Aboriginal Victorians, the Aboriginal Australians of Victoria, Australia, occupied the land for tens of thousands of years prior to European settlement. Aboriginal people have lived a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering and associated activities for at least 40,000 years.Gary Presland, The First Residents of Melbourne's Western Region, (revised edition), Harriland Press, 1997. .
The Aboriginal people of Victoria had developed a varied and complex set of languages, tribal alliances, beliefs and social customs that involved totemism, superstition, initiation and burial rites, and tribal moieties.
History
Prehistory There is some evidence to show that people were living in the Maribyrnong River valley, near present-day Keilor, about 40,000 years ago, according to Gary Presland.Gary Presland, p. 1, Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People, Harriland Press (1985), Second edition 1994, . This book describes in some detail the archaeological evidence regarding Aboriginal life, culture, food gathering and land management.
At the Keilor archaeological site a human hearth excavated in 1971 was radiocarbon-dated to about 31,000 years BP, making Keilor one of the earliest sites of human habitation in Australia.Gary Presland, Keilor Archaeological Site, eMelbourne website. Accessed 3 November 2008 A cranium found at the site has been dated at between 12,000Peter Brown, The Keilor Cranium , Peter Brown's Australian and Asian Palaeoanthropology, Accessed 3 November 2008 and 14,700 years BP.
Similar archaeological sites in Tasmania and on the Bass Strait Islands have been dated to between 20,000 and 35,000 years ago, when sea levels were below present level, allowing Aboriginal people to move across the region of southern Victoria and on to the land bridge of the Bassian plain to Tasmania by at least 35,000 years ago.Hanna Steyne, Investigating the Submerged Landscapes of Port Phillip Bay, Victoria , Heritage Victoria, who sources (Lambeck & Chappell 2001) and (Bird 1993, Bowler 1966, Holdgate et al. 2001), Accessed 3 November 2008David Rhodes, Terra Culture Heritage Consultants, Channel Deepening Existing Conditions Final Report – Aboriginal Heritage , Prepared for Parsons Brinckerhoff and Port of Melbourne Corporation, August 2003. Accessed 3 November 2008
There is evidence of occupation in Gariwerd (the Grampians) – the territory of the Jardwadjali people – many thousands of years before the last Ice Age. One site in the Victoria Range (Billawin Range) has been dated from 22,000 years ago.C.F.M. Bird and D. Frankel, 2005. An Archaeology of Gariwerd. From Pleistocene to Holocene in Western Victoria. Tempus 8. (Archaeology and Material Culture Studies in Anthropology) University of Queensland, St Lucia.Parks Victoria,Management Plan for Grampians National Park , 2003, . Accessed 19 November 2008
During the Ice Age about 20,000 years , the area now the bay of Port Phillip would have been dry land, and the Yarra and Werribee rivers would have joined to flow through the heads then south and south west through the Bassian plain before meeting the ocean to the west. Between 16,000 and 14,000 years BP the rate of sea level rise was most rapid, rising about in 300 years according to Peter D. Ward.Peter D. Ward, p. 30, The Flooded Earth. Our Future in a World Without Ice Caps, Basic Books, New York, 2010, Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands became separated from mainland Australia around 12,000 BP, when the sea level was about below present levels. Port Phillip was flooded by post-glacial rising sea levels between 8000 and 6000 years ago.
Oral history and creation stories from the Wada wurrung, Woiwurrung and Bun wurrung languages describe the flooding of the bay. Hobsons Bay was once a kangaroo-hunting ground. Creation stories describe how Bunjil was responsible for the formation of the bay, or the bay was flooded when the Yarra River was created (Yarra Creation Story.Ian Hunter, Yarra Creation Story , Wurundjeri Dreaming. Recorded 2004–5. Accessed 3 November 2008)
Later The Wurundjeri mined diorite at Mount William Quarry, a source of the highly valued greenstone hatchet heads, which were and traded across a wide area as far as New South Wales and Adelaide. The mine provided a complex network of trading for economic and social exchange among the different Aboriginal nations in Victoria.Isabel McBryde, Kulin Greenstone Quarries: The Social Contexts of Production and Distribution for the Mt William Site, in World Archaeology, Vol. 16, No. 2, Mines and Quarries (Oct. 1984), pp. 267–285 (article consists of 19 pages) Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Accessed 3 November 2008Isabel Ellender and Peter Christiansen, p. 44, People of the Merri Merri. The Wurundjeri in Colonial Days, Merri Creek Management Committee, 2001 Gary Presland, Aboriginal Melbourne. The lost land of the Kulin people, Harriland Press, 1985. New edition 2001. The quarry had been in use for more than 1,500 years and covered , including pits of several metres. In February 2008 the site was placed on the National Heritage List for its cultural importance and archeological value.National Heritage List, Mount William Stone Hatchet Quarry, Australian Government, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Accessed 3 November 2008
In some areas semi-permanent huts were constructed and a sophisticated network of water channels were constructed for farming eels. During winter the Djab wurrung encampments were more permanent, sometimes consisting of substantial huts as attested by Major Thomas Mitchell near Mount Napier 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.Major Mitchell quoted in Two Native Tribes Shared Shire Area Shire of Mt. Rouse Centenary booklet, 1964, as detailed by the Mt. Rouse & District Historical Society website, 20 October 2007. Accessed 25 November 2008
During early autumn there were often 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.Victorian Eel Fishery – Management Plan Accessed 25 November 2008 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: ...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 ...Harry Lourandos, pp. 63–65, Continent of Hunter-gatherers: New Perspectives in Australian Prehistory, Cambridge University Press, 1997,
The way of life of the Aboriginal people of Western Victoria, who included the Gunditjmara, differed from other groups in Victoria 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 (known as bluestone), with roofs made of turf and branches.
The Budj Bim heritage areas, which show extensive evidence of fish-farming and traps for short-finned eels, around the Lake Condah area, are in Western Victoria. See also attached documents: National Heritage List Location and Boundary Map, and Government Gazette, 20 July 2004.
Victorian Aboriginal languages
Thirty nine Aboriginal languages were spoken in Victoria at the time of European contact, according to Ian D. Clark, although five of these languages are primarily located around the border areas with New South Wales and South Australia.Ian D. Clark, Aboriginal Language Areas in Victoria – a reconstruction , A Report to the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation For Languages, 25 August 2005. Accessed 10 September 2011 Clark also identified 19 sub-dialects in seven languages. The Victorian Aboriginal Corporation For Languages (VACL) is the peak body for Aboriginal languages in Victoria and coordinates all of the community language programs throughout Victoria. The corporation is focused on retrieving, recording and researching Aboriginal languages and providing a central resource on Victorian Aboriginal languages with programs and educational tools to teach the indigenous and wider community about language.
In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in the Aboriginal languages of the south-eastern corner of Australia. The boundaries between one language area and another are not distinct. Rather, mixtures of vocabulary and grammatical construction exist in such regions, and so linguistic maps may show some variation about where one language ends and another begins. Many Australian indigenous languages have declined to a critical state. More than three-quarters of the original Australian languages have already been lost, and the survival of almost all of the remaining languages is extremely threatened.
Communities throughout Victoria, supported by VACL, are reviving their languages through language camps, workshops, school programs, educational material for children, networking events, publications, music, digital resources, and dictionaries. VACL is expanding into the use of interactive digital tools and apps for learning language. They have a number of digital applications to revive Victorian Aboriginal languages through traditional and contemporary stories. VACL supports education and learning activities in schools and communities around Victoria.
Language or language family Status Dialects Spoken by Barababaraba Extinct Bidawal (Maap) Extinct Boon wurrung Revived Bunurong Gunai Revived Brabralung, Braiakalung, Brataualung, Krauatungalung, Tatungalung Gunai Dhauwurd wurrung Extinct Bi:g wurrung, Dhauwurd wurrung, Gai wurrung, Gurngubanud, Wullu wurrung Gunditjmara Dhudhuroa language (Jaithmathang) Extinct Djabwurrung Extinct Djab wurrung, Pirtpirt wurrung, Knenknen wurrung Djab wurrung Djadjawurrung Extinct Djadjawurrung Djargurd wurrung Extinct Djargurd Wurrung Gadubanud Extinct Gadubanud Girai wurrung ExtinctGirai wurrung, Wirngilgnad dhalinanong Girai wurrung Gulidjan Extinct Gulidjan Gundungerre (Jaithmathang) Extinct Jardwadjali Extinct Nundadjali, Jardwadjali, Jagwadjali, Mardidjali Jardwadjali Keramin Extinct Jarijari Jarijari, Dadi Dadi Ladjila Extinct Mogullumbidj Extinct Ngarigu Extinct Southern Ngarigu Ngarigo Ngurai-illam wurrung Extinct Taungurung Extinct Taungurung Wadiwadi Extinct Piangil and non-Piangil Wathawurrung Extinct Wathaurong Way wurru (Waveroo, Pallanganmiddang) Extinct Kwartkwart and Mogullumbidj (Minjambuta) Wekiweki Extinct Wemba-Wemba Extinct Wergaia Wemba-Wemba Wergaia Extinct Bewadjali, Buibadjali, Djadjala, Wudjubalug Woiwurrung Extinct Wurundjeri Yorta Yorta language (Bangarang) Revived Yorta Yorta Yuyu (Ngindadj) Extinct
Marginal language groups in Victorian border areas with South Australia and New South Wales include Bindjali, Buandig, Jabulajabula, Ngargad, and Thawa.