Wurundjeri people
Nation | Active
1 CE to 2215 CE
The Wurundjeri are a people of the Indigenous Australian nation of the Wurundjeri language group, in the Kulin alliance.
They historically occupied the Birrarung (Yarra River) Valley, its tributaries and the present location of Melbourne.
Before European settlement, they live as all people of the Kulin nation live, on the land, predominantly as hunters and gatherers, for tens of thousands of years.
Seasonal changes in the weather, availability of foods and other factors determine where campsites are located, many near the Birrarung and its tributaries.
Wurundjeri people speak the Woiwurrung language.
Wurundjeri refers to the people who occupy one tribal territory, while Woiwurrung refers to the language group shared by the other tribal territory groups and clans within the Woiwurrung territory.
Some tribes in this territory are Gunung Willam Balluk, Kurung Jang Balluk, Marin Balluk and others.
The Woiwurrung people's territory extendsfrom north of the Great Dividing Range, east to Mount Baw Baw, south to Mordialloc Creek and west to Werribee River.
Their lands border the Gunai/Kurnai people to the east in Gippsland, the Bunurong people to the south on the Mornington Peninsula, and the Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurong to the north.
Wurundjeri people take their name from the word wurun meaning Manna Gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) which is common along Birrarung, and djeri, a grub found in the tree.
The Wurundjeri Tribe Land and Compensation Cultural Heritage Council is established in 1985 by descendants of the Wurundjeri people.
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It will be thirty years before another settlement is attempted.
Before the arrival of European settlers, humans had occupied the area for an estimated thirty-one thousand to forty thousand years.
At the time of European settlement, it is inhabited by under two thousand hunter-gatherers from three indigenous regional tribes: the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong.
The area is an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and a vital source of food and water.
The area that is now central and northern Melbourne is explored in May and June 1835 by John Batman, a leading member of the Port Phillip Association in Van Diemen's Land (now known as Tasmania), who claims to have negotiated a purchase of six hundred thousand acres (2twenty-four hundred square kilometers) with eight Wurundjeri elders.
Batman selects a site on the northern bank of the Yarra River, declaring that "this will be the place for a village".
Batman then returns to Launceston in Tasmania.
In early August 1835 a different group of settlers, including John Pascoe Fawkner, leaves Launceston on the ship Enterprize.
Fawkner is forced to disembark at Georgetown, Tasmania, because of outstanding debts.
The remainder of the party continues and arrives at the mouth of the Yarra River on August 15, 1835.
On August 30, 1835, the party disembarks and established a settlement at the site of the current Melbourne Immigration Museum.
Batman and his group arrive on September 2, 1835, and the two groups ultimately agree to share the settlement.
Initially the settlement has the native name Dootigala.
Batman's Treaty with the Aborigines is annulled by the New South Wales governor (who at this time governed all of eastern mainland Australia), with compensation paid to members of the association.
General Sir Richard Bourke, an Irish-born British Army officer who has served as Governor of New South Wales from 1831, declares the city today known as Melbourne the administrative capital of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales, and will commission the first plan for the Hoddle Grid, named after its designer, in 1837.
Later in 1836 the settlement is named Melbourne after the British Prime Minister William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, who resides in the village of Melbourne in Derbyshire. (Melbourne is today the second most populous city in Australia and the capital of Victoria.)
English colonist, farmer, and businessman John Batman, a leading member of the Port Phillip Association, had been one of the first settlers of the Melbourne area, having in May and June 1835 explored the area that is now central and northern Melbourne.
Batman, after negotiated a transaction for six hundred thousand acres (twenty-four hundred square kilometers) of land from eight Wurundjeri chiefs, had selected a site on the northern bank of the Yarra River, declaring that "this will be the place for a village", and returned to Launceston in Van Diemen's Land.
However, by the time a settlement party from the Association arrived to establish the new village, a separate group led by John Pascoe Fawkner had already arrived aboard the Enterprize and established a settlement at the same location, on August 30, 1835.
The two groups ultimately agreed to share the settlement.
Batman's Treaty with the Aborigines is annulled by the New South Wales government (then governing all of eastern mainland Australia), which compensated the Association.
Although this meant the settlers were now trespassing on Crown land, the government had reluctantly accepted the settlers' fait accompli and allowed the town (known at first by various names, including 'Bearbrass') to remain.