Gunditjmara


The Dhauwurd Wurrung, also known as the Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Their land includes much of the Budj Bim heritage areas.
The Kerrup Jmara are a clan of the Gunditjmara, whose traditional lands are around Lake Condah. The Koroitgundidj are another clan group, whose lands are around Tower Hill.

Name

Gunditjmara is formed from two words Gunditj an affix signifying 'belonging' and mara, their word for an aboriginal person of that area.

Language

The Dhauwurd wurrung language is classified as one of the dialects of the Kuurn Kopan Noot language|Bungandeik/Kuurn-Kopan-Noot subgroup of Victorian languages. It consisted of five subdialects: Wullu wurrung, Gai wurrung, Gurngubanud, Peek wurrung, and Dhauwurd wurrung. The language in its several varieties, was spoken from Glenelg to the Gellibrand and through to roughly inland. Other generic terms for this linguistic complex refer to it as Kiriwurrung or the Warnambool language. Only three speakers were known to speak the language still by 1880, with another 4 still fluent in the Peek wurrung dialect. They had a form of avoidance speech called gnee wee banott which required special terms and grammar in conversations when a man and mother-in-law were speaking in each other's company.
Thus, if one asked: 'Where are you going just now?'
This would be phrased in normal speech as:
In Gunditjmara avoidance speech the same sentiment would be articulated quite differently:
The Gunditjmara tribal territories extends over an estimated. The western boundaries are around Cape Bridgewater and Lake Condah. Northwards they reach Caramut and Hamilton. Their eastern boundaries lay around the Hopkins River. Their neighbours to the west are the Buandig people, to the north the Jardwadjali and Djab wurrung peoples, and in the east the Girai wurrung people. Early settlers remarked on the richness of the game to be found from the Eumerella Creek down to the coast.

Way of life

The way of life of the Aboriginal people of Western Victoria differed from other Aboriginal Victorians in several respects. Because of the colder climate, they made, wore, and used as blankets, rugs of possum and kangaroo. They also built huts from wood and local basalt, with roofs made of turf and branches.

Dreaming

The Gunditjmara believe that the landscape's features mark out the traces of a creator, Budj Bim, who emerged in the form of the volcano now called Mt Eccles. In a spate of eruption, the lava flows, constituting his blood and teeth, spilled over the landscape, fashioning its wetlands. 'High Head' still refers to the crater's brow, which can be accessed only by Gunditjmara men wearing special emu-feather footwear.
Opposite, beyond the coastline, the island they call Deen Maar/Dhinmar held special value for its burial associations. A cave there, known as Tarn wirrung, is thought of as the mouth of a passage linking the mainland and the island.
In Gunditjmara funeral rites, bodies are enfolded in grass bundles and interred with their heads pointing to the island, with an apotropaic firebrand of native cherry wood. If grass was thereafter found outside the mouth of Tarn wirrung, it was regarded as evidence that the good spirit Puit puit chepetch had conveyed the corpse via the subterranean passage to the island, while guiding its spirit to the realm of the clouds. If the burial coincided with the appearance of a meteor, this was read as proof that the being in transit to the heavens had been furnished with fire. If grass was found at the cave when no one had been buried, then it was thought it showed someone had been murdered, and the cave could not be approached until the grass had been dispersed.

Social organisation

The Gunditjmara were divided into 59 clans, each with its headmen, a role passed on by hereditary transmission. They spoke distinct dialects, not all of them mutually intelligible, with the three main hordes located around Lake Condah, Port Fairy and Woolsthorpe respectively. The Gunditjmara groups are divided into two moieties, respectively the grugidj and the gabadj
However these terms refer to 4 of the 58 clans.
Descent was matrilineal.

Clans

The following is a list of the Gunditjmara clans, taken from that in Ian D. Clark's work.
NoClan NameApproximate Location
1Art gundidjTarrone station, near Moyne Swamp
2Ballumin gundidjunknown
3Bate gundidjJunction of Stokes, Crawford and Glenelg Rivers
4Biteboren gundidjGrasmere station
5Bokerer gundidjGlenelg River
6Bome gundidjunknown
7Bonedol gundidjPonedol Hills
8Can can corro gundidjsouth-southeast of Mount Rouse
9Carnbul gundidjsouthwest of Tahara station
10Cart gundidjMount Clay
11Cartcorang gundidjLake Cartcorang
12Corry gundidjunknown
13Cupponenet gundidjMount Chaucer
14DandeyallumPortland Bay
15Direk gundidjCondah Swamp
16Gilgar gundidjDarlots Creek
17Kerup gundidj Lake Condah
18Kilcarer gundidjConvincing Ground
19Koroit gundidjTower Hill
20Lay gundidj mallounknown
21Mallun gundidjGriffiths Island
22Meen gundidjunknown
23Mendeet gundidj maraynunknown
24Moonwer gundidjnear Sisters Point, southwest ofKillarney
25Moperer gundidjSpring Creek
26Mordoneneet gundidjsouthwest or west-southwest ofMount Rouse
27Morro gundidjsouth of Mount Rouse
28Mum keelunk gundidjBoodcarra Lake, west of Goose Lagoon
29Mumdorrong gundidjMarm reserve, south of Lake Wangoom
30Narcurrer gundidjsouthwest of Crawford River
31Nartitbeer gundidjDunmore station
32Net net yune gundidjsoutheast of Crawford River
33Nillan gundidjsouth-southwest of Mount Napier
34Omebegare rege gundidjjunction of Merri River and Spring Creek
35Pallapnue gundidj Their clan head was Koort Kirrup,Stokes River
36Peerracerunknown
37Ponungdeet gundidjjunction of Glenelg and Stokes Rivers
38Pyipgil gundidjPort Fairy townsite
39Tarrerwung gundidjmouth of Glenelg River. Clan head Mingbum
40Tarerer gundidjTarerer, a swamp between Tower Hill and Merri River
41Tarngonene wurrer gundidjSurrey River
42Teerar gundidjsoutheast of Spring Creek station
43Tolite gundidjunknown
44Tone gundidjnear Hopkins River
45Ure gundidjPortland township
46Wane gundidjGrasmere station
47Wanedeet gundidjTahara and Murndal stations
48Warerangur gundidjAringa station
49Waywac gundidjsouthwest of Mount Rouse
50Weereweerip gundidjeast of Eumeralla River
51Woortenwanunknown
52Worcarre gundidjnortheast of the head of Stokes River
53Worerome killink gundidjMacarthur
54Worn gundidjwest of Mount Warrnambool
55Yallo gundidjjunction of Crawford and Glenelg Rivers
56Yambeet gundidjYambuk station
57Yarrer gundidjbetween Campbell's Merri River station and Allandale station
58Yiyar gundidjMount Eckersley.
59Yowen gundidjMoyne River

Economy

The Gunditjmara are traditionally river and lake people, with Framlingham Forest, Lake Condah and the surrounding river systems being of great importance to them economically and spiritually. Numerous distinct structures, extending over of the landscape, are employed for the purpose of farming short-finned eels, the staple of the Gunditjmara diet. These include stone races; canals; traps; stone walls; stone house sites and stone cairns. Some of the groundwork is older than the Egyptian pyramids. A controversy exists concerning the extent to which these features are the results of natural environmental processes or cultural modifications of the landscape by Indigenous people. Peter Coutts and others argued, in a work entitled Aboriginal Engineers of the Western District, Victoria, that numerous features show the handiwork of Aboriginal landscaping for economic purposes. This thesis was challenged as a mythical "romancing of the landscape" by Anne Clarke, one that confused natural processes with socially crafted infrastructure. However, fresh archaeological work by Heather Builth led to her contending that they had a sophisticated system of aquaculture and eel farming. They built stone dams to hold the water in these swampy volcanic areas, especially the area comprising the lava flow of the Budj Bim volcano, creating ponds and wetlands in which they harvested short-finned eels.
The Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape, which includes both the Tyrendarra Area and the Mt Eccles – Lake Condah Area, comprising Budj Bim National Park was added to the National Heritage List on 20 July 2004, under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Several designated areas comprising the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019.
In the wake of the burning of some 7,000 hectares of bushland around Lake Condah and in the Budj Bim National Park, further channel structures came to light.
They also created channels linking these wetlands. These channels contained weirs with large woven baskets made by women to cull mature eels. Professor Peter Kershaw, noted palynologist at Monash University, as cited by Bruce Pascoe in his best-selling work Dark Emu, found evidence of a sudden change in vegetation consistent with an artificial ponding system, and initial radiocarbon dating of the soil samples suggests the ponds were created up to 8,000 years ago.
The eels were prepared by smoking them with burning leaves from Australian blackwood. The coastal clans, like other tribes on the south-west coast, according to an early settler, Thomas Browne, had a rich fish diet, which included whale flesh,

History

In a study published in February 2020, new evidence produced by using a form of radiometric dating known as argon-argon dating, showed that both Budj Bim and Tower Hill volcanoes erupted at least 34,000 years ago. Specifically, Budj Bim was dated at within 3,100 years either side of 36,900 years BP, and Tower Hill was dated at within 3,800 years either side of 36,800 years BP. Significantly, this is a "minimum age constraint for human presence in Victoria", and also could be interpreted as evidence for the Gunditjmara oral histories which tell of volcanic eruptions being some of the oldest oral traditions in existence. An axe found underneath volcanic ash in 1947 was also proof that humans inhabited the region before the eruption of Tower Hill.
The beginnings of contact with ngamadjidj date as far back as 1810, when whalers and sealers began to use Portland as a base area for their operations. Contact exposed the local people to epidemics from new diseases born by whites but otherwise was seasonal, and allowed time for demographic recovery.
The major turn in relations occurred with the arrival of, and settlement of their lands by, the Henty Brothers from 1834 onwards. Though much silence surrounded the massacres that took place, and, despite Boldrerwood's explicit testimony, some early historians dismissed the idea of a guerilla war.
Ian D. Clark has identified 28 massacre sites most of the colonialist slaughters taking place during the Eumerella War, so named when the phrase was used as a chapter heading in the memoirs of the novelist Rolf Boldrewood who squatted 50,000 acres near Port Fairy a decade after the main killings.
Sometime in 1833–1834, though the incident has been dated later, to around, 1839, whalers, perhaps 'tonguers,' are thought to have clashed with the Kilcarer Gundidj on the beach at Portland at a site that later became known as Convincing Ground in an incident now known as the Convincing Ground massacre. Various versions exist. The site earned its name either because whalers hashed out their disputes there, because some transaction took place between the indigenous people and whalers, or because disputes arose, either of whale flesh or of the use of native women. If the dispute was over the carcass of a beached whale, the whites may have wished to flense it while the natives may have insisted that it was theirs, as dictated by their ancient customs.
Estimates of the number of people killed in the dispute is unknown, varying from only a few to 30, 60 and as high as 200. All but two of the Kilcarer gundidj clan, Pollikeunnuc and Yarereryarerer, were said to have died. Robinson surmised many had been killed from encounters with 30 members of several different Dhauwurd wurrung clans. A minority view argued by Michael Connors, emerging in the context of Australia's recent History wars argues the figure of 200 dead misinterprets an 1841 report by the Portland Police Magistrate James Blair to Governor Latrobe referring to up to 200 Aboriginals amassing at Convincing Ground, and claims that modern research has fabricated the massacre. His arguments have been analysed, with a negative verdict by Ian D. Clark.
George Augustus Robinson, the official Protector of Aborigines, in travelling in this western area in 1841, reported that settlers in the districts spoke of 'dropping the Aborigines as coolly as if speaking of dropping birds.' The loss of numbers, and headsmen meant clans were forced to unite under other clans and their chieftains. Thus the wungit of the Yiyar clan Boorn Boorn assumed leadership of the Cart gunditj, the Kilgar gunditj and Eurite gunditj when their leadership was eliminated.
Rev Benjamin Hurst noted in a Weslayen Mission meeting in 1841 that in the Portland bay area 'it was usual for some to go out in parties on the Sabbath with guns, for the ostensible purpose of kangarooing, but, in reality to hunt and kill these miserable beings — the bones and the bodies of the slaughtered blacks had been found— but because the evidence of the native was not admissible in a court, the white murderers had escaped with impunity, and were still pursuing their career of crime and blood'.
Resisting dispossession, the Gunditjmara concentrated in the Stony Rises from which they waged guerilla warfare against the pastoralists usurping their lands, raiding their flocks and herds. Some protection was also afforded by the native protectorate set up at Mount Rouse, which the tribes used as a basis for their operations. A particular point of ire were settlements that took over sacred sites associated with Mount Napier, Lake Condah and Port Fairy.
Due to the ongoing battles in the 1840s, the Gunditjmara became well known as "The fighting Gunditjmara".
Table: reporting 28 massacres in Gunditjmara country1833/4 to ?
DateLocationAborigines involvedEuropeans involvedAboriginal Deaths reported
1833 or 1834Convincing Grounds two miles west of the mouth of the Surrey RiverKilcarer gundidj clanWhalersfrom 60 to 200 people, decimating all but 2 tribespeople
June 1838Merino Downs station, Wannon River, near Hentyunknown Gunditjmara clanJoseph Bonsor, shepherd and hutkeeper, who had been waddied1 Gunditmara man
October 1838Merino Downs station, Wannon River, near Hentyunknown Gunditjmara clanWilliam Heath, shepherd, killed1 Gunditmara man, stabbed with sheep shears. Oral version 40.
October 1838Samuel Winter's station Spring Valley or Murndal, Wannon River, near Merinounknown Gunditjmara clanWilliam Jefrey speared, while, with Charles Corrigan and, William Elliot, fighting a mob raiding for sheep2 Gunditmara men
November 1838Samuel Winter's station Spring Valley or Murndalunknown Gunditjmara clan7 whites set upon and shot an Aboriginal group of 20–30 camping at the Wannon River1 Gunditjmara youth wounded, fate unknown
February 1840Merino Downs station, Wannon River, near Hentyunknown Gunditjmara clanA shepherd named Blood maliciously wounded Woolangwang1 man, Woolangwang, died.
Before 17 February 1840George Winter's Tahara station on the Wannon River and McLeods Creek, northeast of Merinounknown Gunditjmara or Djab wurrung clanGeorge Winter and his men, one, Robinson known for his violence. He had dashed out the brains of an Aboriginal child.5 Gunditjmara or Djab wurrung men killed
February / March 1840unknowna presumed Gunditjmara manA stockman employed by the Henty brothers1 Gunditjmara shot wantonly
date unknownClover Flat, junction of junction of Bryan Creek. and the Wannon River, near Casterton. Called 'Murdering Flat'.Either Gunditjmara or Jardwadjali.Thought to have occurred after one of Francis Henty.'s shepherds was killed.No. of victims unknown.
Perhaps November 1840Wannon River, between the Sandford Bridge and junction with Glenelg RiverEither Gunditjmara or Jardwadjali.Connell, an overseer for the Henty brothers, whose stocks of flour were subject to stealing'dozens' reportedly killed by arsenic poisoning.
Around 1841Picaninny Waterhole, Springbank, Glenelg River, south of CastertonElderly GunditjmaraTom, a shepherd for John Henty, who shot and then bayonetted to death a woman.Narrerburnin, a wife of the Pallapnue gundidj headsman Koort Kirrup
2 June 1841Valley of 'Cor.roit'Wanedeet gundidj clan of the Gunditjmara3 shepherds working for W. J. Purbrick shot Aborigines after reportedly offering them damper.'Kitting', 'Marg', and 'Piccaninny Jemmy'
date unknownplace unknown, perhaps identical to Murdering Flat above.unknown clan of GunditjmaraShepherds working for either Edward Henty at Muntham or Francis Henty at Merino Downs, using poison.7 Gunditjmara: Bokarcarreep, Corroitleek, Joeingjoeingburmin, Loohechurning, Marnderremin, Tolort and Yangolarri
3 January 1842Eumeralla stationUnknown Gunditjmara:clanJames Guthrie, overseer at the Eumeralla stationI Gunditjmara, shot dead while reportedly wielding a
February 1842Tarrone station, Moyne River, some 12 miles north of Port FairyYowen gundidj clan40 men formed a vigilante band, after 7 stockmen were faced by a milling mob of Aborigines at the station, and tracked them down to a camp, which they plundered while shooting those who fled.2 or 3.
24 February 1842The junction of Lubra Creek and the Penshurst–Caramut road, at Caramut stationMoperer gundidj clan6 settlers attacked and killed 5 members of two families asleep among tea-trees by a stream off Mustons Creek and plundered their goods. 3 of the murderers were put on trial before a jury of mainly squatters in a court presided over by Redmond Barry and though the incident was well decumented, were deemed not guilty.4 women, Connyer, Natgoncher, Wenigoniber, Wooigouing, and 1 male child
October 1842Tarrone stationYowen gundidj clanDr James Kilgour who had established his station on the Yowen lands, mustered 40 men to take revenge for a shepherd's murder, and shot two or three in a camp.. Robertson, an overseer then supplied members of the tribe with flour laced with arsenic.9 killed: three men, three women and three children
1842Warndaa ssite at Boggy Gully, near Black Swamp, just west of Merrang House, on the Hopkins River south of HexhamMoperer gundidj clanunknownunknown
1842near Donald McKenzie's station on the Crawford RiverNet net yune gundidj clanDonald McKenzie and Frederick Edinge had been killed 15 May 1842 and revenge was taken on an unknown number of GunditjmaraSeveral.
September 1843Headwaters of the Crawford RiverPallapnue gundidj clanAustralian native police under HEP Dana in retribution for the killing of Christopher Bassett in August 1843 and the theft of his flock.9 shot dead in two separate incidents.
October 18438 miles from Mount Eckersley, on the road between Portland and KanawallaGunditjmaraGeorge D Lockhart of Kanawalla station had his dray stolen by attackers. Pursued by HEP Dana and his native police, of whom two wounded.2 Aborigines killed, one wounded
25 January 1844Mullagh station, nearly 7 miles north of Harrowclan unknownThomas Barrett was threatened with a liang by a Gunditjmara who wanted his bag of flour1 aboriginal, Jim, was shot dead
20 May 1847Euremete and Lyne stations, near Branxholmeunknown clan of GunditjmaraA GW Elms shepherd attacked. Subsequently, a group of settlers clashed with some men believed to be responsible2 dead
April 1847Eumeralla districtNillan gundidj clan,Native Police CorpsTarerer and Tykoohe
1847Mount Eccles,Gunjditjmara, clan.unknownSettler vigilante groupAn estimated 30 Aborigines, including babies.
Between August 1843 and 1849Castlemaddie or Ettrick pastoral runsGunjditjmara, clan.unknownWilliam Learmonth, who had taken up 39,000 acres, and the Jamieson brothers, William and Robert1 Aborigine.
unknownLake Gorrie, SquattleseamereGunjditjmara, clan.unknownA groups of settlers led by Charles Hamilton Macknight who had just acquired 47,228 acres in the district, in retribution for the pillaging by 30 blacks of some stores.unknown number
1840s?-early 1850s?Murderers Flat by Darlots Creek, Lake Condah missionKerup gundidj clan,Unknown white gave the community a large bag of flour laced with arsenic. This is a Kerup clan tradition, though there are numerous difficulties with the version given by Rose Donker.20 men, women and children

From the mid- late 19th century attempts were made to have them move into the Framlingham Aboriginal Station, a mission outside Warrnambool. This was unacceptable, it was located moreover on Girai wurrung land. 827 hectares were set aside for them at Lake Condah, and two decades later, in 1885, this reserve was expanded by a further 692 hectares. The tribe congregated here, until an act was passed to deny right of residence to any half-caste, resulting in the dispersal of many Gunditjmara kinsfolk, and the loss of their collective traditions, with the Condah mission numbers dropping drastically from 117 to 20.
The land was reclaimed in 1951 by the government and allocated to returnee soldiers.
In 2005 the area began to be bulldozed for groundwork for an eight-lot subdivision. The dispute was settled when the area was set aside as a reservation, in an agreement forged in February 2007.

Native title

In 1987, the Victorian Labor government under John Cain attempted to grant some of the Framlingham State Forest to the trust as inalienable title; however, the legislation was blocked by the Liberal Party opposition in the Victorian Legislative Council. The federal Labor government under Bob Hawke intervened, passing the Aboriginal Land Act 1987, which gave of the Framlingham Forest to the Framlingham Trust. Although the title is essentially inalienable, in that it can only be transferred to another Indigenous land trust, the Framlingham Trust has rights to prevent mining on the land, unlike trusts or communities holding native title.
The Lake Condah Mission lands were also returned to the Gunditjmara on 1 January 1987, when the former reserve was vested to the Kerrup Jmara Elders Corporation. The transfer included "full management, control and enjoyment by the Kerrup-Jmara Elders Aboriginal Corporation of the land granted to it".
In 1993, the Peek Whurrong members of the Gunditjmara purchased the Deen Maar under the auspices of ATSIC for the Framlingham Aboriginal Trust, with the intention that it become an Indigenous Protected Area, it was granted this status in 1999. Becoming the first IPA in Victoria.
The Lake Condah Mob launched their Native Title Claim in August 1996.
On 30 March 2007, the Federal Court of Australia under Justice Anthony North determined on recognising the Gunditjmara People's non-exclusive native title rights and interests over of vacant Crown land, national parks, reserves, rivers, creeks and sea in the Portland region of Victoria's western district. between Dunkeld and Yambuk on Victoria's south-west coast were set aside to include the eastern Marr.
On 27 July 2011, together with the Eastern Maar people, the Gunditjmara People were recognised to be the native title-holders of the 4,000 hectares of Crown including Lady Julia Percy Island, known to them as Deen Maar.

Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation

The Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation is a Registered Native Title Body Corporate under the Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993, and a Registered Aboriginal Party under the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006. The TOAC owns culturally significant properties across Western Victoria on behalf of the Gunditjmara community.

Gunditjmara of note

Sources:,

Some words