Indigenous history of Moreland

The Woi wurrung people occupied 12,000 square kilometres in Victoria and it is estimated there were about 1700 of them in the years before white settlement divided into four clans (land-owning groups).

The Woi wurung people

For most of the year, the Woi wurrung lived in groups of between twenty and fifty people. They assembled as a clan or larger group only a few times a year to have celebrations or conduct business. Food resources did not allow large gatherings too often or for too long. During the rest of the year the groups moved around their own territory looking for food. In summer they went to the coast and river flats. In winter, they sheltered in the hills from the wind and rain.

Heads of families carefully planned group moves according to the season. Each day was a food quest: hunting kangaroos, emus and possums, catching fish and eels and gathering edible plants. On good days when there was plenty of food, groups spent about four hours collecting and preparing food. The rest of the day was spent talking, sleeping and story telling. Aborigines were not farmers – they had no need to be. There was plenty of food to be hunted or gathered.

The Woi wurrung had a religious relationship to their land, participating in corroborees and sacred ceremonies on Merri Creek. They played games too – wrestling, throwing boomerangs and playing 'Mamgrook'. Two sides played this ball game. A round ball made of rolled possum skin tied up with kangaroo sinew was kicked high in the air.

Meeting places for the Woi wurrung

Merri Creek was a meeting place for the Woi wurrung  and three other cultural language groups. There was enough food for up to a thousand people for several weeks. The meetings were for social contact, ceremonies, marriage, deciding issues in tribal law and trading axe heads, reed spears and possum skin cloaks.

Settlement and the Woi wurrung

The settlement of the area around Melbourne in the 1830s was a disaster for the Woi wurrung . The Aborigines died from western diseases – small pox, fever, ulcers, syphilis and dysentery. The growth of the white population and building of houses and towns meant that bird and animal life moved north because the land was taken over by sheep and cattle. Sheep ate the plants and trampled food and water resources. Lack of food, accidents, alcohol and violent incidents with white people killed many. Fewer babies were born because Woi wurrung  were so fearful – their country was theirs no longer.

William Thomas was appointed Protector of Aborigines for Melbourne and Western Port in 1839. His job was to protect, help and support Aborigines. Thomas provided the first detailed census of the Woi wurrung  in November 1839. The total number in 1839 was 209. By 1853 there were no children and only 55 adults, and in 1858 only 33 remained.

In 1859 Thomas accompanied seven Aboriginal men to a meeting with the Minister for lands. They wanted land near the Goulburn River to settle and grow crops. The government agreed to this but was slow to act so the Aborigines settled themselves at Coranderrk near Healesville.

The present day

In the 1996 census, 538 people living in Moreland reported they were of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin, although it is not known with which customary group they associate themselves. Coburg has 213 indigenous residents, followed by North Moreland with 177 and Brunswick with 148.

Revised by Richard Broome 2001.

For more detail on the indigenous history of Moreland, read the Moreland Pre-Contact Aboriginal Heritage Study (PDF 7Mb), which includes historical information on the Woi wurrung. It also lists and describes archeaological surveys carried out in and around Moreland and looks at the effect of urban development on Moreland's Aboriginal archaeological sites.

Files

• Moreland Pre-Contact Aboriginal Heritage Study (PDF 7Mb)
• Moreland Pre-Contact Aboriginal Heritage Study (DOC 16Mb)