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, 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 Maitland is an English and Scottish surname. It arrived in Britain after the Norman conquest of 1066. There are two theories about its source. It is either a nickname reference to "bad temper/disposition" (Old French, ''Maltalent''; Anglo Norm ...

, extending as far to the south as Wollombi Brook, Putty Creek, inclusive of the Macdonald, Colo, and

Hawkesbury Hawkesbury or Hawksbury may refer to: People *Baron Hawkesbury, or Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool (1727-1808), English statesman Places ;Geography *Hawkesbury Island, an island in British Columbia, Canada * Hawkesbury Island, Queensland ...

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 The Hawkesbury River, or Hawkesbury-Nepean River, is a river located northwest of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its associated main tributary, the Nepean River, almost encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney. ...

, encountering the local inhabitants. He returned overland in 1791; members of his party who were natives of the

Cumberland Plain The Cumberland Plain, an IBRA biogeographic region, is a relatively flat region lying to the west of Sydney CBD in New South Wales, Australia. Cumberland Basin is the preferred physiographic and geological term for the low-lying plain of the ...

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

referred to their land as ''Wallambine''. Later, Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell instructed that a new town in the region be named

Wollombi Wollombi ( ) is a small village in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is within the Cessnock City Council LGA, situated southwest of Cessnock and north of Sydney. To the south is the village of Laguna, to the east, the villa ...

. 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