aboriginal cultural heritage
Adults, teenagers, children and dogs have walked this creek path for tens of thousands of years. Today we walk for leisure and to be with nature. Back then the creek was a supermarket and pharmacy for indigenous people.
The Wurundjeri
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The local Wurundjeri people spoke, and some still speak, the Woiwurrung language and are part of the Kulin Nation. The clan that was the traditional owners of the Macedon Ranges area was called the Gunung-willam-balluk.
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Everyone in the clan belonged to a moiety that governed their relationships within the group and who they could marry.
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The Kulin Nation believes that the world was created by Bunjil; nature and culture were created together. South eastern Australian Aborigines call themselves Koories.
Plants and Food
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Wybejong was open woodland that was burnt every 3 to 5 years. This maximised herbaceous plants including the important food source, Murnong.
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Women provided the bulk of the food consumed. All daily needs could be satisfied with about 4 to 5 hours labour a day.
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The introduction of sheep and cattle saw the rapid destruction of the vast fields of Murnong.
Plants and Daily Life
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Today in Wybejong Park we grow Murnong, or Yam Daisy, Microseris spp. We have a dedicated garden bed and it is found in the mixed wildflower gardens. We also have another staple food growing, Cumbungi, which grows along waterways.
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Other edible roots and tubers that are still here include water ribbons, bracken fern, Phragmites and club-rush. Many existing plants were used for medicine, fibre, making baskets and implement manufacture – Salt bush, Kangaroo grass, Lomandras, Dianellas, Melaleucas and Eucalypts.
Cultural Heritage
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Wybejong Park is within an area of Aboriginal cultural heritage sensitivity. Material evidence of Aboriginal prior occupation has been found in Wybejong Park and on adjacent sites that have been developed for housing or road building.
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The Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 requires development that involves ground disturbance that occurs in a heritage sensitive area, such as within 200M of a waterway, to obtain an Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Management Plan (CHMP). The CHMP conducted on Rivergum Road found a treasure trove of stone tools and evidence of their manufacture.
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Over the creek at the housing subdivision on the area of land bordered by Melvins Road and McClusky Street a serious knapping event was uncovered. Sharp edges on a tool are formed by knapping, striking together a hammer stone and a core stone, producing an implement and many small flakes.
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A reserve was set aside within the subdivision to honour Aboriginal prior occupation. The stone artefacts were recorded and left in situ. Aboriginal history is embedded in the landscape.
What's In a Name
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The name of Wybejong Park was suggested by an Aboriginal elder of the Wurundjeri people who remarked on its proximity to Wooling Hill, an area where ceremony was carried out in a bora ground.
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Wybejong is just a walk away from the green stone quarries of Lancefield and Mt William, which traded green stone across a network beyond the Kulin Nation. It is upstream from the stone rings in Sunbury assumed to be used for ceremonial initiation purpose, and downstream from the axe grinding grooves at Bolobek near Mt Macedon.
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Further downstream at Keilor, radiocarbon dating on charcoal from hearths shows that there was Aboriginal activity there forty thousand years ago.
The Wurundjeri Calendar has seven seasons
