Learn about local Aboriginal culture and heritage

The way Aboriginal People lived before colonisation is very different to the way they lived after colonisation.

Aboriginal groups chose campsites close to rivers and creeks, traditionally used as travelling routes and sources of food.

Canoes were made from bark, carefully removed from trees with a tomahawk and pole. Bark was also used to build shields, containers and temporary shelters. A number of trees in the area still bear marks from bark removal by Aboriginal People.

Fish and eels were a large component of the Aboriginal diet, caught with spears and sophisticated traps made from woven plant fibres and stones. Other commonly hunted animals include kangaroos, possums, bandicoots, wombats, koalas and birds.

The tuber of the yam daisy was a staple for Aboriginal People. This plant was found in abundance on grassy plains and the banks of creeks and rivers.

Aboriginal landowners would have regularly burnt the surrounding grasslands. This increased availability of food and maintained the open nature of the countryside.

Ceremonies were an important part of Aboriginal life, the most common being the Corroboree. Ceremonial sites in the region include a series of earth rings at Sunbury: shallow, circular hollows set into the hillside.

With the onset of European settlement in the 1830s, the clans caring for the land in this area quickly disintegrated.

While the pre-contact population of the Kurung-Jang-Balluk and Marin-Balluk clans is unknown, estimates by Europeans indicate that the population of Aboriginal People in the region declined by 50 per cent in the first four years of European settlement, 1835 - 39.

This decline was largely due to:

• Aboriginal People’s alienation from traditional hunting grounds
• The degradation of the area’s natural resources
• Diseases such as small pox, measles and influenza brought in by Europeans
• Violent conflict with the region’s new settlers - Europeans.

As a result of this dramatic decline in the area’s Indigenous population, few Aboriginal accounts of the region’s past exist.

Also, little is known about the specific history of the clans who occupied the area before European settlement.

Therefore, most information about Brimbank’s Indigenous landowners is derived from the accounts of the Europeans who first settled in the area.

The SBS TV documentary series First Australians tells the "history of Australia from an Indigenous peoples' perspective."

Episode 3 entitled Freedom For Our Lifetime explores how Aboriginal reserves were created but not welcomed and with the threat of extinction hovering over the First Australians of Victoria, Wurundjeri clan leader Simon Wonga claimed land on the banks of the Yarra River to farm.

A total of 440 registered Aboriginal archaeological sites exist within this area with the oldest artefacts found to be over 30,000 years old.

Discovered artefacts include:

• bone remnants
• ochre
• charcoal and
• hearth stones.

A small number of formal tools were also found, including blades and scrapers. Skeletal remains over 6,500 years old from a gravesite were found in Green Gully.

In addition to numerous stone and bone artefacts, scarred trees and silcrete quarry sites have been found along the Maribyrnong River, Steele Creek and Taylors Creek.

The large number of artefacts and significant sites found within this municipality highlights the area’s long and extensive occupation by Aboriginal People before Europeans arrived.

A number of Aboriginal archaeological places are located in Brimbank Park. The park’s Information Centre includes an Aboriginal cultural display. It also provides maps of walking trails to help you discover the park's natural and cultural heritage.

Stolen Generations testimonies

Bringing them home - Australian Human Rights Commission

Creative Spirits listing of Stolen Generations resources

Healing Foundation

Closing the Gap - Australian Human Rights Commission on Indigenous health

Lowitja Institute - Researching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community health