The Darkinyung are an
indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...
people of New South Wales.
Country
According to
R. H. Mathews
Robert Hamilton Mathews (1841–1918) was an Australian surveyor and self-taught anthropologist who studied the Aboriginal cultures of Australia, especially those of Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland. He was a member of the R ...
, the Darkinyung's territory encompassed the lands to the south of the
Hunter River Hunter River may refer to:
*Hunter River (New South Wales), Australia
*Hunter River (Western Australia)
*Hunter River, New Zealand
*Hunter River (Prince Edward Island), Canada
**Hunter River, Prince Edward Island, community on Hunter River, Canada
...
, from Jerry's Plains towards
Maitland, extending as far to the south as
Wollombi Brook,
Putty Creek, inclusive of the
Macdonald,
Colo, and
Hawkesbury rivers.
History of contact with white settlers
In 1789, Governor
Arthur Phillip
Admiral Arthur Phillip (11 October 1738 – 31 August 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as the first governor of the Colony of New South Wales.
Phillip was educated at Greenwich Hospital School from June 1751 unti ...
conducted a boat expedition upstream to the branches of the
Hawkesbury River, encountering the local inhabitants. He returned overland in 1791; members of his party who were natives of the
Cumberland Plain confirmed that the people there were of a distinct group that spoke a different language. Phillip wrote: "Two of those natives who have lived amongst us for some time were with us, which was from them that we understood, our new friends had a language different from theirs." The British referred to these inhabitants of the upper Hawkesbury,
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
Hill,
Kurrajong and
Springwood as "The Branch natives".
Ford writes that, after settlement of the upper Hawkesbury, "'The Branch' natives were pacified in 1805 by a massacre led by
Andrew Thompson towards Springwood."
In 1824, John Blaxland, Jnr, learned that the mountain people south of the
Hunter River Hunter River may refer to:
*Hunter River (New South Wales), Australia
*Hunter River (Western Australia)
*Hunter River, New Zealand
*Hunter River (Prince Edward Island), Canada
**Hunter River, Prince Edward Island, community on Hunter River, Canada
...
referred to their land as ''Wallambine''. Later, Surveyor-General
Thomas Mitchell instructed that a new town in the region be named
Wollombi. The term "Wollombi Tribe" came to be used for that group.
By the last years of the 19th century, only a remnant, mostly half-castes, of 60 Darkinyung had survived, concentrated on a government reserve set aside for aborigines on the Hawkesbury river, from Windsor. Of these, only two very old men had been initiated, Hoe Gooburra and Charley Clark. It was thanks to these elderly informants that much of what is known of Darkinung traditional ways was able to be recorded by Mathews.
Bora ceremony
Name
The name has been variously spelled ''Darkinyung'' (AIATSIS), ''Darkinjung'' (Tindale), ''Darkiñung'' (Ford), ''Darkinung'', ''Darkin-yûng'', ''Darkinyoong'', ''Darkinjang'', etc.
Notes
Citations
Sources
* Ford also provides at the same page a selection of abstracts and ''précis'' on particular topics, including , , .
*
* 5pp.
*
*
{{Authority control
Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales