City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORYAround 200 bird species inhabited Darebin (Kenna, 1988), enjoying the variety of habitatsfrom waterways and swamps, to woodlands and thickets, from ground-dwellers like Emus tospecies that rarely land like the Fork-tailed Swift. Thomas Wills of “Lucerne” compiled a birdlist of 1850-1870 which comprised 72 species (Northcote Historical and Conservation Society,1988:13).Snakes were common including the Common Copperhead, Tiger Snake, Red-bellied BlackSnake, and the Little Whip Snake.The Marbled Gecko lived during the day under rocks and bark, and came out at night to huntinsects. The Striped Legless Lizard burrowed under grasslands hunting insects, and 10 speciesof skink ranging in size from the Blue-tongued Lizard down to the small Garden Skink cameout to warm themselves in the sun and hunt insects or eat berries.Innumerable invertebrates (insects, spiders, etc) lived in the study area. There were around 40species of butterfly alone (Braby & Beardsell, 2006 ).1.5 Woi wurrung creation storiesAt the time of the first European settlement of Australia, the south-central portion of whatwould become Victoria was owned by clans with a common language and other social andeconomic ties who identified themselves as ‘Kulin’. Within the Kulin language area, severaldialects were spoken including Woi wurrung, Boon wurrung, Daung wurrung, Wada wurrungand Djadja wurrung. The Woi wurrung clans occupied an area extending from the Werribeeriver east to Mt Baw Baw and from the Great Dividing Range to the Kooweerup swamp. Ofthe Woi wurrung clans, the Wurundjeri willam was the clan that occupied the Yarra watershed,including the area that is now the City of Darebin (Clark, 1990:364, 379-386).The Kulin traced their ancestry to a creative being known as Bunjil, the Eaglehawk. Bunjil wasa powerful headman of the Kulin who had two wives and a son known as Binbeal. Bunjil wasalso assisted by six young men or wirinuns, all of whom were powerful wizards - Djurt-djurt,the Nankeen Kestrel, Thara the Quail Hawk; Yukope, the Green Parakeet, Dantum, the BlueMountain Parrot; Tadjeri, the Brush-tail Possum, and Turnung the Glider Possum. These menlooked after the people for Bunjil and carried out his orders (Massola, 1968:40; Reed,1982:51).Bunjil made the mountains and rivers, man and all the animals, and passed on to men theknowledge of how to make weapons and how to behave amongst one another. Bunjil createdman by breathing life into two figures he made from clay gathered from a riverbed. At the sametime Bunjil’s brother Pallian created two women from water (Thomas, in Bride, 1898:86-87;Reed, 1982: 52; Ellender & Christiansen, 2001: 33). After creating men and women, Bunjilassigned to them their totems of either the Eaglehawk (Bunjil) or the Crow (Waa) and orderedthat men and women of each totem could only marry a member of the other totem.After completing his creation work Bunjil ordered Bellin-bellin the crow to release the windswhich he had given him to keep safe, so that the trees could move, the clouds could be carriedand the birds could grow strong. Bellin-bellin released the cold south wind and Bunjil and hisfamily were blown out of the world and into their home in the sky where they look down onthe world as stars. (Massol 1968: 40; Ree 1982: 55; Ellender & Christiansen 2001: 105). Somestories tell that Bunjil chose to live close to the Yarra River as it was a region he had muchaffection for (Ree 1982: 56-57).The area that is now the Darebin municipality is not mentioned in any creation stories thathave been published. However, one Woi wurrung story recounts the creation of the Yarra andPort Phillip Bay and also refers to the area between Darebin and Merri Creeks – noting thehard ground in this area; probably a specific reference to the basalt found through the region.According to this story, as told by Billebellary, a headman of the Wurundjeri willam, thewaters of the Yarra were once locked in the mountains and were referred to as ‘Moorool’ orgreat water. Morool was so large that the Woi wurrung had limited hunting grounds, unlike15