Pre-colonisation The pre-colonial population of what is now known as the state of Victoria has been estimated as approximately 11,500 to 15,000 Aboriginal people, composed of some 38 tribal groups. The Wurundjeri population probably fluctuated around 400 individuals. Archaeological evidence from the Melbourne region has shown human habitation in the area dating back to 31,000 years
before present. As was attested by early colonial observers like
George Robinson and
William Thomas in the first decade of colonization, the Melbourne area still figured prominently as one of the places where upwards of 800 men, women and children from all the Kulin groups would assemble for ceremonial rites, trading, marriage-making and dispute settlements. The practice of
firestick farming resulted in large areas of grassy plains extending inland from Melbourne, to the north and southwest, with little forest cover, providing pasture to expose the massive number of
yam daisies (
murnong) which proliferated in the area. These roots and various tuber lilies formed a major source of starch and carbohydrates. Seasonal changes in the weather, availability of foods and other factors would determine where campsites were located, many being along the
Yarra River (
Birrarung) and its tributaries.
Bolin Bolin lagoon was a particularly important habitation, ceremonial and food resource site, where eels, fish and possum were procured. The Wurundjeri-willam and Bulug-willam clans mined
diorite at
Mount William stone axe quarry which was a source for the highly valued
greenstone hatchet heads, which were 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 18 hectares including underground pits of several metres. In February 2008 the site was placed on the
Australian National Heritage List for its cultural importance and archeological value.
Onset of British colonisation In 1835, the
Port Phillip Association of colonists from
Van Diemen's Land, represented by
John Batman, arrived on Wurundjeri Country with a view to purchasing a large tract of grazing land. The Wurundjeri had the impression that they were
ngamajet, or red-faced sunset spirits (
murup) returning from the land of the dead. At
Merri Creek, Batman met with eight leading men (
ngurungaeta) of the local clans, including
Bebejan,
Billibellary and Jakka-jakka (Jaga Jaga/Borrunuptun) of the Wurundjeri. They signed
Batman's Treaty, after participating in a
tanderrum ceremony, allowing the colonists temporary residence on their land. However, even though the treaty was later annulled, Batman and the Port Phillip Association used the agreement to appropriate 600,000 acres of land for an annual payment of flour, trinkets and clothing. Within a few years other arriving British colonists had expropriated most of the traditional Wurundjeri land along the Yarra River and its tributaries, forcing them away from many sites that they depended on for food, water, shelter and ceremony.
Effects of colonisation With limited options, many Wurundjeri people initially found that residing close to the emerging British settlement at Melbourne, provided some security from hunger and settler violence. The
south bank of the Yarra across from the settlement and the adjacent
Tromgin swamps to the east became an important place of indigenous habitation. In 1836, the combined Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung population in the Melbournian area was estimated at 350. In the 1839 census conducted by
William Thomas 207 were listed. By 1852 a mere 59 remained, and the figure fell to 22 Woiwurrung and 11 Boonwurrung by 1863. Despite their desire to settle, the local aborigines were forced to be constantly on the move: they were denied entry into fenced paddocks to forage, and the governor forbade the dealing out of adequate food rations to enable them to stay at any one place. The only options left were begging or doing menial jobs like gathering bark and firewood for the new occupiers of their land.
The Langhorne mission In 1837,
Governor Bourke approved a reserve, at what is now the
Royal Botanic Gardens, for an Aboriginal mission to 'civilise' the local clans. Under the authority of Reverend George Langhorne, around 80 Indigenous people, most of whom were Wurundjeri, stayed at the site. A small school was established at which around 18 Aboriginal children attended. A few months after the establishment of Langhorne's mission, the police magistrate
William Lonsdale accused some of the attending Indigenous men of stealing potatoes from a nearby farm. A young Wurundjeri man named
Tullamareena was violently arrested and jailed. He subsequently escaped after burning down the prison. Lonsdale later returned to the mission with a detachment of
New South Wales Mounted Police and dispersed the residents with gun fire. As a result, the mission ceased to operate.
Battle of Yering Wurundjeri still continued to camp along the south bank of the Yarra and by 1838 a trade was established whereby the Aboriginal people were selling baskets, possum skins and
lyrebird feathers to the settlers. Some settlers gave Wurundjeri men
muskets to facilitate their hunting of lyrebirds. In early 1840, Jaga Jaga used these weapons to organise a raid on a settler's potato farm on the Yarra River. A contingent of Mounted Police and
Border Police under Commissioner
Henry Fyshe Gisborne was sent to arrest him. Gisborne encountered Jaga Jaga and his 50 armed followers at
Yering where a firefight took place between the two opposing sides. No fatalities were reported and Jaga Jaga was captured but later escaped. This event became known as Jaga Jaga’s Resistance or the
Battle of Yering.
Expulsion from Melbourne and the Lettsom raid The superintendent of the
Port Phillip District,
Charles La Trobe, was alarmed at this insurgency and ordered the confiscation of guns from Aborigines and directed the Mounted Police to patrol the outskirts of Melbourne to prevent any "blacks" from entering the town. However, many Aboriginal people continued to use the south bank of the Yarra as a major camping spot. By the middle of 1840, La Trobe was increasingly willing to use force to remove the Aboriginal people from Melbourne, and in September, he issued orders to expel them directing that "no Aboriginal blacks...are to visit the township of Melbourne under any pretext whatever". On 1 October 1840, Major Samuel Lettsom of the
80th Regiment and his Mounted Police made a raid on the Yarra camp, charging their horses and driving men, women and children into the river and up into the trees to avoid injury. Not long after dispersing the Yarra camp, Lettsom received news that a large group of
Taungurung people were coming down from the
Goulburn River region to conduct a meeting with the Wurundjeri. This large meeting of around 400 men, women and children began at what is now
Yarra Bend Park. In the early hours of Sunday 11 October 1840, Major Lettsom with soldiers of the
28th Regiment under Captain George Brunswick Smyth, troopers of the NSW Mounted Police under Lieutenant Russell and Border Police troopers under
Frederick Powlett, surrounded the large group while they slept. They then surprised the gathering and arrested and chained almost the entire group, with only a few escaping. Several people were wounded during the arrest and a Taungurung leader named
Winberri was shot dead in what became known as the
Lettsom Raid. The remaining 300 to 400 Aboriginal people were marched down
Heidelberg Road and into Melbourne. The women, children and old men who lagged behind were forced to keep moving by being pricked with bayonets and clubbed with rifle butts. Numerous injuries were recorded. They were herded down
Collins Street and corralled into a yard.
Rolf Boldrewood described the scene as a whole tribe of blacks — wondering and frightened, young and old, warriors and greybeards, women and children — is being driven along Collins Street by troopers, on their way to the temporary gaol, there to be incarcerated for real or fancied violence. Those identified as Wurundjeri, Woiwurrung or Boonwurrung were allowed to leave, but around 35 Taungurung men and boys remained imprisoned and chained together. That night some of the Taungurung attempted to escape from the warehouse. The soldiers guarding the warehouse discovered the attempt and shot dead a man and wounded another. Nine Taungurung were eventually sentenced to 10 years transportation and four of these were shot dead trying to escape. After the Lettsom raid, the Wurundjeri were compelled to live at the designated reserves at
Nerre Nerre Warren and
Merri Creek away from Melbourne. However, for several years they continued to exercise their mobility and did not cease to visit Melbourne, despite the real possibility of further military intervention. Six years after the raid, La Trobe still found himself ordering Kulin camps to be burnt to force them out from the settlement.
Protectorate stations at Nerre Nerre Warren and Merri Creek Concern from several politicians in London about the devastating effect British colonialism was having on Australian Aborigines, resulted in the establishment of a system of
Protector of Aborigines. In 1839,
George Augustus Robinson and an assistant
William Thomas arrived in Melbourne as Protectors for the Aboriginal people of Melbourne. La Trobe and the Protectors agreed in 1840 to establish an Aboriginal reserve at
Nerre Nerre Warren as it was well outside Melbourne. However, most Wurundjeri refused to go there as food and water were scarce. In 1842, the
Merri Creek Protectorate Station was created and most Wurundjeri agreed to reside either there and near to it because food was reliable and it was also a traditional camping spot. At times, up to 500 Aboriginal people camped at the Merri Creek Protectorate as surviving outside was becoming increasingly difficult with the expansion of British settlement in the region. The Aboriginal
Native Police troopers were also barracked nearby, ensuring a regular supply of rations. A school was established there for the children in 1845. However, by the end of 1847, funding for the Protectorate system had ceased and this together with an
influenza outbreak at the camp and the death of
Billibellary, resulted in the Wurundjeri abandoning the Merri Creek reserve.
Troopers for the Native Police In 1842, La Trobe established a mounted paramilitary force consisting of Aboriginal troopers enlisted from the Melbourne tribes. The purpose of this force, called the
Native Police, was to provide settlers in the more distant regions a cost-effective militia to counter Aboriginal resistance. According to La Trobe, the troopers would not only be the "equals in savage cunning" of the Indigenous insurgents but be "their superiors" by being armed with guns, swords and military training. Faced with the option of a precarious life of famine and misery in either illegal Aboriginal camps or underfunded reserves, some leading Wurundjeri chose to join the Native Police, which provided regular pay, rations, clothing and housing for both themselves and their families. The ability to possess guns and horses also gave them an empowering status otherwise unattainable for Aboriginal men in the European world. Of the first intake of 22 men in 1842, around five were Wurundjeri, including the head of the clan,
Billibellary. While he was hesitant to join and refused to go on duty outside Melbourne, he saw the advantages to the survival of his people in enlisting. Over the ten year history of the Port Phillip Native Police, around 17 Wurundjeri men, including
William Barak, joined the force, doing various tours of duty around what became the state of Victoria. Several Wurundjeri boys were forcibly recruited from the Merri Creek Aboriginal school. The force were involved in several massacres of Aboriginal people, and some troopers were later deployed as police on the Victorian gold-fields. By the end of 1852, Aboriginal resistance in Victoria had been quashed and La Trobe disbanded the force, with most of the troopers having already died from violence or disease. The remnant Wurundjeri, amounting to only 39 people, were left to eke out an existence in the bush around Melbourne. Around a quarter of their remaining population died in 1852 alone.
Coranderrk For two decades, from 1853 down to 1874, the
ngurungaeta of the Yarra River area's clans began to encourage the surviving remnants of the Kulin tribes to rebuild a home for themselves collectively at
Coranderrk. On 30 June 1863 the surviving members of the Wurundjeri were allowed a "permissive occupancy" of Coranderrk Station, near
Healesville with 2,300 acres (931 ha) set aside as a reservation for their use, shortly after a deputation consisting of the headmen
Simon Wonga and
William Barak, two Woiwurrung and two Boonwurrung clan members, a number of men and boys from various
Taungurong clans and a
Pangerang representative had petitioned the
Governor of Victoria Sir Henry Barkly about their need for land. Despite numerous petitions, letters, and delegations to the Colonial and Federal Government, the grant of this land in compensation for the country lost was refused. Despite the success of its
hops farming, the passing of the
1886 Aboriginal Protection Act, otherwise known as the half-caste act, in banning aboriginals of 35 and under from reserves effectively denied it the chance to replenish its work fore, triggering its slow decline. Coranderrk was closed in 1924 and the 'coloured folk' camping outside the reserve on the 80 acre (32 ha) block nearby, were again moved to
Lake Tyers in
Gippsland. Five families living within the reserve were allowed to remain in their cottages. ==Wurundjeri today==