The City of Melbourne respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land we govern, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin and pays respect to their Elders past and present. We acknowledge and honour the unbroken spiritual, cultural and political connection they have maintained to this unique place for more than 2000 generations.
We accept the invitation in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and are committed to walking together to build a better future.
Today we are proud to say that Melbourne (narrm) is a significant gathering place for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Mapping Aboriginal Melbourne
How well do you know our city?
Learn about places of Aboriginal historical and cultural significance within the City of Melbourne using this interactive digital map, created with Traditional Owners, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung peoples and the City of Melbourne.
View the map below and explore by theme and timeline. Follow links to find further information.
Please note the map contains images and names of people who have since passed.
Welcome to Country [sound of two sticks banging together]
(The City of Melbourne is located on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong Boon Wurrung peoples. The City of Melbourne has been working with both Traditional Owners groups to develop an interactive map of cultural significance within the municipality.
In this film Elders Uncle David Wandin (Wurundjeri) and Aunty Dyan Summers (Bunurong) discuss the city and the mapping project, and what it means to them.)
[Music where map of Melbourne changes over time, backwards from 2022 to 1837]
Speaker: Uncle Dave Wadin: It's the spiritual connection that draws us back to the Yarra itself and of course the lands around it.
Speaker: Aunty Dyan Summers (Bunurong) Country isn't just land. Country is everything. (text on screen Uncle Mik Edwards, Bunurong Elder)
Speaker: Uncle Dave Wadin: There is still life in the Aboriginal culture and us as a people are wanting to practice that culture and share that with the rest of the people that share this land with us.
My name's Dave Wandin and I'm an Elder of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Tribal Land Council.
I'm actually known as Uncle Dave to friends and family and I'm here in my father's country on my father's traditional country here beside the Yarra River.
Wominjeka Wurundjeri Biak - welcome to Wurundjeri country
[Music and illustration of map of Melbourne. Text on screen is ‘Part of Wurundjeri Country including the City of Melbourne]
The history of Melbourne and it's Wurundjeri or Aboriginal people, well of course I would think that everybody would know that we have been here much longer than Melbourne was called Melbourne.
We know this place is Naarm. Through the middle of here we have the Yarra River this iconic river for Australia actually but we know it through strong oral connections about our responsibility to care for the Yarra itself and its lands which of course work together.
'Yarra' means always flowing and 'birrarung' means the river of mists and you can see that at different times of the day. Early in the morning you see the mist coming off the water but this is always folks from the time it started from its birth it's never dried out and yet it comes from a spring high up in the mountains and it's amazing that it's still you know this this iconic ecological for me from a cultural land management perspective this ecological river that is being put under so much pressure and yet it is trying to survive.
And just over here we have the William Barrack bridge. (text on screen ‘William Barak Bridge and Speakers Corner Wurundjeri Country) He's just an iconic mentor even though he passed away in 1904 he's still a mentor to us people today. Speaker's Corner was designed at the time of colonisation but I also know that William Cooper and many others also gathered there to gather Aboriginal people around that were calling Melbourne home you know to unite, and that was the beginning of the Aboriginal Advancement League.
When I first came and visited it with the opening of this bridge and I stood there on those rocks, on those platforms and I felt the words of William Barack and William Cooper and many others as well.
Flagstaff Gardens (Wurundjeri Country) was used to signal the ships (text on screen Flagstaff Gardens c 1858-1860 with illustration of old Melbourne then illustration which says ‘View from Flagstaff Hill, West Melbourne in 1841)) to tell them that they had got to wait there because there's not room in the port. (Illustration of hill with building with white cross and small fires). All the things that go ports do these days and they've done for centuries in northern Europe. But it was also an observation point for us when you turn away from the bay it actually looks out to very prominent places over the broader Wurundjeri Country and we also pass signals using these points of observation.
The blue lake was actually a huge – (text on screen Blue Lake 1875 Wurundjeri Country) what they call an ephemeral wetland - we call it today most people think of it as a swamp which was drained as part of the building up of Melbourne. But for us that was a hospital you know it was a chemist it was a it was a Woolworths it was a Coles, it was a school room, it was where people trained to learn to cook to learn to hunt to fish to practice boomerang throwing and spearing, to learn how to make the medicines (text on screen ‘The Blue Lake 1847 with illustration of countryside with people in the foreground) It was a really, really important place to it was a place that could be occupied all year round.
Speaker: Aunty Dyan Summers. My name's Dyan Summers. I live on Flinders Island it's ancient Bunurong country. I live on the highest point that once was the land bridge that connected Flinders Island and north-eastern Tasmania and south-eastern Victoria. I share my time between my ancient Bunurong country and my Bunurong country here in Victoria. Wominjeka watayulyul wonthalong Bunurong Bik Bik - that means 'hello welcome to the beautiful land of the Bunurong people'. (text on screen Part of Bunurong Country including the City of Melbourne)
My main ancestor is Nandergoroke known as Elizabeth Maynard to her family lovingly known as Granny Betty. Granny Betty was kidnapped 4th of January 1834 from Point Nepean along with two other women. She was heavily pregnant with her first child she was the wife of Derrimut the great chief of Bunurong people. The city to me is quite a cultural place (text on screen ‘Ceremony, where South Melbourne Town Hall now stands 1840).
There was lots of corroborees from all around, big mobs all came together places like Fawkner Park (Bunurong Country) and other places around the city were where we had lots and lots of gatherings. I can imagine hundreds and hundreds of people gathering here, you know little fires going around everywhere (text on screen Merry Creek (Plenty Ranges 1864), little camps set up under trees and just lots of gathering lots of reconnecting with family groups (text on screen Uncle Mik Edwards, Bunurong Elder) and it's quite you know not that far from the MCG so after corroboree time I believe this is one of the places they would have come to until it was time to move south again and they would have travelled with the seasons. [Music]
I tried to imagine what it would have been like for grandfather Derrimut when he was here in the city. I say to my children don't just look at the buildings, look at the country, feel the country and try to imagine what it would have been like then [Music]
Fisherman's Bend, that would be a place of importance, it still is, but back in the day (text on screen ‘Spearing fish and swans from canoes c 1891) the importance of that would have been fishing around that area there would have been an abundance of food there would have also been reeds growing in the water that the women would have taken to weave their baskets and do their twining (text on screen ‘Women getting tambourn roots – c 1883).
The men also would have taken reeds for their twining to make their canoes for whatever they needed string or rope for. (text on screen ‘Triangular river reed woven in basket in progress Aunty Dyan Summers). But the women would certainly have made these beautiful little small little baskets, that I make [Music]
Westgate Park it's not far from Fisherman's Bend. When I was there, the beautiful reeds that were growing I could see Westgate Park being a place that I will visit now I know those reeds are growing back again so I'll certainly be going there and doing a little bit of gathering in the future. But it's a beautiful place just for people to go to and sit down have lunch and just reflect on the country you know that's Bunurong country - just reflect. (text on screen ‘The Shrine of Remembrance Bunurong Country). The Domain and the Shrine was a gathering place for my people but also it represents my mother's brothers and my grandmother's brothers who were killed in the first and second world wars who went to war as Australians and came back as Aboriginal people
Was very heart-breaking but very, very respectful. I respect it because they gave their lives for this country and for the betterment of this country.
If people could take one thing out of the Digital Map Project what would it be? I would like them to know that the Bunurong people are still here, we're still here we're a large community we're strong proud and we're not going anywhere
[Music]
Speaker: Uncle Dave Wadin: This digital mapping for us I think it's a great way for to help us pass knowledge onto our children but it's also a great way to raise awareness for other non-indigenous people who may not ever have the chance to actually come in contact with me or you know my mob to understand the history from an Aboriginal's perspective, and the more that they become aware they'll actually spread the message and they'll pass that on to their children, those children will be growing up with our children and you start to have this this mutual understanding.
Speaker: Aunty Dyan Summers. The Bunurong story hasn't been told yet it's just in the process of being told so that's exciting for me to get our story out there and the mapping project has done that.
Speaker: Uncle Dave Wadin: There are still other people of my generation that are more traumatised than I have been about the you know the loss of their culture the loss of their knowledge and indeed the loss of their families to the pressures of trying to live, or having a foot in both worlds in the black world in the white world. There are still a lot of people that struggle with that and this recognition through projects like this mapping project goes a long way towards healing and once you start healing the people that you're reconciling with you can really start to begin to build that truth, justice and respect that we're not ashamed Australians as a whole.
Speaker: Aunty Dyan Summers I believe that the process of reconciliation is something that should happen every day. I think by telling the truth telling through the mapping project once we start talking about things with other people we begin to heal.
When we tell our story people understand it because we say it in a way I think that's non-confronting and it's about telling the truth it's straight from the heart.
[timeframe moves from 1837 forward to 2022]
Text on screen
‘Sincere thank to Uncle David Wandin, Aunty Dyan Summers and Uncle Mik Edwards for their participation in this film. Thank you to Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation and Bunurong Land Council for their invaluable support throughout the Mapping Aboriginal Melbourne project. This is a City of Melbourne and Spilt Milk Production. Clapsticks Shane Charles.
Image credits
Part of the Wurundjeri Country including the City of Melbourne (2022) City of Melbourne
View of the city of Melbourne from the Observatory (c, 1858-1860) George Rowe. State Library of Victoria H8364
Separation celebrations of Flagstaff Hill (1875) W.F.E. Liardet, State Library of Victoria H28250/37
View from the top of the Scots Church steeple, Collins Street (1875) Photographic studio of Paterson Bros. State Library of Victoria H96.160/2713
From Dryburgh St, Melbourne, Victoria as it was in 1855 (1856) Christopher West, State Library of Victoria H15883
View taken from the spot – Bateman’s i.e Batman’s Hill. Looking towards Mount Macedon – 1847
Where the agreement was made with the Natives by Bateman i.e. Batman (1847
George Alexander Gilbert State Library of Victoria H28250/14)
Second screen of image credits
Part of Bunurong Country including the City of Melbourne (2022) City of Melbourne
A Corroboree on Emerald Hill in 1840 WFE Liardet. State Library of Victoria H28250/31
Merry Creek (Plenty Ranges) (1864) Charles Troedel. State Library of Victoria H15473
Spearing fish and swans from canoes (c1891) Tommy McRae National Gallery of Victoria 2001.838
Native Women Getting Tambourn Roots (c. 1883) John Helder Wedge.
From William Westgarth’s ‘Port Philip Settlement’ (1883).
Federation University Australia Historical Collection
(Geoffrey Blainey Research Centre) Catalogue number 19120
Triangular River Reed Women Basket Aunty Dyan Summers
Triangular River Reed Women Basket in Progress Aunty Dyan Summers
[sound of two sticks banging together]
Explore
The City of Melbourne’s Aboriginal Melbourne team:
- monitors and reports on the City of Melbourne’s Reconciliation Action Plan and ensures it is recognised and supported through the organisation’s strategies and actions
- advises the City of Melbourne on Aboriginal interests and culture
- is the contact point for the Aboriginal community in the organisation raising awareness and promoting Melbourne's Aboriginal heritage, culture and achievements through funded events and initiatives.
The City of Melbourne is moving forward on its reconciliation journey with First Nations people, by endorsing the Declaration of Recognition and Commitment.
Lord Mayor Sally Capp and former CEO Justin Hanney proudly signed the declaration, which can be found below.
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