History
An Aboriginal Perspective on our History
For millennia Aboriginal peoples have called the area which we now know as the Adelaide Hills home. Generations of people have lived in the area and made a life for themselves and their families. The hills provided shelter and sustenance to Aboriginal people and the land and the resources it provided people with were carefully managed to ensure that the area could provide a living for generations to come.
The Aboriginal peoples we now know as Peramangk, and Kaurna called the Hills their home and their stories that have survived tell of the creation of the Hills and some of the geological features we are familiar with. There are numerous campsites, ceremonial sites, and burial sites throughout the hills. The Yurebulla story has the Peramangk as Border Watchers and Peacekeepers although they were also known to be fierce warriors and possessed of strong magic.
The Aboriginal custodians welcomed people from other Aboriginal groups to ceremonies and afforded them safe passage through the area especially as people travelled from the lakes and river areas to the plains and the sea for purposes of trade or ceremony.
Warki, Portalaun and Jarildekalde people from the Lake Alexandrina area maintained contact with the Peramangk peoples and traded large redgum bark sheets for their canoes. As these were in short supply along the Lower Murray, these groups needed to get them from their neighbours. They would trade mallee spears for the bark.
The Peramangk people also traded fire making ‘kits’ with the Kaurna people as well as others as far away as Lake Victoria in New South Wales. Peramangk people have shared stories of their interactions with the Wiradjuri people of New South Wales and shared songlines and trading routes between country have been recorded.
In the hills there are Aboriginal place names which still survive including Brukunga, Uraidla, Gumeracha, Onkaparinga and Cudlee Creek although they are often different to the original names recorded by the early European settlers. With no written Aboriginal language, the names were recorded by Europeans who would have been writing them in a way that fitted with their own linguistic knowledge. The Peramangk and Kaurna languages are very similar however, there are some differences in pronunciation. Given the trade routes and interaction with other groups including those of the Ngarrindjeri Nation, it is clear that some of the people were bilingual allowing them safe passage to other country for ceremonial and trading purposes.
Peramangk children learnt to swim at Bokati-illa in the permanent waterhole on the Onkaparinga River near Hahndorf. Mount Barker Summit is important to both Peramangk and Ngarrindjeri people and features in stories and it is likely that both groups would have used the nearby semi-permanent campsite at Lartingga parri.
Early European settlers documented stories of large Aboriginal camps throughout the Ranges and it is thought that several thousand Aboriginal people were living in semi-permanent camps at European settlement. People were known to camp near where the RSL Hall at Aldgate is and in the evenings of the warmer months, would sometimes perform ceremonies which early white settlers documented. Other camps were located at Stanley Bridge on the Onkaparinga River, Mylor, the site of the Bridgewater Oval and Days Road at Uraidla. People still visited these areas on their way to Adelaide at times when the Europeans distributed rations.
Many of these people were displaced by the mid 1850’s as agriculture started to expand in the district and there was competition for water as well as free passage across the hills as many areas were fenced for stock especially sheep. With the coming of Europeans, many of the trees were cut for building in Adelaide and other areas and land was settled with fences and stock displacing the original peoples.
Confrontations were recorded as Aboriginal people availed themselves of these new food sources, especially as the traditional routes of some of their usual foods had been disrupted by fences and the competition for food.
Aboriginal people did work for some of the early settlers including John Bull of Mt Barker who used Peramangk people as labourers and paid them in wheat and potatoes for their work. However, with access to water and food becoming more difficult by the late 19th Century, there were few of the original inhabitants still living on their traditional lands, although they would still visit at certain times of the year to fulfil traditional obligations. Some Peramangk peoples moved closer to the Murray River, others were taken to Mission stations including Raukkan, Swan Reach and Poonindie.
By the early 1900’s it was erroneously believed that there were no Peramangk people still alive, however, this was not the case and a number of people now know that they have Peramangk ancestry as well as other Aboriginal ancestry and can identify as living descendants of the original hills people.
Many Kaurna people were also relocated to Mission stations including Raukkan, Point Pearce and Poonindie. As many people are now able to access Government records on their families they are discovering that their ancestors were Kaurna people who were displaced in the early days of European Settlement. Kaurna language is being revitalized with many people learning to speak the language and some areas have adopted either dual names for a place, a building or an area i.e. Kaurna/English and other places have reverted to their documented Kaurna names.
In 2018, after 18 years of legal proceedings, the Kaurna people were recognised as native title holders of the lands around Adelaide (including a large area of the Adelaide Hills). Hence, we now recognize both Peramangk and Kaurna ancestors in our Welcomes to, and Acknowledgment of Country.
The Adelaide Hills have inherited a rich legacy from the original inhabitants and we should be proud of that history and heritage and preserve it for generations to come. A Reconciliation Action Plan is a first step in a shared journey to care for this special area that so many now call home.
History summarised by Deanne Hanchant-Nichols
Tanganekald/Ramindjeri (Ngarrindjeri Nation); Barkindji Nation
Ass.Dip., BA, MA (Aboriginal Studies/Archaeology/SA History)
Adelaide Hills Reconciliation Working Group 2020–23