Yellagonga Boodja

Category: 
Tags: , ,
Share

The Perth Metropolitan area is Whadjuk Nyoongar country. This land was created by the Waugal, or rainbow serpent, who shaped the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River), the rich swamps and wetlands of the coastal plain and the ranges to the east. 

  • Alan Muller, Derbarl Yerrigan I (detail), 2011-12 acrylic on canvas. Depicting the Swan River, foreshore and surrounding area of greater Perth under the night sky Derbarl Yerrigan I maps the river’s path through Whadjuk Nyoongar land to the ocean. The small fires and drifting smoke depict campsites of the Whadjuk Nyoongar people for whom the river and wetlands have been a spiritual and physical resource for thousands of years. Image courtesy of the City of Perth Cultural Collections.
  • Swan River (Bivouac of Captain Stirling, View of the Swan River 50 Miles Up) c1828. W.J. Huggins. An idyllic view of Derbarl Yerrigan through the eyes of Captain Stirling’s exploration party. Image courtesy of the City of Perth Cultural Collections & Robert Frith/Acorn.

    • Whadjuk Nyoongar people nurtured this land for many thousands of years, sharing knowledge about caring for country from generation to generation. They travelled through this landscape, hunting, gathering plant foods, and fishing. 

    In 1829, the area that became the City of Perth, or Boorloo, was in the boodja of Yellagonga, a Whadjuk Nyoongar leader, and his family. Yellagonga’s boodjar took in the land north of Derbarl Yerrigan, from the sea to Ellen Brook and north to Moore River. 

    Yellagonga and his family had kinship links across the whole of what is today the Perth metropolitan area – with Weeip’s family to the east, Munday’s family between the Helena and Canning Rivers and with Midgegooroo’s family to the south. 

    Byerbrup is the name of the ridge of high ground between Matagarup (the shallow river crossing at Heirisson Island) and Gargatup (King’s Park). Today, Hay Street follows this important Whadjuk Nyoongar pathway and the Town Hall is at a place on the ridge called Kuraree.

    An artist’s impression of how Byerbrup and Derbarl Yerrigan would have looked to Whadjuk Nyoongar in the 1820s. The star shows Kuraree, where Miago camped and where the Perth Town Hall was later built. Image courtesy of City of Perth and Edith Cowan University.

    Kuraree is a high point with a view over the surrounding country. There once was a spring near here. It was a good place to camp, close to both the rich resources of the Gumap river flats and the wetlands to the north. No doubt jeena middar (corroborees), where different family groups gathered together, were often held in this area when food was plentiful.

    Click here to find out more about Whadjuk Nyoongar place names in the Perth area at Gnarla Boodja Mili Mili (Our Country on Paper).

    Click here to find out more about the landscape of the Perth area at Reimagining Perth’s Lost Wetlands, an online exhibition of the WA Museum.

    The changing landscape of Perth
    Next Exhibit

    Miago’s Story

    View Next Exhibit

    Cabinet of Curiosities

    Advertising poster for a pantomime at the Town Hall in 1895. City of Perth Collection.
    Programme from 1921 for a concert to raise funds for the ‘starving children of Central Europe’. City of Perth Collection.
    Daily Newsboy’s cap and bag. Steve Weeks had the Town Hall corner pitch for selling the Daily News in the 1960s. He got a ha’penny for each paper sold for sixpence. Lent by Steve Weeks.
    Programme for a film screening by the Amateur Cine Society in 1949. City of Perth Collection.
    This shovel is said to have been used to turn the first sod on the Town Hall site. City of Perth Collection.
    Advertising postcard showing the Perth Town Hall. This postcard advertised a printing company, Star Press, which operated in Perth through the 1920s and 1930s. SLWA 7197B.
    W.E. Bold’s invitation to a civic luncheon for H.R.H. The Prince of Wales in 1920. This was the future Edward VIII and the visit was to thank Australians for their support during the First World War. Mr Bold was the Town Clerk at the time. City of Perth Collection.
    Costume jewellery like this was worn for formal functions and dances at the Town Hall. Lent by Steve Weeks.
    A collection of toy cars. Hobbies featured in many shows at the Perth Town Hall.
    A civic dinner held in honour of the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Adelaide, Mr and Mrs Reginald Walker, Perth Town Hall, 1945. The floral decorations and potted palms probably came from the City of Perth’s Victoria Park Nursery, Trafalgar Road, East Perth. City of Perth Collection.
    From the 1920s to the 1950s, the shops under the Town Hall included tea rooms. CC BY-SA 4.0.
    Medals are often issued to commemorate events. This medal was given by Mayor George Shenton to Perth schoolchildren to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. City of Perth Collection
    An extract from George Grey’s journal, where he describes Nyoongar songs. National Library of South Africa, Capetown.
    A keen audience of young cricketers at a lecture by Arthur Richardson, 22 October 1927. Arthur Richardson was a well-known South Australian cricketer. He came to Perth in 1927 to play and coach for the West Australian team. SLWA 100166PD.
    Lanyard and security pass from the second Perth Fringe Festival 2012. The Town Hall and the derelict Old Treasury Buildings were both venues that year, while the space between them was fenced off for the bar and festival hub.
    A newspaper cutting about retired engineer and model-builder James Lang of Mt Lawley turning to clock making.
    linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram