Local Indigenous Peoples and Place – Week 4 - Lesson 11
The Kulin nation
Wurundjeri story mural
When Europeans first settled, a single bloc of Kooris consisting of five language groups or
tribes owned the entire Port Phillip region as far north as Euroa. The five groups all spoke a
related language and were said to form a confederacy or nation, which the Kooris themselves
called "Kulin" from their common word for a human being.
Archaeology of Koori occupation
Archaeological evidence has provided an account of Koori occupation in the Port Philip
region. This evidence takes a variety of forms such as the tools or other implements that were
used (artefacts) or the places where Kooris have left some trace of their presence (sites).
Such artefacts and sites have been found all over the Port Philip region. Within the land of the
Kulin there are about 1500 archaeological sites of various types. About 200 of them are
within the Melbourne metropolitan area itself.
Cultural heritage sites and artifacts
The western suburbs of Melbourne have numerous cultural heritage sites that traditionally,
the Kulin Nation peoples utilised in their daily living.
Bunjil is the creation spirit of the Kulin Nation and the language groups of South East
Australia. The Kulin nation totems were Bunjil in the form of an eagle hawk, and waa the
crow.
Before the invasion, these lands were abundant in food sources. Indigenous grasslands are
remnant in St Albans at the Iramoo site.
Deer Park has the important artefact scatters at the Bullum Bullum site, Sunbury the
culturally significant ceremonial bora rings and the Werribee River a burial site dated back to
at least 30,000 years.
Five ceremonial sites, the rarest of sites in Aboriginal archaeology, have been recorded in the
Port Philip region. Four of these sites are in the vicinity of Sunbury and the fifth is near
Mount Rothwell, to the west of Geelong. The Sunbury sites consist of circular ditches with an
associated cairn of stones in the centre.
At Green Gully, close to the Maribyrnong River, an Aboriginal burial site was discovered in
1965. It was dated to about 6500 BP. A stone tool from the site and charcoal from a fire
suggested that the site may be about 17,000 years old. In 1977, a group of Koori burials were
discovered during sand mining close to the Werribee River. The burials were about 7300
years old.
Shell middens have been located at Sandringham, Brighton and Merri Creek, Coburg.
Surface scatters have been recorded near the Maribyrnong River and Kororoit Creek.
Heritage scar trees
Approximately 100 scar trees have been recorded in the Melbourne area in areas such as
Richmond, Doveton and Heidelberg.
At Mount William near Lancefield within the Wurundjeri-William clan of Woiwurrung, 78
km from Melbourne, there is an area that was much prized as a source of stone for making
hatchet heads. The area surrounding the outcrops, a site that takes up more than 40 hectares,
is covered with the debris of many years quarrying by Kooris. Not all hatchet heads came
from Mount William, although that quarry was probably the most important in the region.
Outcroppings of silcrete, which was favoured for making small flaked implements, are
known to occur in the Keilor area and on the Mornington Peninsula. Grinding grooves,
associated with the production of edge-ground hatchets, have been located near Mount
Macedon, not far from the stone quarry at Mount William.
Language groups
There were three language groups within the Kulin Nation whose territory bordered Port
Phillip Bay:
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the Wathaurong who lived on the Bellarine Peninsula and into the Otway Ranges and
east as far as the Werribee River
the Woiwurrung who claimed the area drained by the Yarra River and its tributaries
the Boonwurrung to their south, on the Mornington Peninsula, around Westernport
Bay, perhaps as far east as Wilson's Promontory, and as far north as the southernmost
reaches of the Dandenongs.
Source:
http://www.vu.edu.au/about-vu/vus-vision/acknowledgement-of-country/the-kulin-nation, Accessed: 17 May
2011.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Language Groups pre – 1788.