| Historical notes: | Ulgundahi Island has been a site of occupation since 1880 when many Aboriginal people retreated to the island when Europeans had introduced diseases and the land had been taken up by European farms.
In 1904, a portion of Ulgundahi Island was gazetted as an Aboriginal Reserve under the control of the Aboriginal Protection Board (APB) and in 1907 the whole of the island was included in the Reserve. The name Ulgundahi Island, is to have come from a Yaegl word meaning 'shape of an ear'. Several families already resided on the island and it was reported in 1904 that eight acres be set aside for a Reserve and that supplies of roofing iron and tanks should be delivered immediately. (McSwan 1992:322). Concerns by European residents had been expressed about Aboriginal camps on the fringes of nearby townships and in 1908 the APB relocated families from Ashby onto Ulgundahi Island increasing the resident population to 60. In 1909, Aboriginal people from Harwood Island fleed to Ulgundahi Island due to a European farmer burning down the camp of more than 40 bark dwellings. (Heron 1991:16, Ledgar 5-6)
The basis of settlement at the island is farming, each head of a family having an average of about three to four acres, while child endowment of 5/weekly is paid in respect of each child under the required age, and there is a scale of rations to the extent of 10/ weekly for those who need it, with two outfits of clothing and a blanket yearly for each person. (Daily Examiner, 13 June 1936). The allocation of 3- 4 acres to each family to cultivate for maize, cane and vegetables, no doubt to encourage industry any surplus porcude could be sold. (McEwan 1992:322)
Rations were supplied for children but not to adults as a rule. (McEwan 1992:322). For any adult that wasn't able to earn sufficient, the following weekly ration was provided with a half a ration for each child: - Flour, 8lbs; sugar, 2lbs; jam 4oz; dripping, 8oz; potatoes, 2lbs; onions, 8ozs; baking powder, 4ozs. (Daily Examiner, 13 June 1936).
The APB provided clothes which were all the same, black trousers and blue shirts for boys and purple dresses for the girls and no shoes. Medicine was given by the Manager, regardless if it was needed or wanted, quinine, caster oil, cod liver oil and kerosine were some things given regularly. (Smith 1990:17)
In 1908, the APB appointed an European manager who was also to be the school teacher to Ulgundahi Island, who resided at Ashby an attended the island each day by boat.. In the same year the Aboriginal Provisional School was established on the Island and other buildings included a buidling, outhouses and a tank. . A number of children from the island attended the Maclean School and it was said that parents of European children attending the school objected to the Aboriginal children from Ulgundahi being alloweed to go to the same school. There was very little taught to the children of the island.
In 1910 a small church was built by the residents of the island. A report in January 1921 states that Mr John Cameron paid the balance of funds needed and furnished the church. Until 1910 the minister Rev. Scott Neil visted the island regularly to take services. His sister took Sunday School clasess and became involved with the welfare of the women and childern. Other demoniations became involved from time to time, espeically the Baptists, Free Presbyterians and Salvation Army. An organ was later provdied which was played by Mrs Blakeney.
The families were not compelled to remain on the island by the authorities, though with a hostile European society and the power of the manager to allocate an absent family residence to others, these were enough reasons as to what influenced people to remain on the island. There was conflict between islolation and assimilation as the children were trained only for employment for the white community as farm labourers for the boys or in domestic service for the girls.
Men would harvest the cane and take it to Harwood mill. Each home on the island had its own fruit - peaches, oranges, mangoes, passionfruit and grapes. Those who had vegetable gardens would pick and prepare them for the markets. Any money that was earnt from the sales of either cane or vegetables all went back to the APB never to the person who sold it. It was reported in 1911 by the APB that this goal had practically been achieved, with only one person in receipt of rations.
Continual flooding of the island, caused the state authorities to question the viability of the settlement. The 1921 flooad a been a bad experience. Families were often left to fend for themselves for up to three months at a time. Further floods occurred in 1928 and several during the 1940-1950. In 1951 the government school was closed and children were required to go by boat to Maclean to attend school. In 1958 the APB manager retired, and was not replaced.
Yaegl families often moved to places off the island for holidays or camps lasting from one to two weeks to an entire summer. A popular destination known as Murrayville, a tributary of the north Arm of the Clarence. Families would often camp for six weeks at a time, and were drawn to the abundance of 'wild food' known as 'cobra' or wood worms. Ashby was another camp used, especially during times of flooding of the island. Yamba was also a popular place for families to visit for the entire summer months to exploit the food resources of the coast and waters.
By 1961, the residential focus of Aboriginal families had shifted from Ulgundahi Island to Aboriginal reserves in Yamba and Maclean.
The Aboriginal families living on Ulgundahi Island were governed by the APB for approximately half a century, until the withdrawal of the APB towards the end of the 1950's. In 1956 the Hillcrest Aboriginal Reserve was created on land on the edge of Maclean, and serveral houses were built for families who wished to move. By 1962, the last Aboriginal families had left the island to take up residence at Hillcrest.
Dreaming Story
In the rising of the first sun to warm the rain-drenched earth, three brothers sailed from the east. These brothers bore various names, depending on who you believe and what language you speak. Some have written their names as Berrung, Mommon and Yaburong.
These brothers sailed with their families towards our land. From a distance the land looked lush and green. The mountains blurred the horizon in purple hues. Their canoes moved closed to the land but they could see only the salt-encrusted coast, pale with sand, studded with cliffs and boulders. The green promise of forest was only an illusion. Depondently they moved away, thirsting for fresh water, cool land.
From a cliff a woman with skin the colour of clay called out to the sailors, inviting them to her land, to stay. She called out to them but they did not hear her and against the dark landscape they could not see her. She called to them again and again but the three brothers and their canoes moved away.
Frusted, the clay woman called out to the sea. She bade the sea wreck the seafarers and bring them to land. The canoes broke apart with the rising of the waves and smashed against the boulders, staining them black. Large pieces solidfied into jutting rocks. Shredded wood sank to the sea floor and transformed into seagrass. Berrung, Mommon, Yaburong and their families wre forced to swim. The women held their babies above them. Lost and exhausted they beached themselved upon the shore.
With that, the woman of clay turned from the sea and walked inland, towards the forest and mountains. The travellers huddled together on the sand. The women comforted their babies while the men planned to look for materials to build canoes. Others organised to search for food. A woman broke from the group on the beach and began to walk alone.
Dirrangun, one of the old women with many daughters and grandchildren, walked along the water's edge for a while, then headed inland, beyond the salty, spindly shrubs, over the dunes. She sought peace, away from the constant wind, the never ending rush of the waves.
The gritty sand gradually turned softer and brown under her feet. The sinewy trees of the coast shed their salt and turned lush and green with each step Dirrangun took. The land opened to her and began to offer her the forest. Trees tall and wet. Mist hung grren and silent. Sighing to the ground Dirrangun began to dig for yams. The moist soil crusted under her nails as she dug and her body ached with the effort of surviving the sea. She longed to rest under the trees.
Her family would be waiting, hungry. She was please with the food she found. Dirrangun gathered the yams in her arms and turned back towards the beach. The woman of clay appeared in front of her. Dirrangun dropped her harvest. The woman gestured to calm her and 'You are my sisiter now. The soil from which you feed is your home. You are welcome to stay."
Dirrangun sighed with relief. Her long hair was turning grey with years and she was weary of the sea. Other clay people emerged from the mists, dark people not sombre, and she saw that their faces mirrored her own. Dirrangun felt the soil stain her skin and decided her family should stay in this new place.
She turned back to the beach to tell her family they had fopund home. But while she was gone, the sun had peaked. Berrung, Mommon and Yaburong had eaten fish and mussels. Their bellies were full. They had dound enough wood to crete new canoes. They sealed the canoes with sap from fire.
They looked to where Dirrangun had walked and saw only the salt-encrusted caost. They reasoned that Dirrangun must have perished, being so old. The three brothers convinced their families to leave without her. The camp fires had settled to embers and the brothers were impatient to move.
As her people sailed from the coast Dirrangun returned to the camp. She called out to the brothers, urging them to turn back. Weeping with dismay she called out to them again and again. Still they would not turn back. Her disappointment turned to anger, and clenching her fists, she cursed her family. As her tears fell to the sand and mixed with the water the sea began to turn violent. Waves thrashed into a storm and again up the coast. With that, Dirrangun consoled herslef by setting up camp in the forest and living on yams. She named her new camp Yamba.
Once her family had settled they came looking for Dirrangun and she introduced her family to the people of clay. The three brothers created clans with the clay people and moved from Yamba. Together, over time, they peopled the forests, rivers and coasts. They all looked to Dirrangun who had united them.
But Dirrangun had not forgotten the sense of rejection she felt when her family tried to sail away without her. From then on she remained very wary of her family and lived away from them. As Dirrangun became older and more vulnerable she began to hid her food and water.
The dust of time started to weigh Dirrangun down and turn her skin grey. Her long hair turned white and formed a halo around her face. People began to believe Dirrangun was part spirit. Only the old clay woman became her friend, teaching her to spirit herself away in the forest.
Dirrangun moved inland, up into the mountains where the forest canopy shut out the light. She stayed at the base of a spring and kept it hidden under some bracken. Two of Dirrangun's daughters needed somewhere to stay and Dirrangun made them welcome. But after a while the good feeling between the women began to wane and they argued. One of the sisters' husbands intervened. As a husband he had the title of buloogan. He was a handsome, almost arrogant man. He had forgotten the importance of Dirrangun and saw only an old stick of a woman. He ridiculed Dirrangun hid her water and waited for these youngsters to leave. But they didn't leave and just fell asleep at her camp.
But while everyone was sleeping, two of the buloogan's dogs found the hidden spring. Snuffling the bracken away the dogs slurped up the water. Happy and dripping water they ran to their master and licked him on the face. The buloogan awoke and followed the trail of water back to the spring. Dirrangun lay curled around it.
Angry at being outsmarted by an old woman the buloogan thrust his spear into the spring, fracturing the rocks around it. The water burst through, forcing Dirrangun away. Full of pride and arrogant with his new power, the buloogan called to the water to drown Dirrangun. Although Dirrangun tried to build a platform above the rising water, it swept her and the trees away. Dirrangun tried to push mountains to dam the spring but the water just flowed over and around them. Forests submerged under the water and the people fled to higher ground.
The force of the water from the fractured spring caused the valleys to flood, leaving hundreds of islands in its wake. This became the Clarence River.
Dirrangun tried to sit in the floodwaters and use her powers to block the flow but the river proved too strong for her and she was pushed out of the way. Helpless and angry she stood at Yamba and watched as the frsh water washed into the sea.
Betrayed by her family again, Dirrangun threw herself, angry and despairing, into the water. Her white hair dissolved into foam. Knowing she had lost her spring forever, Dirrangun cursed the river to tunr salty so no one could drink it near her old resting place. The water around her chruned, salty and bitter. Her body turned to stone. Where the river meets the sea.
Whenever you hear the roaring of the ocean and see the foam, bitter and frothing on the beach, that's Dirrangun making sure no one can drink her water. It is Dirrangun in despair. It is Dirrangun's Dreaming. (Bayet-Charlton 2002) |