Gunai
Encyclopedia
The Gunai or Kurnai is an Indigenous Australian nation of south-east Australia
whose territory occupied most of present-day Gippsland
and much of the southern slopes of the Victorian Alps. The nation was not on friendly terms with the neighbouring Wurundjeri
and Bunurong
nations. Many of the Gunai people resisted early European settlement through the 19th century, resulting in many confrontations between Europeans and the Gunai.
The Gunai/Kurnai nation bordered on the lands of the Bidawal people to the east around Cann River
and Mallacoota
. The Kulin
Nation occupied lands to the west, where Melbourne
now stands.
Evidence of human occupation at Cloggs Cave, near Buchan
, has been dated at up to 17,000 years
were spoken among the people of the region.
In 1846 Gippsland squatter Henry Meyrick wrote in a letter home to his relatives in England:
In 1863 Rev Friedrich Hagenauer
established Rahahyuck Mission on the banks of the Avon River near Lake Wellington to house the Gunai survivors from west and central Gippsland. The mission sought to discourage all tribal ritual and culture. The Mission closed in 1908 and the few remaining residents were moved to Lake Tyers.
towns of Churchill
Northways Road, Churchill 3842 and Cnr. Northways Road & McDonald Way, Churchill 3842 and Morwell Bridle Road, Morwell 3840, were named after the Gunai people, who are often referred to as the Kurnai people in many parts of Gippsland
.
http://www.kurnaicollege.vic.edu.au/
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
whose territory occupied most of present-day Gippsland
Gippsland
Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...
and much of the southern slopes of the Victorian Alps. The nation was not on friendly terms with the neighbouring Wurundjeri
Wurundjeri
The Wurundjeri are a people of the Indigenous Australian nation of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance, who occupy the Birrarung Valley, its tributaries and the present location of Melbourne, Australia...
and Bunurong
Bunurong
The Bunurong are Indigenous Australians of the Kulin nation, who occupy South-Central Victoria, Australia. Prior to European settlement, they lived as all people of the Kulin nation lived, sustainably on the land, predominantly as hunters and gatherers, for tens of thousands of years...
nations. Many of the Gunai people resisted early European settlement through the 19th century, resulting in many confrontations between Europeans and the Gunai.
Structure and Clans
It is made up of five major clans:- Bratowooloong people in South Gippsland. From Cape Liptrap and Tarwin Meadows east to mouth of Merriman Creek; inland to about Mirboo; at Port Albert and Wilsons PromontoryWilsons PromontoryWilsons Promontory is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland and is located at . South Point at is the southernmost tip of Wilsons Promontory and hence of mainland Australia...
.
- Brayakuloong people around the current site of SaleSale, VictoriaSale is a city in the Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. It is the seat of the Shire of Wellington as well as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sale and the Anglican Diocese of Gippsland. It has a population of around 13,336, and is expected to reach a population of 14,000 soon...
. Providence Ponds, Avon and Latrobe rivers; west of Lake Wellington to Mounts Baw Baw and Howitt.
- Brabuwooloong people in Central Gippsland. MitchellMitchell River (Victoria)The Mitchell River is the largest unregulated river in Victoria, Australia and provides a unique example of riparian ecology. Tributaries include the Crooked, Dargo, Wentworth, Wonnangatta, and Wongungarra Rivers, which are surrounded by dense native forest on the steep mountains of the Victorian...
, NicholsonNicholson River (Victoria)The Nicholson River is a river in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, lying between the Mitchell and the Tambo Rivers. It has a length of .The river was named by Angus McMillan in 1839 after Charles Nicholson, who represented the Port Phillip District on the NSW Legislative Council and was later...
, and TamboTambo River (Victoria)The Tambo River is a river in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia with a total length in excess of 170 km. It is the longest river in the Tambo and Nicholson Basin, extending from the steep forested southern slopes of the Australian Alps through forest and farmland to the Gippsland...
rivers; south to about BairnsdaleBairnsdale, VictoriaBairnsdale is a small city in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. With a population at the 2006 census of 11,282, it is a major regional centre of eastern Victoria along with Traralgon and Sale....
and BruthenBruthen, VictoriaBruthen is a small town located alongside the Tambo River between Bairnsdale and Ensay on the Great Alpine Road in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. At the 2006 census, Bruthen had a population of 624...
.
- Tatungoloong people near Lakes Entrance on the coast. Along Ninety Mile Beach and about Lakes Victoria and Wellington from Lakes Entrance southwest to mouth of Merriman Creek, also on Raymond IslandRaymond IslandRaymond Island is a small island in the Gippsland Lakes in eastern Victoria, Australia, about from Melbourne. The island is approximately long by wide, and is just off the coast, across from the town of Paynesville...
in Lake King.
- Krauatungalung people near Snowy RiverSnowy RiverThe Snowy River is a major river in south-eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mainland peak, draining the eastern slopes of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, before flowing through the Snowy River National Park in Victoria and emptying into...
. Cape Everard (Point Hicks) to Lakes Entrance; on Cann, Brodribb, Buchan, and Snowy rivers; inland to about Black Mountain.
The Gunai/Kurnai nation bordered on the lands of the Bidawal people to the east around Cann River
Cann River, Victoria
Cann River is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Cann River at the junction of the Princes Highway and Monaro Highway, in the Shire of East Gippsland. At the 2006 census, Cann River had a population of 223...
and Mallacoota
Mallacoota, Victoria
-External links:***...
. The Kulin
Kulin
The Kulin nation, was an alliance of five Indigenous Australian nations in Central Victoria, Australia, prior to European settlement. Their collective territory extended to around Port Phillip and Western Port, up into the Great Dividing Range and the Loddon and Goulburn River valleys. To their...
Nation occupied lands to the west, where Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
now stands.
Evidence of human occupation at Cloggs Cave, near Buchan
Buchan, Victoria
Buchan is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on Buchan Road, in the Shire of East Gippsland near the Snowy River. At the 2006 census, Buchan and the surrounding area had a population of 326....
, has been dated at up to 17,000 years
Language
Various closely related dialectsGunai language
The Gunai language refers to a collection of Indigenous Australian languages from Gippsland in south-east Victoria....
were spoken among the people of the region.
Creation Story
It is told that the first Kurnai came down from the north west mountains, with his canoe on his head. He was known as Borun, the pelican. He crossed the Tribal River (where Sale now stands) and walked on into the west to Tarra Warackel (Port Albert). He heard a constant tapping sound, as he walked, but could not identify it. At the deep water of the inlets Borun put down his canoe and discovered, much to his surprise, there was a woman in it. She was Tuk, the musk duck. He was very happy to see her and she became his wife and the mother of the Gunai people.Resistance to European settlement
The Kurnai people resisted the European invasion of their land. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the numbers killed in the guerilla warfare undertaken, or the numbers who died in the massacres that were inflicted upon the Kurnai by the superior weaponry of the Europeans. A partial list from letters and diaries for an exhibition called Koorie, mounted by the Museum of Victoria in 1991, included:- 1840 - Nuntin- unknown number killed by Angus McMillanAngus McMillanAngus McMillan , was an explorer and pioneer pastoralist in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. He is also known for being an instigator of many of the massacres against the Aboriginal peoples in the Gippsland region.-Early life:...
's men - 1840 - Boney Point - "Angus McMillan and his men took a heavy toll of Aboriginal lives"
- 1841 - Butchers Creek - 30-35 shot by Angus McMillan's men
- 1841 - Maffra - unknown number shot by Angus McMillan's men
- 1842 - Skull Creek - unknown number killed
- 1842 - Bruthen Creek - "hundreds killed"
- 1843 - Warrigal Creek - between 60 and 180 shot by Angus McMillan and his men
- 1844 - Maffra - unknown number killed
- 1846 - South Gippsland - 14 killed
- 1846 - Snowy River - 8 killed by Captain Dana and the Aboriginal Police
- 1846-47 - Central Gippsland - 50 or more shot by armed party hunting for a white woman supposedly held by AboriginesWhite woman of GippslandThe white woman of Gippsland, or the captive woman of Gippsland, was supposedly a European woman rumoured to have been held against her will by Aboriginal Kurnai people in the Gippsland region of Australia in the 1840s...
; no such woman was ever found - 1850 - East Gippsland - 15-20 killed
- 1850 - Murrindal - 16 poisoned
- 1850 - Brodribb River - 15-20 killed
In 1846 Gippsland squatter Henry Meyrick wrote in a letter home to his relatives in England:
-
- The blacks are very quiet here now, poor wretches. No wild beast of the forest was ever hunted down with such unsparing perseverance as they are. Men, women and children are shot whenever they can be met with … I have protested against it at every station I have been in Gippsland, in the strongest language, but these things are kept very secret as the penalty would certainly be hanging … For myself, if I caught a black actually killing my sheep, I would shoot him with as little remorse as I would a wild dog, but no consideration on earth would induce me to ride into a camp and fire on them indiscriminately, as is the custom whenever the smoke is seen. They [the Aborigines] will very shortly be extinct. It is impossible to say how many have been shot, but I am convinced that not less than 500 have been murdered altogether.
In 1863 Rev Friedrich Hagenauer
Friedrich Hagenauer
Friedrich Hagenauer was a Presbyterian minister and missionary in Australia who established Ebenezer Mission and Ramahyuck mission.Reverend Friedrich Hagenauer and Reverend F.W...
established Rahahyuck Mission on the banks of the Avon River near Lake Wellington to house the Gunai survivors from west and central Gippsland. The mission sought to discourage all tribal ritual and culture. The Mission closed in 1908 and the few remaining residents were moved to Lake Tyers.
Namesake
Kurnai College, the state schools in the Latrobe ValleyLatrobe Valley
The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical region and urban area of Gippsland in the state of Victoria, Australia. It is east of the City Of Melbourne and nestled between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Great Dividing Range to the north – with the highest peak to the north of the...
towns of Churchill
Churchill, Victoria
Churchill is a town in the Latrobe Valley, located in central Gippsland in the east of Victoria, Australia. The town had a population of 4,588 at the 2006 census, and is part of the Latrobe City local government area...
Northways Road, Churchill 3842 and Cnr. Northways Road & McDonald Way, Churchill 3842 and Morwell Bridle Road, Morwell 3840, were named after the Gunai people, who are often referred to as the Kurnai people in many parts of Gippsland
Gippsland
Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...
.
http://www.kurnaicollege.vic.edu.au/
See also
- Alfred William HowittAlfred William HowittAlfred William Howitt was an Australian anthropologist and naturalist.-Background:Howitt was born in Nottingham, England, the son of authors William Howitt and Mary Botham. He came to the Victorian gold fields in 1852 with his father and brother to visit his uncle, Godfrey Howitt...
- Gippsland massacresGippsland massacresThe Aboriginal people of East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, known as the Gunai/Kurnai people, fought against the European invasion of their land. The technical superiority of the Europeans' weapons gave the Europeans an absolute advantage...
- Warrigal CreekWarrigal Creek-Warrigal Creek massacre:In July 1843 Ronald Macallister was killed by Aboriginies near Port Albert. To avenge his death a party of whites led by a rich squatter attacked a group of Aborigines. It is thought that over 60 people were killed in this action...
- White woman of GippslandWhite woman of GippslandThe white woman of Gippsland, or the captive woman of Gippsland, was supposedly a European woman rumoured to have been held against her will by Aboriginal Kurnai people in the Gippsland region of Australia in the 1840s...