Waranga Dreaming
It would be interesting to take a tour through the Waranga area prior to European colonisation, seeing it through the eyes of the Ngurai-illum Wurrung people who had been the custodians for tens of thousands of years. In the early years of squatting, from the late 1830s, it is
Waranga Dreaming
Aside from county, land district and local government boundaries, Victoria is also divided up into over 2000 parishes. To confuse matters somewhat, some parishes cross county boundaries and they may also be duplicated in town names. For example, Moora is a small settlement, but also a parish that includes much
Waranga Dreaming
There are at least 40 names on or near Ngurai-illum Wurrung country that appear to be of Aboriginal origin. Some of those names would have been derived from the Ngurai-illum Wurrung language. It would be good if we could identify which ones were, because it could give us
Waranga Dreaming
Ngurai-illum Wurrung country has a large number of Aboriginal place names, possibly a greater percentage than the Victorian average of 27% of all names listed in the Australian Gazetteer. The first thing to note is that some of these names may not even be from the Ngurai-illum Wurrung
Waranga Dreaming
The last story speculated about how the local Ngurai-illum Wurrung people heated water to make up a decoction of wattle bark, which was used for various medicinal purposes. That begs the question about which methods were used for cooking food. Campsites were often used on a regular basis, as
Waranga Dreaming
Recent stories have talked about the use of wattle bark in a range of Aboriginal medicines. Given that the efficacy of wattle bark products features so often in historical sources, it is surprising that Western medicine has not explored the possibilities in more depth. However, over the past 25 years,
Waranga Dreaming
It seems that there are plenty of healing qualities in wattle bark and gum, which Western medicine has largely ignored. The last story mentioned a couple of uses for a decoction of wattle bark (i.e. where the bark is boiled down) although the source1 did not mention which specific
Waranga Dreaming
Prior to European colonisation, local Aboriginal people had developed a comprehensive set of health practices to deal with illnesses, wounds and injuries caused by accidents. Quite often, this would include the use of local plants to assist in the healing process. In the Waranga area, we can only really guess
Waranga Dreaming
The previous story talked about a mass arrest of Aboriginal men near Melbourne in 1840. At this time, there was a war going on in the rural areas of Port Phillip District, as Victoria was then known. Squatters and their men were arriving en masse, with vast numbers of sheep
Waranga Dreaming
In October 1840, there was a mass arrest of around 200 Aboriginal men near Melbourne, including some men from Ngurai-illum Wurrung country. Melbourne was only five years old at that stage. Prior to European colonisation, the banks of the Yarra had been an ancient site for gatherings of Aboriginal
Waranga Dreaming
During the 1840s, the Melbourne papers reported on a series of battles between groups which are now considered to be part of the Kulin Nation. The journalists sometimes speculated about the cause of the battles, but more often than not would have had little understanding of what was going on.
Waranga Dreaming
One of the reasons for gatherings of vast numbers of Aboriginal people pre-European colonisation was to take advantage of seasonal surpluses of food, to be found in particular locations at certain times of the year. Across Australian, there are many well-known examples of this, such as travel to