The First Australians

It is now generally accepted that people have lived in the Sydney basin for upwards of forty thousand years (Bowler 2003). People first discovered Australia at least 50,000 years ago. They had gradually migrated by the "so-called" coastal route from Africa, taking perhaps 5,200 years to progress from SW Asia to Australia (Hudjashov 2007).

People living in many parts of Australia intermixed through sometimes continent-wide communication routes memorised by oral traditions as "songlines." It seems that the dense forest and steep-sided canyons of the Blue Mountains may have been a partial barrier to contact between the people of the Sydney area and those of the interior (Wikipedia, Songlines).

Vegetation and fauna

The vegetation of the general area of Prospect Hill before 1788 is now termed Cumberland Plain Woodland. The tree cover was mainly the eucalypts, grey box and forest red gum. Spotted gum (Corymbia maculata) is also known to have occurred in the Prospect area, as there are surviving examples there. Mammal species included kangaroo, wallaby, wombat, koala, quoll, possum, flying-fox and other bat species, gliders, echidna, and platypus, while large birds included the emu (See quotation).

This type of forest had been modified by the people of the area for many centuries by the controlled use of fire, so that the understorey did not develop into impenetrable jungle and trees were widely spaced. This resulted in a flora that provided optimal hunting conditions for the population and promoted the growth of food plants. It also reduced the prevalence of large-scale uncontrolled spontaneous bush fires (Jones 1969). (See also Jones 1995.)

Groupings of inhabitants

A single language, albeit with different dialects, was spoken by the people of the Sydney basin but has now died out as a living language. Aspects can be reconstructed from the writings of early British colonists. From this it has been established that this "Sydney language" was spoken from the coast to the east-facing slopes of the Blue Mountains and from Broken Bay in the north to the Georges River in the south. This language is now called Dharug. Early colonists observed that coastal Dharug speakers were able to converse with those of the Upper Hawkesbury, although the dialects were substantially different. It seems that groups living in each area could understand neighbouring groups. So it looks as though there may have been a linguistic cline, also called a dialect continuum, rather than discrete divisions (See quotation) and (Troy 1994).

The absence of any grouping of inhabitants that we might recognise as "peoples", or even tribes, is significant. It seems that the only groupings were not much larger than extended family groups of some sixty to a hundred people. Neighbouring groups were probably related to each other through common ancestry, and would have reasonably cordial relations with each other. Indeed there is little evidence of inter-group warfare. Violence seems to have been restricted to retribution for personal slights and was often ritualised at formal, possibly seasonal, meetings such as corroborees. Groups of such small size would not necessarily be stable over time and might divide at times of population increase, or merge with others if numbers declined.

Lifestyle

The indigenous people of the Sydney area lived a semi-nomadic life, each extended family group moving around within a known territory living off wild plants and animals. Considerable skill in and knowledge of hunting and plant gathering techniques was necessary. They did not keep domestic animals or cultivate plants. The maximum size of a group would probably be determined by the need to maintain communications within such a mobile community.

Prior to 1788 the people of the Sydney area had no access to metals. Tools and hunting weapons were equipped with stone or wooden points. They had no writing so that knowledge and skills, such as those concerned with hunting and fishing, finding plant food sources, parenting and inter-personal and inter-group relations, were passed on orally. Rock carvings depicting animal species including whales constituted a cumulative library of natural history knowledge.

They were skilled in the controlled use of fire to clear the forest understorey. This facilitated hunting, travel through the bush and access to and growth of food plant species. It also prevented the build-up of understorey as fuel for more catastrophic bush fires. Fire was also used directly in hunting to flush out small animals (See quotation).

Another skill was that of constructing canoes out of tree-bark. These were used, especially by the "coastal culture" groups, for fishing and general travel around the area, and were able to navigate the sometimes quite choppy waters of Sydney harbour as well as the calmer Parramatta River and other creeks. The people of the Upper Hawkesbury also used canoes.

Indigenous people lived in some sort of balance with their environments and this would normally mean quite a large area of bush was needed to support each extended family group. It is not clear whether groups observed territorial boundaries - it is possible that groups used areas overlapping with each other and shared some resources.

Prospect Hill/Marrong as a boundary feature

Although there was a degree of linguistic and cultural uniformity across the Sydney area, early colonial settlers observed that there was one fairly well defined cultural boundary. This is the distinction between a "coastal" culture (Katungal) and a "woods" culture (Paiendra). The coastal people were skilled in fishing and collection of invertebrate seafood and inhabited the area stretching from the ocean coast as far inland as the tidal estuaries and rivers. The "woods" peoples were more skilled in hunting forest species of mammals, birds and invertebrates and in the collection of fruit, nuts and other edible vegetable material. Colonists noted in particular their skill in climbing trees, using stone-headed axes to chop footholds as they climbed. The boundary of these two cultures was in the general area of Prospect Hill, with people to the east around Parramatta, the Burramattagal, being of the coastal culture (Flynn 1997).

Collins wrote that the Bedjigal to the north-west, west and south of Parramatta were of the woods culture, while Tench wrote of the Bid-ee-gal around Cook's River being of the coastal culture. These names are so similar that they must surely be different transcriptions of the same group name. The point is important for the history of Prospect Hill and it is a pity that we have this confusion. If there was a clear distinction between a coastal and a woods culture then it is clear that the boundary would have been in the general area of Prospect Hill.

In view of their nomadic lifestyle, it is not surprising that achaeological evidence suggests that occupation of Prospect Hill was "sporadic" (Boral 2006b, p 9). However there is no doubt that it was part of the territory of some Dharug speaking group and early colonial evidence suggests the Bidjigal lived as near as Prospect Creek and possibly Girraween Creek. It is recorded in one early colonial record (probably by Governor Phillip himself in 1790) that the Dharug name for Prospect Hill was Marrong (Collins 1791, pp 50-51). Groups living in the Prospect area were later reported as being the Weymaly, Cannemegal (both at Prospect) and Warrawarry (around Eastern Creek) but this was some time after 1788 when factors related to the arrival of the British had caused much disruption to indigenous groupings (Flynn 1997).