The last recorded corroboree in the Moonee Valley district was held in 1865 near the Essendon Recreation Reserve. Aerial view by Airspy 1955.
Source: State Library of Victoria
The Essendon Historical Society meets on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to their Ancestors, Elders and community members past and present, and affirm our commitment to the work of reconciliation.
Moonee Valley was part of the traditional lands of the Woi-wurrung speaking clans of the Kulin Nation. At the time of European settlement the Moonee Valley area was in the estate of the Wurundjeri-willam people. Today, the Traditional Owners are referred to by the collective term “Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung”, to reflect the descendants of the Wurundjeri-willam people at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, and all the other Woi-wurrung speaking clans.
Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung
The Woi-wurrung language was traditionally spoken by the Wurundjeri people, who comprised a number of clans. Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country is bounded by the Werribee River in the west, north to the Great Dividing Range and beyond, east to Mount Baw Baw, and south to Mordialloc Creek. The people who spoke the Woi-wurrung language were in a confederation / nation now known as the Kulin Nation. All the people of the Kulin Nation were connected through kin (intermarriage), thought (common beliefs) and tongue (similar and distinct languages) as well as shared cultural beliefs, practices and ceremonies.
Organisation
Today’s Moonee Valley was part of the territory of a clan called Wurundjeri-balluk. The clan was further divided into sub-clans, one of which was the Wurundjeri-willam, whose territory was located along the Birrarung (Yarra) and Plenty rivers which was further divided into three patrilines (family groups). Billibellary was the ngurungaeta (leader) of the Wurundjeri-willam for the area between the Maribyrnong River and Darebin Creek, stretching up to the Great Dividing Range and including Moonee Valley.
Billibellary was the pre-eminent Wurundjeri-willam ngurungaeta (leader), and who was respected by other groups of the Kulin Nation, at the time of European settlement. There are many recorded examples of Billibellary’s ability to work with the newcomers where he believed he could help his own people as they worked to adapt to survive in this new and often hostile colonial landscape. Billibellary advocated for the rights of the Wurundjeri-willam and supported other Kulin groups for the rest of his life. He died on 9 August 1846 at the Merri Creek Government Reserve. Following Billibellary’s death, the Wurundjeri people continued to work and fight for their rights, until 1863 when Billibellary’s son Simon Wonga became ngurungaeta (leader) of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people and Taungurung people at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station. Billibellary’s nephew William Barak was also a respected leader alongside his cousin Simon Wonga, and he became ngurungaeta (leader) after Simon Wonga died in 1874.
Lifestyle
Wurundjeri people subsisted off the resources that their Country provided. They would hunt animals like kangaroo and possum, fish for eels, harvest mussels from riverbeds, and cultivated plants like murrnong, the yam daisy, which was a staple food source. Most of their sustenance came from plants rather than hunted animals.
People moved around within their estate regularly, ensuring that no resources was taken in excess. People were mobile when they needed to be, but sometimes were sedentary for long periods of time. People could live in the same place for days or weeks, particularly along waterways as large as the Maribyrnong River. Dense gatherings of people from across the Kulin Nation occurred in areas like East Melbourne and Bolin Bolin Lagoon, where the eel harvest could sustain hundreds of people for a month.
European Settlement and Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Interaction
The Port Phillip Association began settlement in the area now known as Melbourne in 1835. The Wurundjeri people were quickly pushed out by settlement and introduced diseases such as influenza, which devastated the population. Traditional lands were destroyed by the newcomers’ livestock and Wurundjeri people were forced off many of the new cattle and sheep stations and farms.
Dr Gary Presland pointed out that the grasslands much admired by the Europeans for grazing sheep, soon deteriorated without First Nations people’s fire management. The murrnong (yam daisy) was a staple food but as pastoralists introduced sheep to the district’s natural grasslands, this food source became scarce almost immediately. Within a few years nearly all of Victoria was pastoral runs, and in 1840 Aboriginal people were banned from entering the growing township of Melbourne.
Moonee Valley Places with First Nations links
The Maribyrnong River, Moonee Ponds Creek, Steele Creek, and Five Mile Creek. All waterways are important for Wurundjeri people and supported Ancestors’ ways of life including as hunting grounds, food sources, travel routes, and living places. Silcrete was used by First Nations people to make flaked stone tools. Archaeological cultural heritage material, such as these stone tools and flakes from their refinement, hearths, and shell middens, are found in high volume near waterways. This is physical evidence of Aboriginal occupation. The historical record shows that Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people continued to live in the Moonee Valley district throughout colonial occupation.
Maribyrnong River
Aboriginal artefacts have been recorded on the banks of the Maribyrnong River upstream of Footscray, and on the creek banks within the metropolitan area. However, most of their camping sites have long been destroyed by European settlement. Solomon’s Ford – a working fish trap and an important crossing point is located near Canning Street in Avondale Heights.
Moonee Ponds Creek
Artefacts and sites have been discovered along the creek.
Steele Creek
Quarry sites providing important tool making stone and artefacts.
Lily Reserve
A silcrete quarry is located below the junction of the Maribyrnong River and Steele Creek in Essendon West.
Five Mile Creek
The creek extended from west of Bulla Road through Woodlands Park and Salmon Reserve. Today’s Five Mile Creek Reserve is a registered site of Aboriginal significance.
Windy Hill
The last recorded corroboree in the Moonee Valley district was held in 1865. Windy Hill was a camp site for short periods. George Gregor Bishop recorded corroborees in the vicinity of what is now the Essendon Recreation Reserve.
Buckley Street to the west of Rose Street
Located between the water courses (now Miller Street) and today’s Washington Street in Essendon. Recorded as a site of temporary camps
Ailsa
Located opposite today’s Tram Depot in Ascot Vale. Recorded as a site of temporary camps.
Buckley Park
Mentioned as a site of temporary camps.
Relevant EHS Sources
Dr Gary Presland, archaeologist, historian and writer was the guest speaker at the 2024 Annual Dinner. EHS has two of Gary’s books in our Collection:
- “First people: the Eastern Kulin of Melbourne, Port Phillip and Central Victoria”.
- “The place for a village: how nature has shaped the city of Melbourne”.
We also have:
- “Essendon from a Village to a City” George Gregor Bishop handwritten manuscript 15 January 1908.
EHS has a copy of part of Bishop’s manuscript and parts were also replicated in McJunkin’s “History of Essendon”.
- “The History of Essendon” James McJunkin, 1928 unpublished.
McJunkin was very interested in the local history of the district and during the years of his editorship of the “Essendon Gazette” had encouraged Essendon’s old timers to submit their memories for publication. He used the material that he had received and his own knowledge of the area to put together a manuscript recording Essendon’s history up to 1928. In 1938 he gave his hand written manuscript to Mr. Henry W. Byrne, the Head Teacher of Essendon High School, to provide material for the school’s “Silver Jubilee” Magazine which was published later that year. Byrne undertook the task of typing McJunkin’s manuscript and having it bound. Copies of this are in the possession of the Sam Merrifield Library and EHS. The original work is in that Library.
Note that many mentions of the Wurundjeri people in Moonee Valley in books, websites, signage and talks originate from Bishop and McJunkin. These references may be accurate but were written well after the Wurundjeri ceased camping in the district.
