly throughout the country, such were the highly developed lines of communication between tribes. The first explorers known to have passed through this area of Australia were Hamilton Hume and William Hovell in an official expedition during 1824, quickly followed by illegal squatters. Actual land grants were allocated from 1828. A good example is the arrival of James White at Young (Burrangong / Lambing Flat) in 1827.
The arrival of European settlers such as White had a devastating impact on the life and culture of the local people, for with cattle and sheep and crops came fences and dogs and guns and restrictions on access to traditional lands and hunting grounds. Governor Macquarie's proclamations of 1816 outlawing traditional hunting implements such as spears and giving free reign to settlers in how they dealt with local Aboriginal populations, resulted in death and dislocation for many people, initially in the settled areas around Sydney, but later to places such as Young and Murrumburrah as expansion of the colony continued unabated. The situation never really improved during the first century and a half of European settlement, and Aboriginal people had no recourse to justice from a British legal system which failed to give then equal rights under the law, or recognise traditional lore, custom and ownership / custodianship of the land. A lot of what happened to Aboriginal people throughout Australia, and in places like Murrimboola, was kept in the dark and never officially recorded. For this reason, so much of the richness of the Aboriginal history of this nation is lost. Pages such as this will attempt to bring together what has survived. It is also hoped that within Aboriginal communities much is still held as part of their strong oral traditions.
* 1820s
- When first encountered by European settlers in the 1820s, the Wiradjuri people lived in an area now defined as from Murrumburrah north to the Bathurst region. Of the nearby Ngunawal people, one recent account states:
The traditional Aboriginal people, the Ngunawal, have occupied the area in the vicinity of the present town of Yass which was central to the clan boundaries of the Ngunawal people. The clan boundaries encompassed the area from Goulburn to the north, Gundagai to the west, Cooma to the south and Braidwood to the east. This also includes the entire territory of the Australian Capital Territory on which the national capital, Canberra, is situated. (Cosgrove 2022)
- As noted above, such 'clan boundaries' have been defined by European researchers such as Normal Tindale in the 1930s and 1940s and most likely do not reflect the pre-invasion state of Aboriginal society. Its complex nature appears to be based around family groups and local tribes with an Elders-based system of lore / law. There was no central governance as such, along the lines of the Western system introduced by the British, or rule of law. The differences between the two civilisations was, and remains, significant.
- Ned Ryan of Galong had "lots of trouble with the blacks" in the 1820s (Lloyd 1990). No further details are known. Ryan, and many others, took up large parcels of land in the region for grazing of cattle and sheep during the 1820s.
* 1826 - 1844
Blankets were distributed to Aboriginal people in New South Wakes during these years, and lists kept of individual names, places of residence and ages. However, it does not appear that any were distributed in the region. The nearest distribution was in Country Murray at Yass 1839-44 and Queanbeyan 1940-44 (NSW State Archives).
* 1827
James White settles at Burrow-mun-di-troy on Bulla Creek, near Young (Burrangong / Lambing Flat). An account is given in the reminiscences of his daughter Sarah Musgrave, published in 1936. Her book, The Wayback, contains many references to the local Aboriginal people and is a unique, important resource. A number of relevant sections are reproduced below as it appears to be the only account we have of interactions between the settlers and local people from this early period of first contact.
* 1828
Dr. John Harris of Sydney takes up the Kolangan and Murrumburra runs of 28,000 acres each. These were officially granted in 1848. They were initially operated by his nephew John Harris who introduced horses to the area. From 1841 the overseer was James Kennedy.
* 1830s
"It is known that Aborigines were a problem to the early settlers around Wallendbeen in the early 1830s." (Littlejohn 1977). No further information is available.
* 1844
George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector of Aborigines, Port Phillip, travels overland from Melbourne and visits Yass, noting in his journal aspects of the local Aboriginal population (c.f. Sue Wesson, An Historical Atlas of the Aborigines of Eastern Victoria and Far South-eastern New South Wales, Monash University, 2000) .
* 1850
Report on Aborigines in the Lachlan District [Archives Office of New South Wales, file 4/1146.4] (Littlejohn 1977)
"There is little prospect of advancement. Impediments to improvement might be removed by establishing schools with Reserves to be cultivated by the Aborigines. Some of them are usefully employed by the settlers. Total number 300. They have no fixed residence and frequent the settled districts during winter. In their encampments both sexes mix - the women are cruelly treated. Polygamy prevails. I suggest as a means of improvement - compulsory residence amongst civilised men."
Comment by R.A. Littlejohn (1977): From the above it appears that in the following twenty years they had been decimated. That only 300 remained in the area bounded by the Lachlan and the Murrumbidgee rivers tells its own story, and the above report indicates that they were, even then, a hopeless remnant of a once proud race.
* 1851
6 February 1851 - Survey J. Larmer submits a map of the Lachlan district to the New South Wales Surveyor General's Department. Aboriginal names allocated by him to localities, properties and landforms the Young - Yass region include the following, along with the property owner details where given:
- Allanan
- Baroo
- Barwang
- Beggan Beggan (Salting)
- Bennelong
- Berthong (E. Ryan)
- Boorowa
- Burrowa
- Congo
- Cootamundry (J. Hurley)
- Cumumbala
- Cunningar
- Currawong
- Curianga (Dwyer)
- Curiong (Gardner)
- Dinga Dingy (D. Dacey)
- Dudanman
- Galong
- Gegullong (Scarr)
- Gunibingal (W. O'Brian)
- Illalong (Gardner)
- Jaraldra (E. Ryan)
- Jailong
- Jindalee
- Jugiong
- Kalangan
- Kangiaroy
- Korroggin (Levitt)
- Murrumboolla
- Nangianoo
- Nimby (Barber)
- Nubba (E. Ryan)
- Nurung (Salting)
- Tookinbindyal (Matheson)
- Tumatel (E. Ryan)
- Wallendbeen (Matheson)
* 1853
24 November 1853 - Larmer's Vocabulary of Native Names. Surveyor J. Larmer submits this to the Surveyor General on this date. The following words are relevant to the district:
Upper Calara or Lachlan
- O gill - warm / Mumboa - hot / Tog ge ra - cold
- Calleen - fresh water / Boog woo in - grass
- Ur roong - emu / Wamboo een - kangaroo / Kuya - fish / Coombull - turkey / Dundoo - turkey / Booralgal - Native Companion / Toon gool - bear
- Wirreet - wind
- Weri - no / Nowa - yes
- Yanagee - go / Weja - stop
Junction of Lachlan and Murrumbidgee
- Muccara - rain / Wilya - hot / Tillal - cold
- It tha - no / Ye a - yes
- Nicka - go / Go woi - come
- Nun na - black fellow / Birrup - gin / Ballite - boy / Bick nunna - old man
- Brung ine - emu / Boolooka - karngaroo / Ka en - dog / Toolombee - duck
- Burrimully - good / Mummothinthy - bad
- Mowa - one / Eu rowal - two / Thur alua - thee / Dinnewa - four / Curra - five
- Menino - make haste / Nngamo - stop /
- Wine got by - moon / Na eng hee - sun / Toort-tee - star
- Willong he - wind / Mug ga ree - rain / Tenangee - cold / Kel-lal-lee - warm
* 1857
Surveyor Woolrych: "I have altered the spelling from Murrumburra to Murrimiboola which is the native name given me by a blackfellow and agrees with the spelling in Mr. Larmer's map. "Murrim" signifies canoe and "Boola" two. The name is applied from the resemblance of two water holes there in the shape of a canoe. These words are from the dialect of the Wiradjuri tribe of aborigines which inhabited this portion of country before, and for a short time after the coming of the white men."
* 1863
* Saturday, 12 December 1863, The Yass Courier:
LOCAL & GENERAL INTELLIGENCE
THE BINALONG AND YASS MAIL STUCK-UP BY GILBERT AND HALL.
The impunity with which the Burrowa and Binalong mail was stuck-up on Saturday last by those masters of the roads — Messrs. Gilbert and Hall —appears to have given renewed courage to the freebooters to continue their command over the post office bags while in transit. About half-past five o'clock on Wednesday evening last, while Richard Henry, in the employ of Mr. Jacob Marks, the contractor, was conveying the mails from Binalong to Yass, he was stuck-up by Gilbert and Hall. As to the identity of the two bushrangers there can be no doubt, as their faces were not disguised in any manner, and Richard (or Dick, as he is better known by, a half-caste aboriginal)had the opportunity of fully reoognising them as those well-known bushrangers, who, in company with Gardiner, waited upon him professionally while he was conveying the mails in the neighbourhood of Murrumburrah some two years past.
* 1869
* Thursday, 18 March 1869, Queanbeyan Age:
* Friday, 14 May 1869, The Yass Courier:
BLACK AFFRAY.
A very disgraceful, although probably to some a very amusing exhibition of pugilism, between four or five of the Aborigines in the presence of their gins, and a small crowd of other spectators, took place on Tuesday afternoon towards the southern ed of Cooma-street. King Andy was present at the affray, and faithfully endeavoured to make peace, but his excited subjects would listen to no regal interference. The combatants were very much intoxicated, and continued hammering and throwing one another until Mr sub-inspector Brennan appeared, who quickly quietened them, and saw each led off by his gin and a peaceable coolie. Tho disgraceful part of the affair is that these excitable creatures had been supplied by some publican with grog, for the sake of a few shillings gain, unmindful of the consequences that might ensue. There is a heavy penalty for the sale, or giving away of intoxicating drinks to the Aborigines,and it would be well were the public to see that the law is carried out.
* 29 June 1869, The Yass Courier:
Aborigines.
On last Saturday afternoon the aboriginals who have for sometime past been lingering about Yass awaiting the governmental dole, were each supplied with a new blanket by the Clerk of Potty Sessions. The number who now claim tho annual gift at Yass is small compared to what it was some few years ago ; and comprise but two or three families. Tho blacks generally come to Yass in the first or second week of May, and are supposed to receive the blanket on tho Queen's birthday. They have boon detained about the town this year for a whole month beyond the period at which they are supposed to have a claim on tho Government, not much to their own advantage, for on last Friday night two of their number (males) wore found in a beastly state of drunkenness near the Union Mills, and removed to the lockup in a cart. It is to be regretted the person who supplied them with drink is unknown.
* 1876
* Friday, 12 May 1876, The Gundagai Times:
[The police magistrate distributed blankets at Gundagai on Monday and Thursday.]
* Friday, 26 May 1876, The Yass Courier:
* James Manning, Notes on the Aborigines of New Holland, Royal Society of New South Wales, 1 November 1882. Manning lived at Cumbamurra, located between Binalong and Jugiong, to the southeast and south of Murrumburrah.
Notes on the Aborigines of New Holland.
By James Manning. [Read before the Royal Society of N.S.W., 1 November, 1882
In 1844 and 1845 I had the privilege of taking some interesting- notes from the blacks of this Colony on the subject of their religious belief. Those notes were necessarily and mainly taken from the most intelligent of those natives who frequented the neighbourhood of my own home in the bush in those early days. At and before that time I resided at Cumbamarro, very near the outside boundaries of the then location of settlers to the south, and near the Murrumbidgee River, and for ten years prior to my taking such notes in writing I was a resident of those parts. For the first four or five years or more of that earliest time there was no church south of the little one that was at Bong Bong, near Mittagong. The cities and towns of Goulburn, Yass, Albury, and Melbourne did not exist. It was a common parlance amongst the early settlers, when travelling south, before Goulburn and Yass townships were formed and had churches, to say that “ there was no Sunday after crossing Myrtle Creek,” which is a stream bordering old Bargo Brush, a little south of Picton, and some 50 miles only from Sydney. No missionaries ever came to the southern district at any time, and it was not until many years later that the missionaries landed in Sydney on their way to Moreton Bay, to attempt, in vain, to christianize the blacks of that locality, before the Queensland separation from this Colony took place. These facts are advanced in proof that the notes which I took, later on, upon the religious belief of the whole of the aborigines of this continent are perfectly true and consistent with their own traditions. I also desire to say that, since I penned them, in January, 1845, I met with fresh confirmations to the general belief of the blacks in a Supreme Being or Deity in all parts of New South Wales, in Victoria as far west as the Grampian Hills, and in Queensland as far north as Rockhampton. At each such place the God of their faith was in every instance represented to me as having his abode where the sun rises. I may further add my conviction, without having visited the far interior of those parts where Burke and Wills perished, that the blacks are all of the same religious belief as those who have come under my notice and inquiries. This conviction I maintained from the moment that I saw in the Illustrated London News of that time the picture of two stalwart natives of that region, who were sketched from nature by one of the parties who went in search of those unhappy explorers. That picture represented those two fine-looking blacks to be minus the front tooth, which I considered had doubtlessly been knocked out under the sacred ceremony of the so-called “ Irangung,” the nature of which my notes fully explain.
The extraordinary though incongruous parallel between the religious belief of the natives of this country with those of the Hebrews or of Christian nations caused a great deal of doubt to be cast on the originality of the statements made by me. Many of those who read them pooh-poohed the idea of their truthfulness ; in some instances I felt myself to have been almost insulted for having propounded what seemed to be evidence of weak credulity on my part. I may mention that almost the first person and friend to whom I showed these notes was Mr. Charles Oowper, afterwards Sir Charles. He saw them when we met in Mel- bourne, in April, 1845. He expressed himself to be much astonished at the revelations I had thereby made, but could not divest himself of the idea that some missionaries, catechists, priests, or clergymen had been tampering with or schooling my black friends into a crude kind of trinitarian belief ■ and he expressed his opinion that the notes needed confirmation from other quarters than from the special parts only where I resided in New South Wales, and from whence I obtained my earliest and leading information. That confirmation I have since obtained in various and widely separated places, as before stated. As Sir Charles (then Mr. Cowper) thought of these notes, so did very many ; but when I lent them to the late Bishop Broughton to read, in 1851, he was so struck with the statements made, and found them so ably and really logically supported by the singular avowals and remarks of my chief sable informant, that he asked for a copy of them to take with him to England, to have them printed there through one of the religious Societies. I was at that time under a pledge to my black informant not to publish them in Sydney until they had been published in England, for reasons which will appear to be just and warranted when the notes are read and understood. I gave Bishop Broughton a full copy as he was leaving for England in 1852 ; he died shortly after reaching home, and that copy has never since been heard of. My original paper remained with me for twenty years afterwards ; it was lent to various friends, among whom was the late Bishop Barker. At last, and about ten year ago, this original, by passing from friend to friend, also became lost • but fortunately (as the sequel will show), among the many who had had the notes to read was the late Lord Audley, who had them in 1852, just thirty years ago, and whilst he was encamped near my station. By a strange coincidence it was only Image: 4 Image4 PartnersAcknowledgement of Country within the last three months that our worthy President (Mr. C. Rolleston), who had heard me speak of these old and lost notes, remarked, in conversation about them with Mr. John F. Mann, of Sydney, that I had had and had lost such notes. Whereon Mr. John Mann, who was Lord Audley’s brother-in-law, immediately exclaimed, “ Why, I have them ; I took a copy of them into a folio book whilst the notes were with Lord Audley !” Hence, and by this extraordinary coincidence, the notes are restored to me in their original wording, and I have now the pleasure to make them public, there being no longer any reason for caution in making them known, my black friend “ Andy/’’ who gave me almost all my information, having passed away, and the whole race of blacks in the civilised parts no longer existing in their primitive state, and having nearly died out, as prophetically decreed. I wish to add, in confirmation of the originality and truthful- ness of these notes, that Black Andy was respected by all the few gentlemen who were in my neighbourhood ; and that in my own solitude in those days I appreciated the interchanges of thought with this fine aboriginal, whom I used to regard in the light of- a ‘•'nature’s gentleman,” of no mean reflecting and reasoning capacities, and who by his ready acquisition of the English, language afforded me singular advantages in gaining the infor- mation I did. Mr. John Mann knew this good “ blackfellow”' very well, and will perhaps support my present attestation of his superiority before 1 give utterance to notes which will surprise, and will be found to give evidence of the tradition of the blacks on their religious creed much in same way as the Old and New Testaments contain the traditions of the Christians and Hebrews. I may state, under my own familiarity with the subject, that the natives of New Holland are not heathens or pagans, because they worship no idols ; and that, so far from their being atheistic in their belief, they are not even deistic, because they not only acknowledge a Supreme Deity, but also believe in his providential supervision of all creation, aided by his Son, “ Grogoragally,” and by the second mediator, in the supernatural person of their inter- cessor, “Moodgeegally,” and also because they believe in a day of judgment and retribution to each man immediately after death and resurrection, and in a future state of reward and punishment by the fiat of their Supreme “ Boyma,” or God, as will be under- stood on the reading of my notes. These notes will also, and unfortunately, show that the origin- ality and seeming implicitness of the religious belief and superstitions of the natives of New Holland are rendered almost nugatory by the extraordinary and debasing ignorance under which they are bound to keep their women, through the supposed stern decree of their great lawgiver, “ Moogeegally.” They degrade their women worse than the Hindus do theirs. Image: 5 Image5 PartnersAcknowledgement of Country In conclusion, I wish to say that the singular recovery of these notes is due to the interest which Lord Audley and Mr. John Mann took in them, so much so as to have copied them in detail unknown to myself, and that their resuscitation is due to the interest which Mr. Rolleston expressed about their having existed and been lost. To these gentlemen I wish to tender my thanks. Between us all these notes seem to have been destined not to be irrecoverably lost; and now that I have them again, and that as I have nearly reached the full span of human life, I hope it may be accorded by this meeting that no more time should be lost to place them on permanent record, to which effect I have much pleasure in offering them to this our Sydney Royal Society. P.S.—The above constitutes my preface to the old notes which I am about to read you; but since I have penned this preface, and, indeed, only this morning, I am placed in possession of still further corroboration of the originality of the subject matter of my notes. I had invited Dean Cowper to come here this evening, and, as an inducement I sent him a press copy of my preface to the notes, which he returned to-day with a very interesting note of his own, part of which, I am sure, he would have no objection to my quoting. After informing me that he regretted that professional duties would prevent him from attending this meeting as a visitor, he gives me the following information, which is most interesting, and gives the strongest confirmation to all I have written and said on the subject. Before quoting his words, I beg to say that I was perfectly ignorant of what he informs me as having come from Archdeacon Gunther and from the Rev. Mr. Ridley, although I knew that they had both written on the subject of the faith of the blacks, years and years since the date of my notes ; and as they point to the same traditions, I shall quote them with the greatest satisfaction. The Dean writes me as follows : —“ Ido not know whether you are aware that the late Archdeacon Gunther, of Mudgee, pre- pared a grammar of the aboriginal language, which went home a few years ago, through the Colonial Secretary, to Professor Max Muller. In this grammar there was a special note upon the belief of the aborigines on the being of a Deity, his providence, and the doctrine of rewards and punishments. Mr. Gunther, when a missionary to the aborigines at Wellington Yalley, derived his information, he told me, from some of the oldest of the blacks, who, he was satisfied, could not have derived their ideas from white men, as they had not then had intercourse with them. The language, also, was witness of their faith. There was a being to whom they gave the name of Baime, or Bhaiame. The word is a noun, from baio or bhaio, which means to cut or make, and Image: 6 Image6 PartnersAcknowledgement of Country signifies maker. They applied this to Him who made all things • they said that He lived far away, and that He would punish had men and reward good. This news was strongly confirmed by the Rev. Mr. Ridley, who was a missionary for about two years amongst the Kamilaroi tribe of aborigines on the Upper Hunter River. He also compiled a grammar, which I dare say you have seen ; and in it he gives the same name for the Deity amongst the aboriginals with whom he had been associated, and whose language he had learned. I had a conversation with him one day, in which he referred me to his grammar, corroborating what I had heard from Archdeacon Gunther.” With such unexpected corroboration of my own words, I end this preface by saying that if scepticism in this matter is still to continue, I think unbelievers would do well to peruse the notes a second time carefully before they pronounce their judgment on the revelations made, which were never dreamt of before I made them public. To such sceptics I will venture the suggestion that they should consider how easy it might be for intelligent men to pass almost a lifetime among the blacks in any quarter of this continent without securing that entire confidence of even the best of the natives around them, through whom they might possibly become entrusted with their religious secrets—secrets which they dare not reveal to their own women at all, nor to their adult youths until the latter have been sworn to reticence under that terrifying ceremony which my notes describe. I, however, claim to have been specially fortunate in my researches, and therefore, with my confidence in the validity of these statements, I leave it to time and the future inquiries of others to have my notes confirmed in manner I have no doubt they will be. Notes on the Religious Creed, &c., of the Natives op New Holland. The aborigines of the southern part of New Holland have a belief in the existence of a Supreme Being ; and, from connecting circumstances, I am of opinion that the same creed upon religious subjects exists throughout the whole continent of New Holland. The God of their belief is called “ Boyma,” who, they say, dwells at an immense distance to the north-east, in a heaven of beautiful and supernatural appearance, where the Almighty is represented by them as seated on a throne of transparent crystal of vast magnitude, which has its base in the great water, and rises to a stupendous height towards the stars. In their notion of God’s appearance he is great beyond conception, beautiful to look upon, and immovably fixed in this crystal rock, with only the upper half of a supernatural human body visible. Around Boyma Image: 7 Image7 PartnersAcknowledgement of Country jrnd his tin one are countless rays of rainbow colours, which are desisted “ curanguerang. ” On each side of the throne are seen a great ffi- an y beautiful pillars of crystal, handsomely carved, and emitting prismatic colours, These pillars they designate “yamoon.” This description of the Godhead bears a striking resemblance to the description in 3rd verse of the 4th chapter of Revelations. They believe in the existence of a Son of God, equal with him in omniscience, and but slightly inferior to his Father in any attribute. Him they call “ Grogoragally.” His divine office is to watch over the actions of mankind, and to bring to life the \tead to appear before the judgment-seat of his Father, who alone pronounces the awful judgment of eternal happiness in heaven, “ Ballima,” or eternal misery in “Oorooma” (hell), which is a place of everlasting fire (gumby). Their belief in God’s creation of His own Son was explained to me thus by the intelligent native from whom I derived my chief information. “ Boyma,” on his own creation, feeling “ lonesome,” wished for a son after his own likeness. He observed in the firmament a liquid, resembling blood, which, reaching with his hand, he placed in a crystal oven, and, in a short time, the Son of God was born, a being resembling God and man. Boyma is described as of an incomprehensible greatness in appearance ; his Son they compare to the size of a mountain. Grogorogally is the active agent of his Father, who immovably presides over all nature. The Son watches the actions of men, and quickens the dead immediately upon their earthly interment. He acts as mediator for their souls to the great God, to whom the good and bad actions of all are known. The Son’s spirit they represent as being in every part of the habitable world, spreading—as was expressed to me—over the supposed distance of England and Sydney. He does not seem in their belief to be co-equal with his Father; he sees and knows all t wicked and good deeds of mankind, but is not judge of their virtues and vices in the day of retribution ; his office seems chiefly to be to bring at the close of every day the spirits of the dead from all parts of the world to the judgment-seat of his Father, where alone there is eternal day. There he acts as intercessor for those who have only spent some portion of their lives in wicked- ness. Boyma, listening to the mediation of his Son, allows Grogorogally to admit some such into Ballima. There is a third person in their belief, who is of a semi-divine, semi-human nature, the great lawgiver to the human race. Him they call “ Moodgeegally.” He was the first man created, and being of the special formation of the Supreme Being, he is said to be immortal, removed from this to an indefinite distance in a happy region of his own, situated at the confines of the world, and in the immediate neighbourhood of the supposed heaven of Boyma. He, too, is perfectly cognizant of all events, and is revered by all Image: 8 Image8 PartnersAcknowledgement of Country for his virtues. He is the avowed enemy of all wicked men ; misdeeds of such are transmitted by him to Grogorogally, and by the latter again to the supreme Boyma. Notwithstanding that both Father and Son are omniscient, Moodgeegally, alone of mankind, and himself living immortal in his own paradise on earth, has the power of visiting the heaven of Boyma. The happy land of Moodgeegally is supposed to be within three days’ journey (“ nangery”) of Ballima. Beautiful plains, with numberless and wonderful featherless emus, afford him eternal happiness in his human occupation when not engaged in his divine mission to the abode of God, and from thence again to the confines of this world, which he seems to be unremittingly doing. From this blissful region, far away to the north-east, and where land terminates, he ascends to heaven by a high and precipitous mountain, covered with beautiful trees. His ascent on foot is rendered easy by a path winding round the mountain, called “ Dallambangel,” which he ascends in a three days’ journey. A ladder or flight of steps from the top of this mountain leads him to the entrance of heaven, where he arrives in the presence of God to execute his mission to the Father and Son ; and receiving from them such laws as may seem fit to the Almighty to transmit to the human race, especially such as relate to the changing ordinances of the sacred “corroberee.” Moodgeegally then descends again to the earth, and publishes the will and laws of Boyma to the northernmost tribes, and from them all others by degrees obtain the laws. This description of Moodgeegally on Mount “ Dallambangel ” cannot fail to strike every reader of these notes as showing a strange similarity to Moses on Mount Sinai receiving the com- mandments from God, for transmission through him to the Israel- ites. (See Exodus, chap. 19). Ballima (heaven) is represented as being a most blissful abode for the good who have inherited eternal happiness. The rejoicings of the blessed, I was told, might be heard at a distance as far apart as “ Sydney to Port Phillip.” Their existence in heaven is of a spiritual nature, with their forms as human beings, receiving and requiring no nourish- ment, their enjoyments constant dancing and blissful shoutings. Grogorogally frequently visits them, and joins in the incessant happy jubilee. He is represented to wear a brilliant belt (“ gurungerong”) of rainbow colours, worn across the shoulder to the side. This is of a crystal nature ; from the belt is sus- pended a beautiful crystal sword or wand called “ gundungbillong,” and which his Father made and gave him as a sign of his divine authority. Hence probably the use of and veneration for the small rock crystals which descend from father to son as amulets of supposed semi-divine authority to act as doctors and priests. Andy possessed one as a “doctor”—he specially prized and protected it. Image: 9 Image9 PartnersAcknowledgement of Country The wicked Boyma condemns to eternal fire in Oorooma. Grogorogally then hands them over to the devils outside of heaven, which are called “ Wawamolong.” These evil spirits are described as being of most hideous forms, and emitting flames of fire from the elbows, the knees, and the knuckles of the hand. These con- vey the damned down to Oorooma, where may be heard the frightful yells of the wicked; they are then given in charge of lesser devils, and committed to the eternal “ Gumby” fire. These devils are described as only half human in appearance; they have long claws to their hands, with which they seize the unhappy wretches committed to their care. They are monsters, having ugly “ heads as big as a bullock.” The miseries of those suffering eternal fire were represented to me by my informant by mock writhings of his body. * * * This severe description of eternal punishment by hell-fire is inconsistent with their other belief, that Boyma is never considered by them otherwise than as a benevo- lent, though dreaded, being. The dread of eternal punishment acts forcibly as a restriction upon their conduct in life, and re- strains them from murder among themselves, or from slaughtering of their own race, unless in the spirit of united and justified revenge, which is not punished by “Gumby.” No crimes, they believe, are so punishable but murder, falsehood, and adultery when committed by married men. The act of thieving among themselves is wholly unknown, swearing is also unknown to them in their own language. Such blasphemies as are heard from them are entirely such as they have acquired by their intercourse with Europeans. They admit they rob the whites sometimes, but do not esteem this act punishable with fire. I remarked to Andy that if I told the whites all he informed me of they would laugh and say “ the blacks have been told all this from the whites,” to which he hastily and shrewdly remarked, “ Why, whitefellow no call budgery place ‘ Ballima,’ (nice place heaven), or other place £ Oorooma’ (hell), nor God ‘ Boyma,’ nor son ‘ Grogorogally,’ only we blackfellow think and call them that way in our own language before whitefellow came into the country.” He seemed quite amazed that whites might attempt to disbelieve their statement on that ground. Their women do not go to heaven. The men have an imperfect consciousness that there is another world for them, but not in Ballima. The strange reason assigned for this is, that Boyma and Grogorogally, having no wife and no mother, will not admit the female sex into heaven, whether they be good or evil. I was asked by Andy if we white people thought white women went to heaven. On my expressing my assurance of it, he ex- pressed his surprise at our strange belief in entertaining such an idea, Boyma having neither mother nor wife. “ But we’ll see when we die,” was his final remark to this as to several other Image: 10 Image10 PartnersAcknowledgement of Country pointsfin dispute. To women the grand secrets of their religious belief are wholly unknown. They are regarded as inferior beings, and that there is a law given them by Moodgeegally that they should always be kept ignorant of these mysteries ; for that, immediately upon the women becoming informed of them, there must be an immediate end put to the whole of their race by a general massacre, first of the women, and then each to sacrifice the other until the last man survives to sacrifice himself. So rigid are the men in the observance of this supposed divine law, that in no instance has a living woman been known to have an idea of their religious belief. It is the dread of this necessary destruction of the whole race that has in a great measure precluded the whites from obtaining information on the subject. I had in the first instance the greatest difficulty to induce the men to speak to me on these points j they required such secrecy on my part, and seemed so afraid of being overheard even in the most secret places, that in one or two instances I have seen them almost trembling whilst speaking. In one case I examined a native, and for the sake of secrecy made him come into the house. He appeared willing to afford me informa- tion ; but he went two or three times to the door and window to see if any being, black or white, might by possibility overhear him, although in this respect he was perfectly safe, yet for further security he stood in the wooden fireplace, and spoke in a tone a little above a whisper, and confirmed what I had before heard. Another cautioned me to be very secret lest the station servants might hear of it, and ask his gin (wife) something about it. This particular man was the most intelligent of those I obtained infor- mation from. He asked if I would publish my notes in England, as he seemed proud to think it should be done, and did not fear mischief through that course. He said if his wife were to hear of it and ask him a question about it, he should immediately kill her to save himself and the whole race, as ordered by Moodgeegally. Having examined a civilized native from the Lower Lachlan Hiver, who came from a distance of 300 miles, and was living with a gentleman in the neighbourhood as servant, I had the oppor- tunity of questioning him in the presence of my black interpreter, who explained all I could not understand. The Lachlan native’s statements agree fully with all the others, excepting that he designated Grogoragally by the name of “ Boymagela,” which he told me meant Son of God or young god—a name as applied to Grogoragally that Andy had never heard before. The other, or Lachlan black, was aware of the name of Grogoragally, though not usually adopted in his country. The Port Phillip and the Murray natives have another name for him, which I do not re- member. The souls of the dead rise again soon after interment, by the agency of the spirit of Grogoragally, who they say administers Image: 11 Image11 PartnersAcknowledgement of Country “ water” to the relicts of the deceased men, which water of life being sent from the great Boyma instils fresh life into the remains ; and when these are brought before the throne of Boyma, they instantly fall before his presence, when their spirits die a second death, as if to become abased before God and to throw off their mortal nature. Half an hour after this they suppose the souls to rise again in a wholly new and regenerate state ; or, to use Andy’s expression in his broken English, “ They no good first time when come before Boyma—only all wild fellow and bail budgery (no good), and very miserable.” After this new birth they become im- mortal. At this period it is that judgment of God is pronounced in command to his son Grogoragally. To those he has judged to be good, he orders the Son to put them into heaven —“ Ballima warrior bungandinge.” For those he judges to be wicked he pro- nounces the judgment “ Gumly ganoo niagroo ” (“ Let him burn”). These awards to Grogoragally are the only ones supposed to have been uttered by God in the presence of resuscitated mortals. The only prayer used is that at the interment of men, when all the adult males of the tribe assemble, and having buried their deceased friend (ordinary men in the ground, and those who possessed author- ity in hollow trees), they all retire irregularly at a distance from the grave, and all kneeling together clasp their hands behind their backs, and all simultaneously utter a lamenting prayer respecting the praises and good deeds of their friend, and imploring Grogoragally to inter- cede for his soul that it may be admitted into Ballima. After this prayer (which was represented to me), or just at its close, they have a strange superstition that always at this moment the dead man is heard to kick in his grave, which is the signal that his soul has just taken its departure to heaven. The poor women never kick in their grave nor rise to heaven—no prayer is offered for them. The custom of daily prayer to God is thought absurd ; it is supposed to be only resorted to by those who have sinned and wish to escape punishment. As good men cannot have occasion for such supplication, and as they say bad men cannot profit by it, it is altogether omitted. The use of prayer among whites is ridiculed on this ground, that men pray to Boyma and praise him, and rise from their knees and curse and swear and commit rogueries. Andy’s curiosity had once or twice induced him to visit the Yass church recently, when he formed this opinion of the lower orders particularly; but he thought “ real gentlemen ” seemed to profit by the habit of attending churches, as he seldom heard them swear, and he seemed to entertain a much higher opinion of their moral conduct. Wicked men, though sometimes unknown to men to be wicked, cannot screen themselves from the searching eye of Boyma. They, in common with other offenders, are supposed to have a mark set on them, such as small-pox, coughs, &c., which, if they persist in sin, infallibly produces Image: 12 Image12 PartnersAcknowledgement of Country death. These after death are conveyed by Grogoragally to Boyma, who pronounces the judgment on them before mentioned, and then they are handed over to Wawamolongs, to remain in eternal torture in Oorooma. Thunder and lightning are regarded as the expression of Boyma’s wrath at some wicked deed perpetrated or being perpetrated by a man. It is regarded with great awe by them as by all savages, or indeed by all men who are wholly ignorant of the cause and effect. These natives do not think that some malignant being is the cause, as most other savages do; they regard it (that is the men) as a powerful sound, proceeding from an angry God, who is never considered by them otherwise than as a benevolent though dreaded being. When any recover from sickness or other calamity, it is supposed their guilt has not been too great for pardon, and Boyma accordingly restores them to health and vigour after their temporary punishment. Early death is supposed to be a sign of Boyma’s wrath, for in the beginning, they say, all men were gifted with longevity, but that sin cuts them off in their prime. Old men must be good men, as Boyma would otherwise have shortened their days. When the good old men become by their nature infirm and incapable of enjoyment, Boyma releases them from the world in compassion, and immediately they are trans- ferred to the abode of the happy in Ballima. The religious mysteries are not divulged to boys until they arrive at the years of puberty, and not until the ceremony of “ Irangung ” has been performed upon them, a practice which may be regarded as a kind of adult baptism, as the boys are then taught to know and believe in the mysteries of the religion of their forefathers, the nature of the creation of the world and of all things, and to believe in a future state of immortality and of rewards and punishments. The age of puberty is adopted for the ceremony evidently from expediency, and from a care not to trust younger boys with those secrets which their carelessness or their ignorance of the nature of a vow or moral obligation might lead them to reveal.
The age of the boys on whom the Irangung is performed is about fourteen years. The blacks consider this ceremony sacred, and to be especially sent from Boyma through Moodgeegally. The forms of ceremony involve the necessity of having the front tooth knocked out with sharp stone tools. At this ceremony all the neighbouring tribes for perhaps one hundred miles around assemble together in a secret place. The men select from the whole body of blacks such young men as they deem fit to be irangunged. They may find from twenty to thirty fit for the ceremony, in proportion to the total number congregated and to the length of time elapsed since the last similar occasion, which only occurs at periods varying from one to three years. These youths being selected by the older men, are painted all over with red ochre and then formed into a ring. This being done, all the women and all the children over two years of age are ordered to lie down and to conceal themselves under their opossum cloaks, which they must do at the peril of their lives. The men then heap upon them light leafy boughs of trees, to insure their safer concealment. Upon this being done—and no white man dare be admitted to witness the ceremony—the grown and selected boys are, by a signal of one specially authorized, ordered to go off into the “ bush” in a certain direction, and are accompanied by all the men, excepting one, who remains, spear in hand, as a guard over the women and children, and who is the one they say is gifted with sacred authority from Moodgeegally. Him they call a “ Yaweyewa,” and Andy compares his office to that of our priests or parsons. This Yaweyewa, soon after the other party is out of sight, tells the women to rise, and directing them a contrary course to that taken by the men and youths, accompanies them and remains on guard all the ensuing night.
The same ceremony exists among the Darling River and Queensland blacks, where it is called the “ Borcc,” for making youths men. At this time all the grown boys are conducted by the men to a most secret spot, where the ceremony of the irangung is completed. The front tooth of each is knocked out, some ten or twenty men standing over each youth, pointing their spears in a menacing manner close to his person, and others holding his hair tight, make him swear most solemnly never to divulge to the women and children those sacred secrets about to be told him. To this the affrighted lad is forced to consent upon pain of his being instantly speared and cut to pieces. The solemn oath being thus administered to each youth, the authorized priests divulge to the youths their religious creed, and when the terrifying ceremony is completed, they are taught a sacred song sent by Boyma through his Son Grogeragally and Moodgeegally. This song is held in such solemn reverence, and known under such severe secrecy, that I found it quite impossible to make my informant reveal it to me. My pressing him only seemed to make him impatient and angry, and as he said he dared not do so because it was against the laws received from Moodgeegally, I desisted from any further attempt. He then said he was sure that I already knew more of their secrets than any other white man did, and that he was satisfied that no others supposed his countrymen entertained any such religious beliefi as he and others had revealed to me.
Youths cannot marry until they have gone through the ceremony of iran- gung, and any boy dying before this kind of baptism does not go to Ballima, but shares the same fate as the luckless women. On the death of a husband the survivor is forbidden by Moodgeegally’s law to marry for a long while. Should this law be broken, both Image: 14 Image14 PartnersAcknowledgement of Country parties are killed as soon as discovered, as it is tliought their con- versation on the deceased man must be prejudicial to him and would displease him. The term corrobery is generally understood to signify a dance, whereas it is a changing ordinance of Moodgeegally, and is sup- posed to be transmitted from tribe to tribe from the far north- east. I cannot clearly understand this strange mystery, but lam aware that the ceremony is a very solemn one among the adults when it does take place. It has for its form the most curious painting upon a sheet of bark, done in various colours of red, yellow, and white ochre, which is exhibited by the “ Yaweyewa” before mentioned, who is appointed by descent from Moodgeegally. This sacred ceremony is as secretly conducted as the “ Irangung” or Boree of the north.
A gentleman of my acquaintance chanced to come on a tribe whilst this ceremony was going on in a deep gully in the ranges. He had reason to apprehend that some violence would be done to him for his intrusion, but was saved by the intercession of one or two who knew him well. He saw the sheet of bark, and represented it to me as being most singularly painted, and was done so neatly as to resemble figured oilcloth. It is consequent on these sacred occasions that they meet and have those night dances which are ordinarily called “ corrobery.” To Boyma is ascribed the creation of all the heavenly bodies. They believe the earth to be an immense plane, and fixed, the sun, moon, and stars revolving round it to give it light. On my repre- senting the fixed position of the sun, the rotundity of this world, and its own diurnal and annual motions, he was quite amused at our strange belief, and endeavoured to convince me we must be wrong. This he did, not on the similar and false showing of Tycho Brahe to the same effect, nor against the true system of Coper- nicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and others, but a fortiori by his assigning his own singular reasoning, that “if the sun never moves whereabouts is Boyma’s Ballima 1 ?” This I could not understand until it was explained that the sun came from the neighbourhood of God’s heaven every morning, and, after running its daily course to give them light, passed under the earth, and returned to Ballima for the night, causing eternal day in God’s heaven. Nothing could induce him to regard my statement with anything but ridicule, saying, “ I would not believe that if everybody said so, but we will see when we die, but not before.”
Knowing that the blacks assert that Ballima is fixed in the north-east, that it stands distinct, and that connection with the world is by their very high “ Dallambingal” mountain, on the top of which is a step-ladder uniting earth with heaven, I felt that this argumentum ad hominem was too much for my logic, and consequently I beat an honorable retreat, on which my opponent gloried very much. Image: 15 Image15 PartnersAcknowledgement of Country I thought afterwards that Andy might, by his own reasoning, have asked what would become of the step-ladder which connects heaven and earth at the top of Mount Dallambangil if the sun was fixed and the earth revolved as I stated. To Boyma is ascribed the creation of the whole universe ; therefore they believe him to be self-created, and that he formed everything out of nothing. Upon this peculiar point I asked Andy how he accounted for God’s own creation 1 He replied that he arose out of the glassy mountain which forms his throne, and to which he is sup- posed to be immovably fixed. I then asked him how came the creation of the primitive crystal mountain in Ballima. He replied that “it rose out of the great water and clouds”; but on being again asked to account for the creation of the great water and clouds, he replied that “ Boyma made it, he believed,” adding significantly, and looking fixedly at me, that “he could not tell, nor any one else—(‘ Bail me know’) —do you ?”
The sun, they believe is only the orb of light, and not the means of producing heat, or by the greater or lesser ecliptical altitude of the earth producing the change of seasons. In endeavouring to undeceive my sable friend in this, too, I had the same difficulty as in the other instance of the earth’s and sun’s motions. In again ridiculing our assertions that the sun was the cause of all heat, he remarked that “if the sun makes the warm weather come in summer-time, what for not make the winter warm as it is seen every day T The influence which produces heat, in their belief, accompanies the Pleiades (mangudia). When the mangudia are visible at a certain altitude above the horizon it is spring (begagewog). When it rises to its highest altitude, it is summer, “ winuga,” and upon this cluster of stars sinking again towards the horizon in autumn, it is “ domda.” In winter when the Pleiades are barely visible or lost to view altogether, it is then winter (magur) and cold. The ordinary stars (miunga) have no kind of influence on the seasons, but simply the Pleiades. The constellation Mungudia is retained by Boyma near Ballima during winter, in the same way that they believe that the sun (Bungal) is retained by God during the night, and both are sent to give light and heat during their respective seasons. The clouds that obscure the sun in all seasons equally obscure the influence of heat from the Pleiades, and therefore they have no belief in the power of the sun’s rays to produce heat, but only light. [The ancient Greeks determined their seed-time and harvest by the position of the Pleiades.] The Latins designated them vergiliae, from their being first visible in the spring, “ ver.”
The above notes comprise all that is most interesting of what I have gathered from time to time. On further opportunities pre- senting themselves I may gain more information. The sense of Deity, like many other delicate senses, being in all savages faint and obscure, it is not easy to obtain information on these points without a great deal of premeditated questioning. These notes are, however, sufficient to prove that, however faint and obscure the religion and moral sense of the aborigines of this country are as compared with that of enlightened nations, enough is shown that, although very humble as the natives of New Holland are in the scale of human nature, they are not without a very high sense of the supreme Godhead, and of a moral conception of what is right and wrong ; that their religious creed is far less erroneous and extravagant than that of most other savages, and that above all, their belief bears a most singular and striking analogy, except- ing in its crudities, to the Christian and Jewish faiths. However, notwithstanding my own improved opinion of the character of our aborigines, I do not think it possible or perhaps desirable to con- fuse their faith by any attempt to enlighten them in the Christian belief. Ido not think them capable of understanding such truths, or of being brought to believe in any other creed than in that which was born with them and their forefathers ; and if this diffi- culty were not enough, there would, I think, be an insuperable one in consequence of those supposed divine laws which so strictly enjoin secrecy on these subjects towards women and children. I apprehend, therefore, that any pious attempt of any class of mis- sionaries will never prove otherwise than abortive, unless perhaps to the extent of gaining the natives to utter parrot-like and un- meaning mockeries of hymns and prayers of no lasting moral or religious value and effect.
The natives of New Holland must, it is to be feared, continue in their ignorance ; and those good men who might wish to reclaim them to the Christian faith will, I think, have to content themselves with a consciousness that those blacks have a religion implanted in them which exercises a bene- ficial effect upon their moral intercourse with each other; and that the hope that if they obey the Divine laws of their God as given to them by his Son “ Grogoragally,” through “ Moodgeegally,” their great lawgiver, on Mount “ Dallambangel,” they will inherit eternal life and happiness in Ballima or heaven. This latter remark, unfor- tunately only applies to the men and adult youths. It would be well if their women rejoiced in the same belief, and were not kept under such strange, debasing, and superstitious ignorance. It must be palpable to any one who has seen much of the natives of this coun- try how very inferior the women are to the men in intellect, — an effect which can readily be traced to the cause of their not sharing with the men the beneficial influence of a religion which, however strange and absurd in some respects, works for good in the de- velopment of the men, by producing on their savage minds a superstitious awe and reverence towards their ideal God and the God of their forefathers. Cumbumuzzo, Jugyong Creek, January, 1848.
Discussion.
In answer to a question from the President, Mr. Manning related an interview he had with Goethe, the great German poet, poet, fifty-one years ago, and just eight months before he died, at the age of eighty-five. At that interview the question of foreign missions had been brought up, in which Goethe showed himself well informed, but concerning which his guest had but little know- ledge. The conversation made an impression upon Mr. Manning, and it was in some measure due to it that he set to woi’k in after- life to gather information concerning the religious belief of the aborigines of New Holland. Mr. J. F. Mann gave very interesting reminiscences of his inter- course with native tribes in the Colony, he having spent about thirty years of his life in the bush. He had taken a great interest m their customs and mode of life, but he had never met one aborigine, not- withstanding the paper read, who had any true belief in a Supreme Being. They sometimes spoke of a god, but upon cross-examina- tion admitted that what they told the auditor they had learned from a missionary or some resident in the district. With all uncivilised tribes, as it is with not a few members of civilised communities, curiosity is a leading trait. When the blacks were numerous and the whites few the greatest possible curiosity was shown by the former in the movements and actions of their “pale- faced brothers,” and gathering scraps of information from them they carried the news from tribe to tribe, and some of the gossips having fully developed imaginative powers, the stories lost nothing in the telling.
From missionaries and residents they obtained a dim insight into the Christian religion, and by this fact some of those who had associated with the tribes and had been admitted to the confidence of many of their members, accounted for the wonderful revelations made by some of the blacks with regard to their religion, which, as described by Mr. Manning in his very interesting “notes,” has a strange relationship to that of Christians in the belief in a Divine Being, a Son of God, a future heaven and a hell. Messengers were occasionally sent from tribe to tribe. One of these couriers would often travel through the bush a distance of 100 miles. The following is a sketch of the arrival of one of these messengers at a camp ; —“All at once the talking ceased, and one of the tribe nodded in the direction of a certain portion of the bush. Looking in that direction I saw a blackfellow coming slowly through the forest. He gradually advanced to the camp and sat down about 50 yards distant from it. He appeared to pay no attention at all to those in the camp. He held a sprig of a branch in his hand. Then one of the tribe advanced, and taking up a twig lit it at the fire and held it up as a token of friendship. The messenger then came forward, and was warmly greeted. On his journey he had doubtless picked up many odds and ends of news, and listening to his story the tribe sat round the fire all night, and no doubt wove into fictitious traditions many a story to be told in the future to the white man.”
There would appear to have been among the tribes a national or religious custom of burying the members after death on the spot where they had been born. In one case a dying boy had been carried on the shoulders of his father, and accompanied by the tribe, a distance of about 40 miles to the bank of the Hunter River, where he died about twenty-four hours afterwards. A deep hole was dug and lined with grass, the boy was rolled on a blanket, and placed in the grave. Then the gins cut their heads with tomahawks in token of their grief, and the men and women dividing, the one class went in one direction, the other on the opposite, and, rubbing their hands, raised a mournful song. It was stated that on one occasion a gentleman was dining at the house of a friend, residing near the M‘Gregor River, when the cook ran into the room and said that there was a black man outside, who insisted on cutting down one of the posts of the kitchen door. Going out to expostu- late with the man, they found him very obstinate, and it was not till the friendly medium of a bottle of rum had been produced that he could be persuaded to desist from his attack. Afterwards he selected a spot not far distant from the kitchen, where he commenced digging operations, and they learned then that at that spot had been born one of the tribe who had died, and whom his countrymen wished to bury there. Women had also been seen carrying about the skeletons of men wrapped in hides, and seeking a place of burial for them, or as the narrator expressed it, “waiting till they could stick them away.”
In Queensland, upon the death of her husband, a gin had to go in mourning sometimes for the space of two years. During this time she was interdicted from eating certain kinds of food—for example, anything that climbed upon trees —and on no account could she be again married till the time of mourning had expired. She plastered clay on her face and mingled it with her hair. A general impression prevailed that thunder and lightning came from the evil spirit or “ devil-devil,” and during the continuance of a storm great respect was paid to the manifested power of the “ bad fellow.” Once during a storm a white man, who was assisted at his work by an aborigine, told his fellow- worker in a loud voice to put the saw he was using under a log, and to go under shelter. He found that the saw had been put away and the blackfellow who had got under cover was very indignant at his master having spoken as he had. “ What for speak so loud 1” said he, “nowum thunder hear and know where um saw is,” and he went out and shifted the saw to a new hiding-place. Between the missionaries and the rum the unfortunate blackfellows occasionally got very mixed in their newly acquired theological doctrines.
A blackfellow went up to a gentleman on a visit to a country homestead, and remarked to him, with an air of conciliation and friendship, “White one steal peach,” The gentleman, knowing that there was a large orchard near to the homestead, thought some of the men had been pilfering; but upon making further inquiry from his informant he was told, “No, no; first fellow steal peach.” The little transaction referred to was that between Adam and Eve. The business concerning Noah’s Ark was a very general cause of confusion. As a rule, the aborigines were totally incapable of remembering quantity, number, time, or space. A pleasant little ceremony was the admission of the youth of a tribe, on coming of age, into the participation of certain secrets and privileges. The ceremony is related to be after this manner :b or some time previous to the initiation, about six months, the boys were starved down, and on the day appointed the tribe assembled and the chief elder of the number knocked out the front tooth of each with a stone hatchet. The secrets of the tribe were then told them apart from the women, and they were compelled to sleep for the night on the graves of the departed patriarchs of their families, they being thus supposed to absorb the virtues of the deceased. One lad who related the story of his initiation stated to the narrator that he had trembled with fear and the perspiration had poured from him whilst he was taking in the essence of his deceased great- great-grandfather. The old gentleman had been a celebrated fisher- man, and it was hoped his great-great-grandson would follow in his footsteps.
The fact that certain men who held the rank of doctors in their tribes always carried with them a crystal, which was supposed to be possessed of some supernatural power, was referred to. The following anecdote was related with regard to this matter : A blackfellow, in whom a gentleman had the greatest confidence, once took him aside in a most mysterious manner. The black man led him to an inner room of the house, and after looking carefully around that no prying eyes should watch their movements or listening ear hear their words, he said he would show the white man his crystal, he being a doctor in his tribe. The man was divested of all clothing except his loin cloth. The gentleman saw the man lift his head, and then there gradually rose in his throat a little lump which ascended slowly to the man’s mouth. He opened his mouth and spat out a crystal amulet. He opened his mouth again, replaced the “ fetish,” and the crystal returned down the throat. The gentleman who told this apparently “ tall” story assured his auditors that he in person had seen what it related, and incredible as it might appear, it was nevertheless true, and if the possessor had not transferred the amulet he had no doubt it was now in the grave in the stomach of its owner. These crystal charms were supposed to render their owners invulnerable. The aborigines possessed a very extensive knowledge of the properties and uses of plants, and they were ready in concocting stories which afterwards they told to white men as traditions of their tribes, whereas in truth they were but fictions founded on scraps of infor- mation they had picked up from associating with the whites.
* 1904
Saturday, 24 February 1904, Murrumburrah Signal and County of Harden Advocate:
Shifting Camp.
It has been definitely decided to shift the aboriginal camp from the vicinity of Yass to a more suitable site at Pudman Creek. Of course, many of the coloured folk strongly object to this arrangement, and it is very doubtful if they will consent to go to the new home. However, the Aborigines Board are determined in the matter, so that by next March 'brudder belonga us' will have to shift his quarters. Quite possibly the people in the town of Yass are very pleased with the new arrangements, as the blacks must be a source of much trouble and anxiety. Unfortunately, aboriginals as a rule are very lazy, and they are about the only class in our midst who do not seem to come under the Vagrancy Act for begging. We think they are the Yass blacks who have for years past been paying periodical visits to Murrumburrah and Harden, and though one must sympathise with them in their poverty, still it is to be regretted that the Government has not been able to devise some scheme whereby the blacks would be in a position to get a better and more independent living than has been the case since white people have had possession of New South Wales.
* 1925
* 1927
"W.W. Thorpe, List of New South Wales Aboriginal Place Names and Their Meanings, Australian Museum, 1927. 'Murrumburrah - two canoes.'
* Thursday, 21 April 1927, The Yass Courier:
* 1930
Monday, 17 March 1930, The Gundagai Independent:
* 1931
15 June 1931, Cootamundrah Herald:
King Rowland I of Murrumburrah
Mr Rolie Davidson of Murrumburrah was recently, amid great pomp and ceremony, crowned King of Sport, after winning the local competition. The Harden "Express" has the following personal references to his majesty: Rowland I, King of Sport, was born at Jugiong in 1st April 1900, being the youngest son of the Squire of Illawong and the Queen Mother. The early years of his life were spent bird nesting, spearing fish in the Murrumbidgee, possum snarling, mushrooming, etc., under the tuition of the King of the Jugiong Tribe of Aborigines, "Marvellous"; and then he was sent to Gundagai, where he learnt the three "R's" (readin', ritin', and 'rithmatic), and he was also given an insight in the art of bullock driving, of which Gundagai is world famous. From there he graduated to King's College, Goulburn, where his education advanced under the most expert masters. It was there he learned the finer points of the games of football, cricket, tennis, footrunning, etc., and, being become an expert in these games, and he carried all before him on sports day. He became captain of the various teams, and led his side to battle, and although defeated on many occasions, he was never dispirited, and always left the field with that smiling countenance so well-known throughout New South Wales. No doubt this was the reason for him being affectionately called, especially by the gentler sex, "Smiling Price Rowley."
Having completed on training at King's College, he returned to his native land at Jugiong, but seeing that the crown would go to his brother Arthur (now familiarly known as "Jugie"), he journeyed to "the land of promise" Murrumburrah, where he met and made love to Princess Lilian, whom he later married, and went to live at Castle Illillawa, near Galong. When the time came for his sons to be educated, he disposed of his estate, and took up his residence at "Stephney House", Murrumburrah. Ever since he came to the Kingdom of Murrumburrah he had been associated with all classes of sport, having been the wing-threequarter of the famous Coronation football team; captain of the cricket team, champion at ten pins and billiards, and a crack foot runner. Five years ago he had his first lesson in gold, and, although at first he looked upon golf as a good walk spoilt, it was not long before he got the craze, and went whole-heartedly in the game, an is now recognised as a champion among champions. Having reached the top of every sporting ladder, King Rowland rightly deserved the crown, and in addition he possesses those other qualities so seldom seen in "sports" today. He has a charming personality, happy disposition, smiling countenances, and has never been known to lose his temper. We join with all others in offering our heartiest congratulations, and say with sincerity "Long live the King!"
* Thursday, 24 May 1934, Yass Tribune-Courier:. It is unclear whether these names are local or developed by non-Aboriginal people. Many refer to beautiful waters etc., suggesting the true meanings have been Anglicised.
Yass (Yarras), waters
* 1936
11 February 1936, The Herald, Melbourne:
COUNCIL GETS RELIC OF "ABO." KING.
* 1940
Tindale, Norman B., Map of the distribution of Aboriginal tribes of Australia, National Library of Australia, Canberra.
* 1942
Regional Histories of New South Wales,
Heritage Office and Department of Urban Affairs and Planning, New South
Wales Government, Sydney, H95/18, October, 1996, 241p. Includes regional overviews of the post colonisation Aboriginal history of the Wiradjuri and related nations.
* 2016
Australian Census - Murrumburrah - 5 people identify as Aboriginal.
* 2017
James, Brian, Coborn Jackey - Chief of the Wiradjuri Tribe, Young Witness, 20 November 2017.
* 2018
Hambrett, Micaela, How the Wiradjuri people of Central West NSW survived first contact with European settlers, ABC - Curious Central West, 17 August 2018. Mainly refers to the Wiradjuri area to the north of the state and as far south as Parkes.
* 2019
Parry, Naomi, Hilltops Migration Heritage Study, 18 June 2019, 129p. Includes a substantial Chapter 3: Colonising Aboriginal Land.
* 2020
Murrumburrah High School - 140 students, 11% identify as Aboriginal.
Cosgrove, Jane Frazer, Somewhere Down South [website], accessed 20 February 2022. Available URL: https://somewheredownsouth.net/RESEARCH_Trip_19.
Additional References
Peter Rimas Kabaila, High Country Footprints: Aboriginal pathways and movement in the high country of southeastern Australia.
-----, Belconnen's Aboriginal Past: a guide into the archaeology of the Australian Capital Territory.
Jim Smith, Aborigines of the Goulburn District.
Ann Jackson-Nakano, The Pajong and Wallabalooa: A history of Aboriginal farming families at Blakney and Pudman Creeks, Aboriginal History Monograph 9, AIATSIS, Canberra.
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Last updated: 6 June 2022
Michael Organ
Hi Michael, as someone who grew up in the area it's been great reading this. Thanks. There are other locals who you might have met who were part of a local advisory group. Lil Cooper and her family had a lot of local knowledge. Have you connected with the local elders?
ReplyDelete