41-566: Cape Schanck , or Tunnahan ( Boonwurrung ) is a locality at the southernmost tip of the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne , Victoria , Australia , approximately 72 km (45 mi) south of Melbourne's Central Business District , located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula local government area . Cape Schanck recorded a population of 569 at the 2021 census . Cape Schanck separates
82-450: A smallpox epidemic might have swept through the tribes around Port Philip before 1803, reducing the population. Broome puts forward that two epidemics of smallpox decimated the population of the Kulin tribes by perhaps killing half each time in the 1790s and again around 1830. This theory has been challenged, however, by modern historical diagnosticians, who argue that the observed symptoms in
123-487: A day. Dogs were important and ceremonially buried. The Boonwurrung people have oral histories that recount in detail the flooding of Port Phillip Bay ten-thousand years ago. The boundaries of Boonwurrung territory are defined by further floods 5000 years ago. Prior to this time, the bay was scrub-filled and passable on foot, and the Boonwurrung people hunted kangaroo and possums on it. The Yalukit-willam would spend up to
164-598: A few weeks in one spot, depending on the water and food supply. Major camps were often set up close to permanent fresh water, leaving archaeological evidence of the places they lived. These archaeological sites include surface scatters, shell middens , isolated artefacts and burials. Men were the primary hunters. They hunted kangaroos, possums, kangaroo rats, bandicoots, wombats and lizards. They also caught fish and eels and collected shellfish. Some Boonwurrung people made seasonal trips in canoes to French Island , where they could gather swan eggs. In coastal and swamp areas there
205-490: A man from a tribe in Echuca had used sorcery to ordain the death of one of their warriors, whose name had been sung while a possum bone discarded after a Boonwurrung meal, and encased in a kangaroo's leg bone, was roasted. Shortly afterward the named Boonwurrung man died, and the tribe revenged itself on the first Echuca tribesman who then came to visit their territory. It was arranged by word of mouth, passing from Echuca through
246-603: A number of other passerines. The elusive striated fieldwren has also been known to inhabit the area. Some flora include cushion bushes . Boonwurrung The Boonwurrung , also spelt Bunurong or Bun wurrung , are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation , who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria . Their territory includes part of what
287-592: A probable pre-contact population of greater than 500 people. By 1850 Protector William Thomas estimated just 28 Bunurong people living on Boonwurrung land. In 1852, the Boonwurrung were allocated 340 hectares (840 acres) at Mordialloc Creek while the Woiwurrung gained 782 hectares along the Yarra at Warrandyte. The Aboriginal reserves were never staffed by whites and were not permanent camps, but acted as distribution depots where rations and blankets were distributed, with
328-660: A result of attacks from the Gunai. During 1833–34, around 60–70 Bunurong people, if a report has been correctly interpreted, may have been killed in a raid by Gunai when they were camped to the north of Carrum Carrum Swamp . The Boonwurrung people, living primarily along the Port Phillip and Western Port coast, may have had their livelihoods affected by European seal hunters . The sealers' abduction of Boonwurrung women and taken to Bass Strait Islands and Tasmania may have caused inter-tribal conflicts, and by analogy, this may also apply to
369-463: A role in the drastic reduction of the tribe's population. Injury or death to a tribal member usually resulted in a conference to assess the facts, and, where thought unlawful, revenge was taken. In 1839, after one or two Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung were killed, a party of 15 men left for Geelong in order to retaliate against the malefactors, the Wathaurong . In 1840, the Boonwurrung became convinced that
410-565: A short distance from the settlement, also flocks of emus on the western plains fifty and sixty in a drove. …The country through which I travelled to the Salt Water (Maribyrnong) River had a park-like appearance, kangaroo grass being the principal, the trees she-oak, wattle, honeysuckle. Saw a blue flower, thorny appearance. Numerous old native huts.” In June 2021, the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and
451-609: A steel axe, ended when the crew of the Lady Nelson panicked, resulting in spears flying, musket shots and the use of the ship's cannon , wounding several fleeing Boonwurrung people. The following month, Captain Milius from the French ship Naturaliste , in the Baudin expedition , danced alone on a beach at Western Port for the natives, in a much more peaceful contact. Just before and overlapping
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#1733093902921492-486: A storm. It was rediscovered after 113 years on the ocean floor in June 2007. Albatrosses ( black-browed , Chatham , yellow-nosed , etc.) are occasionally spotted off the cliffs as are short-tailed shearwaters (particularly during their spring migration), black-faced and pied cormorants , kelp gulls and Australasian gannets . The shrubs decorating the area are frequently home to brown thornbills , singing honeyeaters and
533-540: Is a Registered Aboriginal Party and incorporated association representing the Bunurong (Boon wurrung) community in the state of Victoria , Australia, particularly in matters relating to the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 . The corporation provides cultural heritage and environmental land management advice and is the approval body for Cultural Heritage Management Plans on Bunorong land. It
574-486: Is also often consulted by schools to provide culturally appropriate advice for lessons. The Bunurong Land Council cultural policy area encapsulates Bunurong traditional lands, waters and cosmos commencing from the Werribee River east around Port Phillip Bay , Mornington Peninsula , Western Port and South Gippsland coastline to Wilson's Promontory . Inland Bunurong boundaries are the watersheds that flow into Port Phillip, Western Port and Bass coastline. In June 2021,
615-505: Is now the city and suburbs of Melbourne . They were called the Western Port or Port Philip tribe by the early settlers, and were in alliance with other tribes in the Kulin nation, having particularly strong ties to the Wurundjeri people. The Registered Aboriginal Party representing the Boonwurrung people is the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation . Boonwurrung is one of
656-582: The Lady Nelson . Schank had designed the raised keel (or centreboard) on the Lady Nelson . The spelling of the locality as 'Schanck' (two c's) is a misspelling of Schank. Nicolas Baudin called it Cap Richelieu when he sailed past on the Géographe on 30 March 1802. Cape Schanck Post Office opened around March 1879 and closed in 1962. In 1893 a steamship, the SS Alert , sank off the coast at Cape Schanck during
697-622: The Black Spur and squatted on a traditional camping site on Badger Creek near Healesville and requested ownership of the site. This became Coranderrk Station, named after the Woiwurrung word for the Victorian Christmas bush . Coranderrk was closed in 1924 and its occupants were moved to Lake Tyers in Gippsland . Great enmity existed in particular between the Boonwurrung and the eastern Gunai, who were later deemed responsible for playing
738-681: The Kulin languages , and belongs to the Pama-Nyungan language family . The ethnonym occasionally used in early writings to refer to the Bunwurrung, namely Bunwurru , is derived from the word bu:n , meaning "no" and wur:u , signifying either "lip" or "speech". This indicates that the Boonwurrung language may not be spoken outside of their Country - their clan's territory. The Boonwurrung people are predominantly saltwater people whose lands, waters, and cosmos encompassed some 3,000 square miles (7,800 km ) of territory around Western Port Bay and
779-577: The Mornington Peninsula . Its western boundary was set at Werribee . To the southeast, it extended from Mordialloc through to Anderson Inlet , as far as Wilson's Promontory . Inland its borders reached the Dandenong Ranges , and ran eastwards as far as the vicinity of Warragul . “Saw nothing but grassy country, open forest, plenty gum and wild cherry. Saw where the natives had encamped, plenty of trees notched where they had climbed for opossums. …There are herds of forest kangaroo immensely large,
820-616: The Nirababaluk and Wurundjeri , for a meeting to have justice done at Merri Creek . Nine or ten of the killed Echuca tribesman's kinsmen threw spears and boomerangs at the Boonwurrung warrior, armed with a shield, until he was wounded in the flank by a reed-spear. An elder of another, observing tribe, the Barababaraba , called it a day, the ordeal ended, and all celebrated a grand corroboree. Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation The Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation
861-516: The Romantic tradition , Nicholas Chevalier concentrated on effects of atmosphere, mood and dramatic lighting in his depictions of the iconic natural wonders he found at Cape Schanck. The traditional Boonwurrung name for the cape is Tunnahan . The location was given its European name in 1800 after Captain John Schank , R.N. (note spelling with only one 'c') by Lieutenant James Grant sailing on
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#1733093902921902-545: The Wurundjeri , also acted to protect the colonists as part of their duty of hospitality. Derrimut later became very disillusioned and died in the Benevolent Asylum at the age of about 54 years in 1864. A few colonists erected a tombstone to Derrimut in Melbourne General Cemetery in his honour. By 1839, the Boonwurrung had been reduced to 80–90 people, with only 4 of 19 children under four years old, from
943-699: The Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation , both registered Aboriginal Parties , agreed on a redrawing of their traditional boundaries developed by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council . The new borderline runs across the city from west to east, with the CBD , Richmond and Hawthorn included in Wurundjeri land, and Albert Park , St Kilda and Caulfield on Bunurong land. It
984-410: The Boonwurrung were semi-nomadic hunter gatherers who moved around to seasonal food sources in their territory to take advantage of seasonably available food resources. Their hunting equipment and techniques had been highly developed to the environment and they had a highly detailed knowledge of their Country. This knowledge was passed from one generation to the next. They had to work only about five hours
1025-424: The Boonwurrung, whose coastlands were visited by sealers. A report by Jules Dumont d'Urville in 1830 attributed the absence of Boonwurrung on Phillip Island , which was a camp for sealers, as due to the latter's behavior. As late as 1833, nine Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung women, and a boy, Yonki Yonka, were kidnapped and ferried across to the sealers' Bass Strait island bases. Contact with sealers would have exposed
1066-486: The area and covered the plain to the west. These murnong fields were destroyed by the introduction of sheep. Scholar Bruce Pascoe attributes the widespread fields of murrnong in certain areas to active farming by Aboriginal peoples. Women collected large quantities of tadpoles which were cooked beneath a bed of hot coals. Robinson's diary describes how the Yalukit-willam caught emus and restrained their dingos. When
1107-442: The boundaries between the land of two of the traditional owner groups in greater Melbourne , the Wurundjeri and Boon wurrung/Bunurong, were agreed between the two groups, after being drawn up by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council . The new borderline runs across the city from west to east, with the CBD , Richmond and Hawthorn included in Wurundjeri land, and Albert Park , St Kilda and Caulfield on Bunurong land. It
1148-751: The coastal tribes to European diseases, and this would have exercised a heavy impact on demographics, and the economic and social ties binding the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung peoples, as would the possible effects of infectious diseases contracted from these sealers. James Fleming, one of the party of surveyor Charles Grimes in HMS Cumberland who explored the Maribyrnong River and the Yarra River as far as Dights Falls in February 1803, reported smallpox scars on several aboriginal people he met, suggesting that
1189-560: The early ethnographical literature are compatible with impetigo and ringworm . One particularly notable person at the time of European settlement in Victoria was Derrimut , a Boonwurrung Elder, who informed early European settlers in October 1835 of an impending attack by clans from the Woiwurrung group. The colonists armed themselves, and the attack was averted. Benbow and Billibellary , from
1230-410: The intention being to keep the tribes away from the growing settlement of Melbourne. The Aboriginal Protection Board revoked these two reserves in 1862–1863, considering them now too close to Melbourne. In March 1863, after three years of upheaval, the surviving Kulin leaders, among them Simon Wonga and William Barak , led forty Wurundjeri, Taungurung (Goulburn River) and Boonwurrung people over
1271-522: The native thrusts the spear through them. …Saw several wild dogs on the settlement belonging to the country. …The aborigines tie up the fore foot of their dogs to prevent them going astray, instead of roping them round the neck as we do. At the native encampment, I saw two dogs thus tied. Initial contact was made in February 1801 when Lieutenant Murray and his crew from the Lady Nelson came ashore for fresh water near present-day Sorrento . A wary exchange of spears and stone axes for shirts, mirrors and
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1312-414: The natives want to kill emu they get up a cherry tree before daylight with a large spear, and having put a quantity of cherries in a certain spot under the tree, conceal themselves above with a clear place for them to thrust the spear down. At day dawn the emu is heard coming by the noise it makes, and if this is a tree they have been at before they are sure to come again, when they begin eating, and then
1353-455: The newcomers were to enter their land without harm. Communities consisted of six land-owning groups called clans that spoke the Boonwurrung language and were connected through cultural and mutual interests, totems, trading initiatives, and marriage ties. Each had an Arweet , or clan leader. The clans are: Access by other clans to land and resources (such as the Birrarung, or Yarra River )
1394-536: The period of British exploration and settlement, the Boonwurrung were involved in a long-running dispute with the Gunai/Kurnai people from Gippsland . According to William Barak , the last traditional elder of the Wurundjeri people, the conflict was a dispute over resources, which resulted in heavy casualties being suffered by the Boonwurrung. Many Gunnai raids occurred to abduct Boonwurrung women. The Yowengerra had almost been completely annihilated by 1836, largely as
1435-450: The resources available to them. As with most other Kulin territories, penalties such as spearings were enforced upon trespassers. Boonwurrung moieties classified people either as Bunjil , that is eaglehawk or Waang , namely raven . Information on traditional life has been passed down by Boonwurrung people from one generation to the next, and was also recorded by European settlers and administrators. The Yalukit-willam clan of
1476-753: The wild ocean waters of Bass Strait from the slightly calmer waters of Western Port . The most recognisable symbol of Cape Schanck is the Cape Schanck Lighthouse . The lighthouse was built in 1859 and was the second lighthouse built in Victoria. A prominent rock outcrop is Pulpit Rock and stands out at the very tip of the cape. Cape Schanck is also home to the RACV Resort Cape Schanck on Boneo Road which includes an eighteen-hole golf course and The National Golf Club on Cups Drive. British-Australian artist Georgiana McCrae produced many of her paintings at Cape Schanck. A keen artist–traveller in
1517-482: Was a favourite food. Others were the black wattle gum, the pith of tree ferns, native cherries , kangaroo apples and various fungi. Murnong grew all year was best eaten in spring. Tubers were collected in vast amounts in string bags. Fresh murnong could be eaten raw, or if less fresh, murnong could be roasted or baked in earth ovens. Murnong used to grow in great amounts along the Kororoit Creek and other creeks in
1558-517: Was agreed that Mount Cottrell , the site of a massacre in 1836 with at least 10 Wathaurong victims, would be jointly managed above the 160 m (520 ft) line. The two Registered Aboriginal Parties representing the two groups were the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation . The change means that the corporation will be responsible for
1599-698: Was agreed that Mount Cottrell , the site of a massacre in 1836 with at least 10 Wathaurong victims, would be jointly managed above the 160 m (520 ft) line. However these new boundaries are disputed by some Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people, including N'arweet Carolyn Briggs of the Boonwurrung Land and Sea Council. In Boonwurrung belief, their territory was carved out by the creator Loo-errn as he moved from Yarra Flats down to his final resting place at Wamoon and, as custodians of this marr-ne-beek country, they required outsiders to observe certain ritual prohibitions and to learn their language if
1640-513: Was plenty of bird life to hunt, including ducks and swans. There were abundant eels, yabbies, and fish in Stony and Kororoit creeks, and the Yarra River. Men were experts at spearing eels and Robinson notes in his diary in 1841 two men catching 40lbs of eel 'in a very short time'. The coast provided saltwater fish, mussels, cockles and small crabs. Women were primarily gatherers. Murnong (or yam daisy)
1681-405: Was sometimes restricted depending on the state of the resource in question. For example; if a river or creek had been fished regularly throughout the fishing season and fish supplies were down, fishing was limited or stopped entirely by the clan who owned that resource until fish were given a chance to recover. During this time, other resources were utilised for food. This ensured the sustained use of