CAMARAGAL & WALLUMEDEGAL PEOPLE
Aborigines ishing along the Turrumburra
The lower North Shore area, including today’s Willoughby area, was the home of the Camaragal and Wallumbedegal clans. The Gamaragal were distinguished by their numbers, the robust and muscular physique of the people and its authority over surrounding groups. David Collins recorded, “had the exclusive and extraordinary privilege of extracting a tooth from the natives of other tribes inhabiting the sea-coast”.1 The GAmaragal mainly inhabited the Country along the ridge where the railway now runs.
Wallumedegal Country was along the shores of the Turrumburra (the Lane Cove River). Some of the best fishing spots in Sydney Harbour.
The arrival of Europeans was to have a devastating impact on the Aboriginal population of the Sydney area. Sooon after Europeab settlement the Wallumedegal Clan moved further up the Lane Cove River into what is today the Ryde area. By 1789, half of the population had been wiped out by smallpox and there were no First Australians communities in the Willoughby area following a traditional life style by 1830. Evidence of early family life in Willoughby comprises numerous middens, artwork in caves and photographs of rock carvings in the Northbridge area.
Today few if any Aboriginal people living on the North Shore can trace their ancestry back to the Camaragal or Wallumedegal Clans, although there are many Aboriginal people residing in the area who maintain close spiritual and cultural links in contemporary ways. The Aboriginal Heritage Office (AHO) in Northbridge was opened on 2006 as a joint initiative of the Lane Cove, North Sydney, Manly, Willoughby, Ku-ring-gai, Pittwater and Ryde Councils. The AHO has been active in recording the Aboriginal sites of the North Shore and documenting the history of the people. It hosts the Aboriginal Heritage Museum and Keeping Place which provides displays of indigenous history from pre-colonial times to the present day. The WDHS has a close association with the AHO, which provided artefacts and displays for our Tales of Flat Rock Creek exhibition.
FURTHER READING:
Aboriginal Heritage Office website: http://www.aboriginalheritage.org
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