In the Land of the Ngadjuri
Colonial impact on Indigenous South Australia
Indigenous Australians arrived on this continent 70000 years ago. Ongoing migrations into Australia introduced over 250 distinct language groups and indigenous Australians have the oldest continuous cultural connection with country in the world. The Heysen Trail is Australia’s great long distance adventure trail, 1200 kilometres, and it traverses six distinct language groups.
I reccently walked on Ngadjuri land, rediscovering some of their story. Ngadjuri country begins about 100 kilometres north of Adelaide, the capital of the State of South Australia, through rolling bushland and lush river valleys which are now filled with sheep flocks. Nearly one third of the Heysen Trail is on Ngadjuri country, starting out from the town of Crystal Brook continuing on foot for twenty days. Plenty of time to appreciate the beautiful and fertile Mid-North of South Australia and reflect on the people who walked it for thousands of years. Walking the Heysen Trail evokes many emotions and in the Mid North it is striking how little remains of the Ngadjuri in their own country.
Sadly, little remains in oral and written record. Only one secondary source is readily available, ‘Ngadjuri: Aboriginal People of the Mid North Region of South Australia’, published 2005. In its 150 pages it is striking how dependent it is on colonial newspapers, settler diaries and the fieldwork of a few academics to tell the history of the last Ngadjuri generations. It reads like a forensic reconstruction of lost culture.
By 1900 there were no traditional owners living on Ngadjuri country and by 1950 no fully initiated members left alive. They had been scattered and cast adrift, retreating to ration stations and reserves.
In the 1940s field anthropologists Paul Mountford and Ronald Berndt recorded Ngadjuri vocabulary and place names from initiated man Barney Waria. Barney appears to have realised the fading links to tradition, spending time meeting with anyone who would listen. Such a tenuous thread to the past emphasises the disaster of colonisation.
South Australia was colonised in 1836. The Mid North, with grassy valleys and flowing rivers, attracted pastoralists quickly , but the destruction of traditional culture had already started. Small-pox scarring was noted in the first settler reports. Presumably this was spread down the Murray River from the eastern colonies. In naïve populations smallpox could be expected to kill 50% of the population.
Sheep farming and wool offered big returns in the 19th century. By 1840 sheep flocks reached Ngadjuri country. The Ngadjuri were quick to realise the danger, probably forewarned by the experiences of the Kaurna, the coastal tribal group that faced the first wave of settlement. In February 1840 the first reported murder of a Ngadjuri man occurred at a station called Penwortham, owned by John Horrock, an early settler. On 26th September of that year reporters estimated two hundred aboriginals ‘attacked’ a survey camp north of Gawler, just 50 kilometers from Adelaide, in retaliation.
In 1841, Bungaree Station, began sheep farming. Full scale resistance ensued and continued until the end of the decade. Sheep stealing and shepherd injuries were reported in newspapers but few native deaths were reported. In1842 the first outback Police Station was established on Ngadjuri country at Julia Creek. Two mounted police officers chased sheep ‘thieves’. Some ‘miscreants’ were sent south for trial, but in an era of slow travel and poor communication local ‘justice’ ensued. Magistrates held enquiries and tried to ascertain details of murders but routinely found no witnesses. Rumours of aboriginal attacks unsettled the public. Nothing was said about summary justice. Travellers in the 1850s recorded that only native women and children were to be seen. The men had likely been killed or melted away to safer northern regions. How many were killed is an unanswerable and unsettling question in Australian history.
There is no record. My conjecture is dozens. In 1848 the protector of Aborigines estimated 200 Ngadjuri were coming in for rations at Bungaree Station or the town of Melrose. Twenty years later there were 60–70. Most of the Ngadjuri had retreated to Bimbowie, the far northeast of traditional country, and a long way from pastoral country. In 1871, 214 individuals were recorded there. By the first decade of the 20th Century, on country all that remained were their placenames.
‘Owie’ means waterhole. It was quickly accepted by the colonisers, hence the towns of Terowie, Caltowie, Booborowie. Bundaleer means ‘among the hills’. Yacka — ’sister river’(to the Broughton River); Appila — ’hunting ground’.
Walking the Heysen Trail you have a unique insight into the landscape. Its water sources and fertile places are apparent on foot. It takes little to imagine how it was used by its traditional owners. The reed banks of Apoinga lagoon are long lost to grazing herds but it was a central resource to the Ngadjuri catering to large mobs through all seasons. Every lush valley was a hunting ground. Every creek was a path through country. The yellow ochre beds of Willochra Creek were a trading resource. The stories may be lost, but we can acknowledge them with just a little effort.
A special tribute has been made by well-known artist, Robert Hannaford, in the town of Riverton. He tells stories mainly in paint, but at Riverton he has sculpted a beautiful tribute to a Ngadjuri mother and child. This life size bronze sculpture is alive with emotion and feeling. I think of it as the spirit of country and never fail to visit on my way north passing through the land of the Ngadjuri.
