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The Boon Wurrung (or Bunurong) peoples of the Kulin nation lived along the Eastern coast of Port Philip Bay for over 20,000 years before white settlement. [2] Their mythology preserves the history of the flooding of Port Phillip Bay 10,000 years ago, [3] and its period of drying and retreat 2,800–1,000 years ago (see: Prehistory of Australia). [4]
Boonwurrung is one of the Kulin languages, and belongs to the Pama-Nyungan language family. [4] The ethnonym occasionally used in early writings to refer to the Bunwurrung, namely Bunwurru, is derived from the word bu:n, meaning "no" and wur:u, signifying either "lip" or "speech". [5]
When camped in Mulgrave, the Bunurong lived off emus and kangaroos which were abundant in the area. Their hunting grounds extended up to the Yarra River to the north-west, the Dandenong Ranges to the east and the hills down to Western Port and Port Phillip to the south and south-west. The most famous Bunurong was the elder Derrimut, to whom the ...
[citation needed] Derrimut's gravestone in Melbourne General Cemetery. Derrimut (also spelt Derremart or Terrimoot) (c. 1810 – 20 April 1864), was a headman or arweet of the Boonwurrung (Bunurong) people from the Melbourne area of Australia. [1] Derrimut was born around 1810, before European settlement of the colony of Victoria. [2]
Oral history and creation stories from the Wathaurong, Woiwurrung and Boon wurrung languages describe the flooding of the bay. Hobsons Bay was once a kangaroo hunting ground. Creation stories describe how Bunjil was responsible for the formation of the bay, [8] or the bay was flooded when the Yarra river was created (Yarra Creation Story [9]).
The two Registered Aboriginal Parties representing the two groups were the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation. However, these borders are still in dispute among several prominent figures and Wurundjeri territory has been claimed to spread much further west and south.
Boonwurrung is closely related to Woiwurrung, with which it shares 93% of its vocabulary, and to a lesser degree with Taungurung spoken north of the Great Dividing Range in the area of the Goulburn River, with which it shares 80%. [6]
Evidence of Australian Aboriginal settlement of the area dates back 40,000 years. Bunurong women often bore their children at the point. [3] Their name for the point was Boona-djalang, which means 'kangaroo-hide', descriptive of the angular shape of the point akin to a stretched hide. [4]