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Jumbulla

Kembla's shared Dharawal History

And that high place, Jumbullah,

that high, hunting place,

running with wallaby, fat possum,

quick, head back turkey.

 

That talking place, Jumbullah,

reedsong, honey song,

peewit and stone gecko,

tree frog and bright currawong...

Conal Fitzpatrick in KEMBLA THE BOOK OF VOICES 2002

Mt Kembla Public School Dharawal Art

YULUNGA (Welcome)

Mt Kembla and Mt Keira, pictured above in this 2016 Kevin Butler mural at Mt Kembla Public School, are important landmarks within the Illawarra landscape. The Illawarra is a coastal region within Dharawal country (sometimes spelt Tharawal), this country lies south and southwest of Sydney NSW, extending from the southern shores of Botany Bay (Kamay) to the northern bank of the Shoalhaven River and from the east coast, westward toward the eastern shores of the Wollondilly river system. The Illawarra or (Allowrie) region is bounded by a semi circular mountain range with a rich coastal plain, several lagoons, the most prominent of which is now known as Lake Illawarra, and the five islands just off the coast. Each family group or clan within Dharawal country identifies as: salt water people from the coastal areas; fresh water people of the local rivers; or bitter water people of the swamps and lagoons.  Dharawal people have lived in the Illawarra for thousands of years and continue to do so, the Dreaming or "Alcheringa" explains the creation of the landscape, the plants and animals and the arrival of people to the area. These stories have been handed down for generations, and some of these were written by colonial visitors. The Alcheringa and songs contain the lessons of Dharawal society, how to behave in relation to each other and the environment. The people watch for signs from the plants, animals, land and sky observing six seasons (Bodkin, Bodkin Andrews: n.d.) and move throughout Dharawal country depending on these signs for harvesting seasonal foods, trading with neighbouring groups and gathering for ceremony. 

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Kembla is believed to be derived from the word "Jum-bulla" or "Djenbella" which is how colonial Europeans recorded the name local people used to refer to the mountain. It is thought to mean a place of good hunting where the wallaby or "Djembla" can be hunted. Mt Keira is believed to come from the Dharawal word Djeera meaning wild turkey. Mt Kembla is the Dharawal men's mountain, a place of good hunting and initiation. "The face, hair and beard of an old Aboriginal man can be seen on Mount Kembla(Rita Timbery-Bennett 2004:46). Mt Keria is known as the women's mountain, a teaching place. In Alcheringa Mt Kembla (Djenbella) and Mt Keira (Djeera) are sisters. Aboriginal artist Julie Freeman captures the sisters and the landscape in her superb woodblock print "Ghera and Kembla' 2009 in the collections of the Art Gallery of NSW. 

 

Another story associated with the mountain is that a Doolagah (or bigfoot) family live in the mountain. The Doolagah could be a menace to the people and would warn them telepathically that they were in the wrong area (Illawarra Mercury 14.3.2009 Jodie Duffy).

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Captain Cook described Mt Kembla as looking like the crown of a hat and so it was known by early Europeans as Hat Hill. Since they first observed the area from the sea, they referred to the Illawarra as The Five Islands and subsequently the Dharawal people that lived here as the Five Islands Tribe. The first contact in 1770 between Europeans on the Endevour and the Dharawal people of Botany Bay was unwelcome. The Aboriginal people made their intentions clear, their first recorded words were “Wirra, Wirra, wai” [Go away!]". There can be no mistake that they were misunderstood as Captain Cook recorded "all they seem'd to want was us to be gone" (Organ 2014). The English came back though in 1788, this time with boats full of convicts dismissing Aboriginal people as wildlife and affording no respect in terms of treaty or permission to settle on country. The invaders simply took and occupied. Any resistance on the part of the the traditional owners was met with swift, cruel and indiscriminate punishment (Organ 2014). This time in Australia's history has come to be known as the Australian Frontier Wars (Connor 2002).

 

Escaped convicts and explorers soon made their way from Sydney to the Illawarra following ancient Aboriginal tracks. Timber getters in search of valuable Red Cedar arrived circa 1810, and Charles Throsby looking for feed for his cattle was led to the Illawarra by Aboriginal guides. These were followed by land hungry men and the Illawarra began to be carved up in lots by the colonial rulers. No thought whatever was given to the original occupants of this land. By the 1830s to 40s Dharawal country at the foothills of Mt Kembla was reached, occupied and converted into farms. One of Mt Kemba's earliest white residents, Robert James (b 1834 in Berkley) who arrived as a nine year old at American Creek circa 1843 recalled a Dharawal camp at Mount Kembla. The ninety year old's recollections were recorded in the local newspaper: "Mr. James remembers well when the blacks were in considerable numbers at Mount Kembla. A camp of about 100 of the race was situated on the banks of American Creek, near the bottom of the present Mount Kembla incline" (Illawarra Mercury 16.5.1924). The area could today be identified as at the bottom of Benjamin Road along Kirkwood Place, Mount Kembla. 

 

In the Cordeaux River area Europeans settled from the 1850s. Another Dharawal camp ground site handed down in early pioneer stories to Cordeaux River resident Jack McNamara (1922 - 2004) was said to have been located at the "sandbanks at the junction of the Goondarin Creek and Cordueax River". This camp now lies beneath the waters of Cordeaux dam. McNamara believed it to have been a stop over camp on the ancient Aboriginal routes connecting the coast through the Cordeaux River valley to the inland Bargo area (McNamara 2007:10). John McNamara lived his whole life in the Cordeaux River Valley and composed beautiful  poetry about his home, in a stanza of one entitled "At the Old Camping Ground" he writes:

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"... Despoiled are the lands, dispersed are the bands,

And new creeds their custom replace,

Yet, though reality fades, still a thousand decades

will never their footprints efface." 

John Leo  McNamara OAM (Post) in LIFE AT CORDEAUX RIVER 2007

To Dharawal people the whale (burri burri) is a sacred totem and features in the Alcheringa along with the starfish (coonagong) and the koala (currillwa). Robert Hamilton Mathews published the story he called "Arrival of the Thurrawal Tribe in Australia" which is known locally as the Gan-man-gang or Billen Billen story about the creation of Windang Island and the arrival of the first people (Folklore of the Australian Aborigines 1899).   W.B. Clarke notes in his 1840 diary that "many of them go so far as to address a whale or other great fish as their Uncle, Father, etc., and call them to come on shore with them" (Organ 2016). Whale Cave at the back of Mt Kembla in the Cordeaux River area is a sacred site with a large depiction of the whale along with 200 other motifs and animals in black, white, yellow and red ochre. The cave with its art gallery became a favourite picnic and camping spot of the early pioneering families. Jack McNamara tells that in the early days this cave was known as "Andrews Cave" as it was near the Andrews family home. Others knew the cave as "the cave with a whale in it" or "the cave of the Big Fish" (McNamara 2002:31). Tragically, Europeans have had a negative impact on this sacred place, firstly by souveniring all the artefacts still present when pioneers first took possession of these lands; then McNamara reports that the installation of a high tension Power Transmission Line over the cave cleared the site and exposed it to the elements in the 1960s; and finally mining subsidence in the late 1970s cracked the shelf allowing water to ingress eroding the ancient pigments.  The cave was fenced off and props added to try to support the roof from collapsing. Today the cave is within the Sydney Water Catchment (SWC) special area, a no go zone with hefty fines for trespass.  As it is a sacred Aboriginal site, apart from permission from SWC, all people must first also seek the permission of Dharawal elders to visit the area. "No human effort could possibly restore this priceless piece of native art to its former grandeur" (McNamara 2007:31).

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At the foothills of Mt Kembla, on the banks of the American Creek stood an ancient fig tree, a lone remnant of the rain forest. This tree gave the present day suburb of Figtree, NSW its name as it was considered a landmark and freak of nature by early visitors to the Illawarra (Illawarra Mercury 16.10.1867). The tree was highly significant to Dharawal people as it was one of several birthing trees used by the women of the Illawarra. The newborn baby would be placed in the folds of the roots, the creek provided clean fresh water to wash the baby and the new mother would sing the welcome song while breast feeding. Queen Emma Timbery (c. 1842-1916) is said to have given birth to some of her children under this tree. "No man would ever go there"  said Rita Timbery-Bennett. The Rev. W. B. Clarke on his visit the Illawarra in January 1840 writes in his diary "The road leaves that over Keira to the right, then descends to country much like the coal district of England - through a woody region to Charcoal Creek, which is bridged by palm trees, passing an enormous fig-tree, at the foot of which old Timbery, a black, was born, and which his people venerate" (Organ 2016). The tree features in many early photos of the 1900s and survived almost to the end of the century. Attempts were made to cut out diseased areas and support the tree with brick and concrete, but it slowly died, the last traces removed in 1996. A cutting was taken from the old tree and replanted in the same area where it is growing today. 

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In the intervening years, the First Nations people of the Illawarra and Australia have faced many more trials and injustices: from the heartbreak caused by the Stolen Generations, to being forcibly moved from place to place and subjected to discriminatory laws, to the vandalism and continued disrespect shown to sacred sites, and witnessing the destruction of their beloved country. Today First Nations people continue to advocate to right the wrongs of the past and present, to be legally acknowledged as Australia's first people and for sovereignty of their country, in short to be considered and part of the conversations at all levels. 

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Reference and suggested reading:

Kembla Jottings Dharawal Album

Aboriginal women's heritage - Wollongong June 2004

BODKIN, Frances and BODKIN ANDREWS, Gawaian,  D'harawal Perpetual Calendar, no date

BODKIN Frances Bitterwater Woman, D'harawal dreaming stories - Stories my mother told me

BOM Indigenous Weather Knowledge - Dharawal Calendar

BURSILL, Les, A Collection of Dharawal Words Phrases, Tree fern and Tree Names, 2014

CONNOR, John, The Australian frontier wars 1788-1838, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2002

DAVIS, Joe Who came down with Dr Charles Throsby 2006

Dendrobium Area 3 Archaeological and Cultural Heritage Assessment 2007

Submission on the strategic review of the impacts of underground mining in the Southern Coalfield 30 July 2007 Department of Environment and Climate Change

DHARAWAL - The story of the Dharawal Speaking People of Southern Sydney

McNAMARA, John Leo, 'Life at Cordeaux River' 2nd Ed. 2007 

MATHEWS, Robert Hamilton, Folklore of the Australian Aborigines, 1899

ORGAN, Michael, Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770-1850  1990

ORGAN, Michael, Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770-1900  1993

ORGAN Michael, The Rev. W.B. Clarek's visit to Wollongong 1839-1840, 2016

ORGAN Michael, Landscape Art of the Illawarra Region of New South Wales 1770-1990, 2006

ORGAN Micahel, Secret Service: Governor Macquarie’s Aboriginal War of 1816, 2014

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser Sat 2 Nov 1816 End to Governor Macquarie's July proclamation against Aboriginals.

The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser Sat 4 Jan 1817 - Cheifs declared at Parramatta by Governor Macquarie

Signs in situ at Morton Bay Figtree Park, NSW

Wollongong City Council Mt Kembla Suburb Profile, 2016

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Dharawal country history in pictures

Page last updated 15.3.2019

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