The Bundjalung people, also spelled Bunjalung, Badjalang and Bandjalang, are Aboriginal Australians who are the original custodians of a region from around Grafton in northern coastal New South Wales to Beaudesert in south-east Queensland. The region is located approximately northeast of Sydney and south of Brisbane that now includes the Bundjalung National Park.
In the north, the Bundjalung nation shares a border with the Yuggera and Barrunggam nations; to the east is the Tasman Sea (Pacific Ocean); to the south the Gumbaynggirr (also known as the Kumbainggar) nation; and to the west it borders the Ngarabal nation.
The languages of the Bundjalung people are dialects of the Lower-Richmond branch of the Yugambeh-Bundjalung language family.
The names of the 15 tribal groups comprising the Bundjalung nation are Arakwal, Banbai, Birbai, Galiabal, Gidabal, Gumbainggeri, Jigara, Jugambal, Jugumbir (Yugembeh), Jungai, Minjungbal, Ngacu, Ngamba, NyangbalBallina City CouncilNational Parks and Wildlife Service and Widjabal/Wiyabal.
History
Before European colonisation, the Bundjalung nation encompassed some of the richest hunting and fishing grounds anywhere on the Australian continent. According to the oral traditions of the Bundjalung People, the area was first settled by the Three Brothers and their descendants.
The Bundjalung people inhabit the far-north coast of New South Wales and south-east Queensland. Some Dreamtime stories describe their ancestors arriving in Australia from other lands following a significant environmental event. Additionally, some Indigenous groups in the Perth region hold spiritual beliefs regarding their origins being linked to the stars and the Solar System.
People of the Bundjalung nation have lived on and visited Goanna Headland for at least 12,000 years. The Aboriginal tribes were not united before the 18th century, and comprised more than 20 main groups, known collectively as the "Bundjalung nation". Certain deities and religious practices were specific to certain localities.
Goanna Headland is also significant as the site where the ancestors of the Bundjalung people arrived by sea and populated the surrounding country. This event is related through the legend of "The Three Brothers (Bundjalung nation)".
European arrival
On 15 May 1770, the coast in the vicinity of Evans Head was first mapped and described by Lieutenant James Cook on the Royal Navy barque , during Cook's first voyage to what became known as New Zealand and Australia. Cook did not land but, the next day, he saw and named Cape Byron and Mount Warning, known to the Bundjalung people as Wollumbin. He named Mount Warning as a result of encountering nearby offshore reefs.Mount Warning#Etymology
Cook did not see the entrance to the Richmond River, but noted the presence of about 20 Bundjalung people on what is now Seven Mile Beach, just to the south of Broken Head. Sir Joseph Banks also noted the people and remarked that they completely ignored the presence of HMS Endeavour. That might indicate that Endeavour was not the first ship that they had seen (Richmond River Historical Society {RRHS}, 1997).
On 20 August 1828, Captain Henry John Rous, on the frigate HMS Rainbow, dropped anchor at Byron Bay. His mission was to discover a navigable river and safe anchorage site. On 26 August 1828, Rous discovered the entrance to the Richmond River (the longest navigable river on the coast of New South Wales) and explored upstream, as far as Tuckean Swamp, with two lieutenants in a pinnace. Rous subsequently named the river Richmond after his brother's best friend, Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond.
European settlement
The beginning of European settlement into the Richmond River area was the result of early explorations of the region by red cedar cutters and farmers, who arrived around 1842, after hearing stories from "stray natives" of the great wudgie-wudgie (red cedar) in the Richmond river area to the north of the Clarence river. Red cedar getters, as obsessed by 'red gold' as those who later suffered 'gold fever', brooked no interference in their quest for the magnificent old trees.
To legally cut red cedar, loggers were required to obtain a cedar cutter's license from Grafton (and later Casino), issued by Commissioner Oliver Fry for the North Creek and Emigrant Creek scrubs in 1851, and costing £6. The license did not provide ownership to land, but did allow the cedar-getter to build a hut and cut cedar on unsettled land. Word rapidly spread about the wonderful red cedar timber which made small fortunes for the men of the Richmond River.
Timeline Date Events 10,000 BC Aboriginal ancestors of the people who make up the Bundjalung nation first arrived on the North Coast of NSW thousands of years ago. The minimum time by which this migration had taken place is confirmed at 12,000 years ago, with the upper bound (or earliest period) remaining a matter of some unresolved contention.
This Bundjalung historical event, is verbally told by Aborigines, in their culture in the Dreamtime legend of "The Three Brothers (Bundjalung nation)." 4000 BC As the ice caps melted at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch about 12,000 years ago (10,000 BC), sea levels rose and covered a strip of land off the east coast of Australia, leaving high relief terrain exposed as a coastal promontory.
The coastal campsites (of the Bundjalung nation Aboriginal's ancestors), that were used before the sea stabilized, around 6,000 years ago (4000 BC), now lie beneath the sea. 1650 AD In Bundjalung National Park at an Aboriginal midden on the banks of the Evans River, is a Western Kurrajong tree that is estimated to be more than 360 years old.
The Marriage Tree as it is called by Bundjalung Aboriginals, was a gift from the Wahlubal tribe at Tabulam, when a wedding took place at Gummigurrah between a man and a woman.
Gummigurrah was the winter campsite for Bundjalung people. The midden site is close to a camping ground. May 1770 AD Victoria Park Nature Reserve is a sub tropical jungle remnant of the Big Scrub which once covered most of the district, situated 16 kilometres south-east of Lismore, it features the remnants of a gigantic Moreton Bay fig tree, which was seen by Lieutenant James Cook FRS RN as he sailed up the east coast of Australia on . The tree was struck by lightning in the early 1980s, but today people can walk around its base and marvel at its size. 15 May 1770 AD The coast in the vicinity of Evans Head was first mapped and described by Lieutenant James Cook FRS RN of the United Kingdom on . 15 May 1770 AD Lieutenant James Cook FRS RN noted the presence of about 20 Bundjalung Arakwal people on what is now known as 'Seven Mile Beach', north of Lennox Head and just to the south of Broken Head. 15 May 1770 AD Sir Joseph Banks also noted the same 20 Bundjalung Arakwal people as Lieutenant James Cook FRS RN, and he noted that:
'... not one was once observed to stop and look toward the ship; they pursued their way in all appearance entirely unmoved by the neighbourhood of so remarkable an object as a ship must necessarily be to people who have never seen one.'
This would seem to indicate that HMS Endeavour was not the first ship that they had seen (Richmond River Historical Society {RRHS}, 1997). 16 May 1770 AD Lieutenant James Cook FRS RN on the Endeavour names Cape Byron, in honour of Vice-Admiral The Hon. John 'Foulweather Jack' Byron RN (8 November 1723 – 10 April 1786), another British navigator, and grandfather of Lord Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824). Cook also noted a pair of small islands, naming the two main peaks Julian Rocks after his nephew and niece, Juan and Julia.
Lieutenant James Cook FRS RN, was the first European to record in his diary of seeing "... a remarkable sharp peaked Mountain lying inland..." from a point of land he named Cape Byron. Five hours later while sailing north, Cook was forced to change course to the east after encountering the dangerous reefs that run to the east from Fingal Head, now named Danger Reefs (comprising Inner, South, and Outer reefs).Australian Hydrographic Chart "AUS 813" 17 May 1770 AD Mount Warning (Wulambiny Momoli) was named by Lieutenant James Cook FRS RN as a warning to other seafarers, of the numerous treacherous reefs along the New South Wales north coast, after seeing the mountain from the sea while sailing past.
Lieutenant James Cook FRS RN, did not know that the Bundjalung people for many miles around called the mountain 'Wulambiny Momoli', and that it was an important sacred site, as their lives and religion were strongly linked to the land.
Lieutenant James Cook FRS RN on the Endeavour recorded in his diary in the morning:
"…We now saw the breakers [reefs] again within us which we past at the distance of 1 League, they lay in the Lat de of 38°..8' [later changed to 28°..8'] & stretch off East two Leagues from a point under which is a small Island. There situation may always be found by the peaked mountain before mentioned which bears SWBW from them this and on this account I have named Mount Warning it lies 7 or 8 Leagues inland in the latitude of 28°..22" S° the land is high and hilly about it but it is conspicuous enough to be distinguished from everything else. The point off which these shoals lay I have named Point Danger to the northward of it the land which is low trends NWBN but we soon found that it did not keep that direction long before it turned again to the northward." 20 August 1828 AD Captain Henry John Rous, also known as Admiral Henry John Rous (23 January 1795 – 19 June 1877), on the frigate dropped anchor at Byron Bay. His mission was to discover a navigable river and safe anchorage site. Rous identified the mouth of the Richmond river as he sailed along the coast from Sydney Town to Moreton Bay. 26 August 1828 AD Captain Henry John Rous on the frigate HMS Rainbow discovers the entrance to the Richmond River (the longest navigable river on the coast of NSW) and explores 32 kilometres up the river with two lieutenants in a Pinnace, as far as Tuckean Swamp.
Captain Henry John Rous subsequently named the river Richmond after his brother's best friend, Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond. 1839 AD Queen Victoria's Ordinance on the rights of Aborigines as subjects; 2 Vic. 27 1839;
"where there is a violent death in consequence of a collision with white men, an Inquest or Inquiry is to be held in the same way as if the Deceased had been of European origin". 1839 AD Originally, Tabulam and the surrounding farm and bushland was inhabited by Bundjalung people. The land was first settled by Europeans in 1839. 1840 AD Squatters Henry Clay and George Stapleton cut a path through the bush from Glen Innes down to Tabulam, there they purchased cattle and drove their cattle herds over the Richmond Range and settled on the Richmond River. To their grazing run they claimed, they gave the name "Cassino" (Now known as the town of Casino) which was named after the beautiful town of Monte Cassino in Italy.