Indigenous Cultural Heritage and History within the Metropolitan ...

Indigenous Cultural Heritage and History within the Metropolitan Melbourne Investigation Area
time Thomas had moved to a house in Moonee Ponds and the Merri Creek Protectorate ‘station’ closed (Clark &
Heydon, 2004:58).
The whole area of the confluence of the Yarra River and Merri Creek is of particular importance to Aboriginal
people and at least two Wurundjeri elders are known to have been interred nearby. Billibellary, ngurungaeta
(head man) of the Wurundjeri willam, who died on the 10th of August 1846, was buried at the confluence. The
site of Billibellary’s burial is unmarked, although originally a picket fence was placed around the grave. This fence
was later swept away by flood waters and the exact location of the site is now unknown (Ellender &
Christiansen, 2001:107). Thomas’ papers record the burial of Billibellary and another ngurungaeta, Bebejan, in
the area. Clearly, the ‘choice of the confluence as the appropriate burial place of important leaders and warriors
highlighted the traditional relevance of the locality’ (Ellender & Christiansen, 2001:116). The establishment of
the Aboriginal school and Native Police station at the site also indicates the popularity of the confluence as a
camping and gathering place for Aboriginal people, and also contributes to the great significance of this place to
contemporary Wurundjeri people.
2.5 Contemporary values and attachment to 'Place'
While there has been no regional oral history program or concerted contemporary ethnographic research to
provide consistent primary data, there is no doubt that Aboriginal people living in the study area continue to
hold numerous cultural values and deep attachment for a great many sites and places within the study area. The
following comment from the Wurundjeri Tribe Land and Compensation Council embodies these concepts.
For Aboriginal people, there are many different kinds of cultural values associated with the
landscapes that were once lived in by their ancestors. These include the tangible values normally
recorded during archaeological investigations, such as artefact scatters and scarred trees. These
places are physical reminders of the cultural lives of the Wurundjeri ancestors and a special
connection therefore exists between those places and contemporary Wurundjeri people. This special
connection underpins the high significance of these places. Once they are destroyed, the connection
is largely destroyed.
There are other values that the Wurundjeri people connect to in landscapes Natural values,
including waterways and remnant vegetation, are all integral to the cultural landscape in which
Wurundjeri ancestors hunted and gathered and in which they lived their lives for many thousands of
years. These landscape characteristics are therefore significant in accordance with Aboriginal
tradition.
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