Djab Wurrung
Encyclopedia
The Djab wurrung people are Indigenous Australians
who occupy 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. There were 41 Djab wurrung clans who formed an alliance with the neighboring Jardwadjali
people through intermarriage, shared culture, trade and moiety system.
Alternate transcription
s of the name are Chaap Wuurong, Djabwurrung, Tjapwuring, Tjapwurong etc.
, Jardwadjali
, Dhauwurd wurrung and Wada wurrung peoples.
The Djab Wurrung were semi-nomadic hunter gatherers within their territorial boundaries. During winter their encampments were more permanent, sometimes consisting of substantial huts as attested by Major Thomas Mitchell near Mount Napier
in 1836:
During early Autumn there were large gatherings of up to 1000 people for one to two months hosted at the Mount William swamp or at Lake Bolac for the annual eel migration. Several tribes attended these gatherings including the Girai wurrung
, Djargurd wurrung
, Dhauwurd wurrung and Wada wurrung. Near Mount William, an elaborate network of channels, weirs and eel traps and stone shelters had been constructed, indicative of a semi-permanent lifestyle in which eels were an important economic component for food and bartering, particularly the Short-finned eel
. Near Lake Bolac a semi-permanent village extended some 35 kilometres along the river bank during autumn. George Augustus Robinson
on 7 July 1841 described some of the infrastructure that had been constructed near Mount William:
In mid summer gatherings for ceremony and hunting took place at Mirraewuae , a marsh near Hexham
rich with emu and other game.
Wimmera pioneer James Dawson witnessed a group of young Djab Wurrung men playing the Marn grook
football game with a stitched up possum skin for the ball:
Tom Wills
family moved to a station near Ararat around 1840, when he was 5 years old, and he grew up often playing with the local aboriginal kids and learning the local dialect. He was influential later in establishing and codifying Australian Rules football, although whether Marn Grook influenced the development of the game is still being debated.
Some of the Djab wurrung clans are thought to have practiced burial of their dead in trees. According to Hyett there have been two recent discoveries to the west of Ararat of secondary tree burials, involving the re-interment of two or more individuals, and a primary interment of a child in a hollow tree in the vicinity of Stawell.
, 80 percent common vocabulary with Dja Dja Wurrung
, 70 percent with Wergaia
and Wemba-Wemba
, 48 percent with Dhauwurd wurrung and 42 percent with Buandig
.
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The Djab wurrung occupied their lands for up to 40,000 years, although the oldest known occupation site, in Gariwerd, is dated at 22,000 BP
.
It is likely the Djab wurrung were well aware of Europeans from their communications with coastal tribes. Their first explicit contact was with Major Thomas Mitchell exploring western Victoria in September 1836 when he surprised two women of the Utoul balug and their children near Mount Cole
. Two years later, in 1838, the squatters with their sheep started settling in Djab wurrung country.
European Settlement from 1836 was marked by resistance to the invasion often by driving off or stealing sheep which then resulted in conflict and sometimes a massacre of aboriginal people. From 1840 to 1859 there were reports of 35 massacres and killings of Djab wurrung people, most occurring before the end of 1842. Very few of these reports were acted upon to bring the settlers to court.
Resistance also took the form of maintaining connections to country and culture through whatever means were available. On the Campbell brothers Mount Cole run, settled in 1840, the Beeripmo balug and Utoul balug clans were allowed to stay on the run and were actively supplied with food and clothing establishing a relationship of care and protection. The Campbell brothers discouraged white employees from visiting the out-stations further reducing possible interaction and conflict. Archeological evidence shows that the Beeripmo balug and Utoul balug maintained their connection to country, culture and food diet well into the 1860s on the property.
In 1841 Kolorer (Mount Rouse) and Burrumbeep were gazetted as aboriginal reserves, although only the Kolorer reserve was used by Djab wurrung. In 1842 and 1843 Kolorer was used as a base to launch guerilla attacks against the growing squatters and their sheep and then retreat to the reserve which was under the protection of the Assistant Protector of Aborigines, Charles Sievwright. Resistance to the European invasion peaked between 1840 to 1842. By 1848 all the Djab wurrung lands had been squatted and resistance had been broken through the use of Border Police and the Native Police Corps
.
By 1845 the Djab Wurrung population had dropped from a conservative pre-contact estimate of 2050 to 615. Three quarters are estimated to have been killed by introduced diseases, poisoned flour, diseased blankets and starvation due to shortage of traditional foods, and a quarter killed by rifle attack.
During the gold rush period the Djab wurrung saw large numbers of European and Chinese people camping on their land in search for gold, but the search for gold also attracted many station hands, and so Djab wurrung people often found employment as station hands and in menial jobs around the stations during this period.
In the 1870s the Djab wurrung were largely dispersed to the reservations: the Hamilton mob to Lake Condah, the Wickcliffe people to Framlingham mission
, and the Mount Cole people to Framlingham and Coranderrk
station.
area. There was much community opposition to this proposal. The Brambuk centre, representing five aboriginal communities with historical links to the area, advocated a dual name for the main area: Gariwerd/Grampians.
Some of the changes included:
The Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre in Halls Gap
is owned and managed by Jardwadjali
and Djab Wurrung people from five Aboriginal communities with historic links to the Gariwerd-Grampians ranges and the surrounding plains.
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
who occupy the volcanic plains of central Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
from the Mount William
Mount William (Victoria)
Mount William is located within the Grampians National Park, approximately 250 kilometres west-north-west of Melbourne. It is situated on the eastern edge of the national park, approximately 22 kilometres drive from Halls Gap....
Range of Gariwerd in the west to the Pyrenees range
Pyrenees (Victoria)
The Pyrenees is a wine region centred on the Pyrenees ranges located in Victoria, Australia near the town of Avoca.The altitude of the ranges is 300 to over 750 m...
in the east encompassing the Wimmera River
Wimmera River
The Wimmera River is a river in Western Victoria, Australia. It begins in the Pyrenees, and flows into Lake Hindmarsh and Lake Albacutya, although in many years flows do not reach these terminal lakes and the river contracts to a series of pools of varying sizes...
flowing north and the headwaters of the Hopkins River
Hopkins River
The Hopkins River is a river in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It begins near Ararat, and enters Bass Strait at Warrnambool. It is one of two rivers flowing through Warrnambool, the other is the Merri River....
flowing south. The towns of Ararat
Ararat, Victoria
Ararat is a city in south-west Victoria, Australia, about west of Melbourne, on the Western Highway on the eastern slopes of the Ararat Hills and Cemetery Creek valley between Victoria's Western District and the Wimmera...
, Stawell
Stawell, Victoria
Stawell , is a town in the Wimmera region of Victoria, Australia. The town is located in Shire of Northern Grampians Local Government Area, west-north-west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Stawell had a population of 6,035....
and Hamilton
Hamilton, Victoria
Hamilton is a city in western Victoria, Australia. It is located at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and the Henty Highway...
are within their territory. There were 41 Djab wurrung clans who formed an alliance with the neighboring Jardwadjali
Jardwadjali
The Jardwadjali people are Indigenous Australians who occupy the lands in the upper Wimmera River watershed east to Gariwerd and west to Lake Bringalbert. The towns of Horsham, Cavendish, Coleraine, Asply, Minyip and Donald are within their territory...
people through intermarriage, shared culture, trade and moiety system.
Alternate transcription
Transcription
Transcription may refer to:*Transcription , a business which converts speech into a written or electronic text document*Transcription , software which helps convert speech into text transcript...
s of the name are Chaap Wuurong, Djabwurrung, Tjapwuring, Tjapwurong etc.
Society
The Djab wurrung were a matrilineal society, with descent system based on the Gamadj (black cockatoo) and Grugidj (white cockatoo) moieties. Grugidj sub-totems included pelican, parrot, mopoke and large kangaroo. Gamadj sub-totems included emu, whip snake, possum, koala, and sparrowhawk. Clans intermarried with the Dja Dja WurrungDja Dja Wurrung
Dja Dja Wurrung, also known as the Jaara people and Loddon River tribe, is a native Aboriginal tribe which occupied the watersheds of the Loddon and Avoca Rivers in the Bendigo region of central Victoria, Australia. They were part of the Kulin alliance of tribes. There were 16 clans, which adhered...
, Jardwadjali
Jardwadjali
The Jardwadjali people are Indigenous Australians who occupy the lands in the upper Wimmera River watershed east to Gariwerd and west to Lake Bringalbert. The towns of Horsham, Cavendish, Coleraine, Asply, Minyip and Donald are within their territory...
, Dhauwurd wurrung and Wada wurrung peoples.
The Djab Wurrung were semi-nomadic hunter gatherers within their territorial boundaries. During winter their encampments were more permanent, sometimes consisting of substantial huts as attested by Major Thomas Mitchell near Mount Napier
Mount Napier
Mount Napier in Victoria, Australia, one of the youngest volcanoes in Australia, last erupted about 5,290 BCE. Mount Napier State Park is located 270 kilometres west of Melbourne and 17 km south of Hamilton. The Mount Napier Lava Flow reached nearby Mount Eccles which is 25 km...
in 1836:
- "Two very substantial huts showed that even the natives had been attracted by the beauty of the land, and as the day was showery, I wished to return if possible, to pass the night there, for I began to learn that such huts, with a good fire between them, made comfortable quarters in bad weather."
During early Autumn there were large gatherings of up to 1000 people for one to two months hosted at the Mount William swamp or at Lake Bolac for the annual eel migration. Several tribes attended these gatherings including the Girai wurrung
Girai wurrung
The Girai wurrung are Indigenous 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...
, Djargurd wurrung
Djargurd Wurrung
The Djargurd wurrung are Indigenous Australian people who traditionally occupied the territory between Mount Emu Creek and Lake Corangamite, extending to Mount Emu and Cressy in the North, and to Cobden and Swan Marsh in the South in central Victoria and are still represented in the region. The...
, Dhauwurd wurrung and Wada wurrung. Near Mount William, an elaborate network of channels, weirs and eel traps and stone shelters had been constructed, indicative of a semi-permanent lifestyle in which eels were an important economic component for food and bartering, particularly the Short-finned eel
Short-finned eel
The short-finned eel, Anguilla australis, is one of the 15 species of eel in the family Anguillidae. It is native to the lakes, dams and coastal rivers of south-eastern Australia, New Zealand, and much of the South Pacific, including New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island, Tahiti, and...
. Near Lake Bolac a semi-permanent village extended some 35 kilometres along the river bank during autumn. George Augustus Robinson
George Augustus Robinson
George Augustus Robinson was a builder and untrained preacher. He was the Chief Protector of Aborigines in Port Phillip District from 1839 to 1849...
on 7 July 1841 described some of the infrastructure that had been constructed near Mount William:
- "...an area of at least 15 acres was thus traced out... These works must have been executed at great cost of labour... There must have been some thousands of yards of this trenching and banking. The whole of the water from the mountain rivulets is made to pass through this trenching ere it reaches the marsh..."
In mid summer gatherings for ceremony and hunting took place at Mirraewuae , a marsh near Hexham
Hexham, Victoria
Hexham is a township in Victoria, Australia.The town is on the Hamilton Highway between Caramut and Mortlake. It sits on the banks of the Hopkins River, Hexham is said to be Victoria's second oldest inland settlement, after Harrow. The town was a Cobb & Co...
rich with emu and other game.
Wimmera pioneer James Dawson witnessed a group of young Djab Wurrung men playing the Marn grook
Marn Grook
Marn Grook , literally meaning "Game ball", is a collective name given to a number of traditional Indigenous Australian recreational pastimes believed to have been played at gatherings and celebrations of up to 50 players. It is often confused with a separate indigenous game resembling Association...
football game with a stitched up possum skin for the ball:
- "One of the favourite games is football, in which fifty or as many as one hundred players engage at a time. The ball is about the size of an orange, and is made of opossum-skin, with the fur side outwards..."
Tom Wills
Tom Wills
Thomas Wentworth "Tom" Wills was an Australian all-round sportsman, umpire, coach and administrator who is credited with being a catalyst towards the invention of Australian rules football....
family moved to a station near Ararat around 1840, when he was 5 years old, and he grew up often playing with the local aboriginal kids and learning the local dialect. He was influential later in establishing and codifying Australian Rules football, although whether Marn Grook influenced the development of the game is still being debated.
Some of the Djab wurrung clans are thought to have practiced burial of their dead in trees. According to Hyett there have been two recent discoveries to the west of Ararat of secondary tree burials, involving the re-interment of two or more individuals, and a primary interment of a child in a hollow tree in the vicinity of Stawell.
Language
Djab wurrung was one of four primary languages spoken in western Victoria. Sub dialects included Djab wurrung, Knenknen wurrung, and Pirtpirt wurrung. The Djab wurrung language shared 90 percent common vocabulary with JardwadjaliJardwadjali
The Jardwadjali people are Indigenous Australians who occupy the lands in the upper Wimmera River watershed east to Gariwerd and west to Lake Bringalbert. The towns of Horsham, Cavendish, Coleraine, Asply, Minyip and Donald are within their territory...
, 80 percent common vocabulary with Dja Dja Wurrung
Dja Dja Wurrung
Dja Dja Wurrung, also known as the Jaara people and Loddon River tribe, is a native Aboriginal tribe which occupied the watersheds of the Loddon and Avoca Rivers in the Bendigo region of central Victoria, Australia. They were part of the Kulin alliance of tribes. There were 16 clans, which adhered...
, 70 percent with Wergaia
Wergaia
Wergaia is an Indigenous Australian language group in the Wimmera region of north-Western Victoria. 20 clans made up the Wergaia language group which consisted of four distinct dialects: Wudjubalug/Wotjobaluk; Djadjala/Djadjali; Buibadjali; Biwadjali...
and Wemba-Wemba
Wemba-Wemba
The Wemba-Wemba are an Indigenous Australian group in north-Western Victoria and south-western New South Wales, Australia, including in the Mallee and the Riverina regions. They are also known as the Wamba-wamba....
, 48 percent with Dhauwurd wurrung and 42 percent with Buandig
Buandig
The Buandig people are Indigenous Australians from the Mount Gambier region in western Victoria and south-eastern South Australia.-Traditional Lands:...
.
History
Before Present
Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...
.
It is likely the Djab wurrung were well aware of Europeans from their communications with coastal tribes. Their first explicit contact was with Major Thomas Mitchell exploring western Victoria in September 1836 when he surprised two women of the Utoul balug and their children near Mount Cole
Mount Cole
Mount Cole is a mountain over high, on the west side of Shackleton Glacier, between the mouths of Forman Glacier and Gerasimou Glacier, in the Queen Maud Mountains. It was discovered and photographed by U.S. Navy Operation Highjump, 1946–47, and named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names...
. Two years later, in 1838, the squatters with their sheep started settling in Djab wurrung country.
European Settlement from 1836 was marked by resistance to the invasion often by driving off or stealing sheep which then resulted in conflict and sometimes a massacre of aboriginal people. From 1840 to 1859 there were reports of 35 massacres and killings of Djab wurrung people, most occurring before the end of 1842. Very few of these reports were acted upon to bring the settlers to court.
Resistance also took the form of maintaining connections to country and culture through whatever means were available. On the Campbell brothers Mount Cole run, settled in 1840, the Beeripmo balug and Utoul balug clans were allowed to stay on the run and were actively supplied with food and clothing establishing a relationship of care and protection. The Campbell brothers discouraged white employees from visiting the out-stations further reducing possible interaction and conflict. Archeological evidence shows that the Beeripmo balug and Utoul balug maintained their connection to country, culture and food diet well into the 1860s on the property.
In 1841 Kolorer (Mount Rouse) and Burrumbeep were gazetted as aboriginal reserves, although only the Kolorer reserve was used by Djab wurrung. In 1842 and 1843 Kolorer was used as a base to launch guerilla attacks against the growing squatters and their sheep and then retreat to the reserve which was under the protection of the Assistant Protector of Aborigines, Charles Sievwright. Resistance to the European invasion peaked between 1840 to 1842. By 1848 all the Djab wurrung lands had been squatted and resistance had been broken through the use of Border Police and the Native Police Corps
Native Police Corps
An Australian Native Police Corps was first established in 1842 in the Port Phillip District of the Australian colony of New South Wales...
.
By 1845 the Djab Wurrung population had dropped from a conservative pre-contact estimate of 2050 to 615. Three quarters are estimated to have been killed by introduced diseases, poisoned flour, diseased blankets and starvation due to shortage of traditional foods, and a quarter killed by rifle attack.
During the gold rush period the Djab wurrung saw large numbers of European and Chinese people camping on their land in search for gold, but the search for gold also attracted many station hands, and so Djab wurrung people often found employment as station hands and in menial jobs around the stations during this period.
In the 1870s the Djab wurrung were largely dispersed to the reservations: the Hamilton mob to Lake Condah, the Wickcliffe people to Framlingham mission
Framlingham, Victoria
Framlingham was an Aboriginal reserve established by the Board for the Protection of Aborigines in Victoria, Australia in 1861. It was located beside the Hopkins River in the territory of the Girai wurrung near the boundary with the Gunditjmara, not to far from Warrnambool on the south-west coast...
, and the Mount Cole people to Framlingham and Coranderrk
Coranderrk
Coranderrk was an Indigenous Australian mission station set up in 1863 to provide land under the policy of concentration, for Aboriginal people who had been dispossessed by the arrival of Europeans to the state of Victoria 30 years prior. The mission was formally closed in 1924 with most residents...
station.
Djab Wurrung today
In 1989 there was a proposal by Victorian Minister for Tourism, Steve Crabb to rename many geographical place names associated with aboriginal heritage in the Gariwerd - Grampians National ParkGrampians National Park
The Grampians National Park is a national park in Victoria, Australia, 235 kilometres west of Melbourne. The Park was listed on the Australian National Heritage List on 15 December 2006 for its outstanding natural beauty and being one of the richest indigenous rock art sites in south-eastern...
area. There was much community opposition to this proposal. The Brambuk centre, representing five aboriginal communities with historical links to the area, advocated a dual name for the main area: Gariwerd/Grampians.
Some of the changes included:
- Grampians to Gariwerd (mountain range)
- Mount Zero to Mura Mura (little hill)
- Halls Gap to Budja Budja
The Brambuk National Park and Cultural Centre in Halls Gap
Halls Gap, Victoria
Halls Gap is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is located on Grampians Road, adjacent to the Grampians National Park, in the Shire of Northern Grampians local government area. The town is set in the Fyans Valley at the foot of the of Wonderland and Mount William ranges . At the 2006 census Halls...
is owned and managed by Jardwadjali
Jardwadjali
The Jardwadjali people are Indigenous Australians who occupy the lands in the upper Wimmera River watershed east to Gariwerd and west to Lake Bringalbert. The towns of Horsham, Cavendish, Coleraine, Asply, Minyip and Donald are within their territory...
and Djab Wurrung people from five Aboriginal communities with historic links to the Gariwerd-Grampians ranges and the surrounding plains.