s (c. 1883) by Fred Kruger
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. 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. A
cranium found at the site has been dated at between 12,000 and 14,700 years BP. 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. During the
Ice Age about 20,000 years Before Present|, 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. Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands became separated from mainland Australia around 12,000 BP, when the sea level was about below present levels.)
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. 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. 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. 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. 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 ... 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. ==Victorian Aboriginal languages==