#Acacia #Wattle #WattleSeason #MaroondahDam #Maroondah #Healesville #Indigenous #Aboriginal #Etymology

When I visited Maroondah Dam on Friday I learned that despite the media coverage surrounding the proposed renaming of the Maroondah Hospital after the dead queen, ‘Maroondah’ is not a #Woiwurrung word.

In 1881 when the Maroondah Aqueduct was first used, a 77yo colonist named James Dawson campaigned to give the aqueduct, then named after the Watts River, an Aboriginal name. He wrote in a letter to ‘The Argus’, “May I suggest that the aborigines [sic] of Coranderrk should be appealed to, and a local name obtained from them and applied to the proposed reservoir…”

The Watts River is named for an assigned convict worker who managed Yering Station and drowned in the river in 1840. (The ‘Camperdown Chronicle’ reported Watts’s death as a suicide but the signage at the reservoir today suggests it was an accident during flooding.) Nearby Badger Creek is named after Watts’s bloody horse, which got stuck in the muddy creek one time and had to be winched out!

William Barak, then the #Wurundjeri ngurungaeta, was only too happy to point out that the river in Woiwurrung language was called Broong-ku-galk, meaning a rotten log, because there was so much dead timber on the riverbanks. (‘The Argus’ reported this using the spellings “Burngothalk” and “Pumburngalk”.)

Some kind of cultural wires were crossed, however: with the best of intentions, in 1881 or early 1882 Dawson went to Coranderrk where he met with Elders, one of whom told him that the location selected for the water catchment, including the neighbouring mountain, valley and stream, was called “Marroondah” (his spelling).

But they didn’t tell him what it meant or whose language it was: turns out it means “throwing” in Barababaraba (aka Parrapa), a language spoken further north by a people whose neighbours were the Wemba Wemba and Yorta Yorta.

According to historian Ian D Clark, Dawson’s informant at Coranderrk was either Barababaraba man John Terrici or Benjamin ‘Lanky’ Manton, a Wadi Wadi speaker from Swan Hill whose mother was Barababaraba. (One Kulin glossary lists “muruma” as the Wati-Wati word for ‘to throw’.)

For anyone living in Melbourne, especially northside, this is a great overview of the geography of Merri Creek.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX9m8OnyxVY

Merri Creek is the catchment in which I live & a place of refuge, during the lockdowns especially.

https://www.rememberthewild.org.au/life-on-the-merri/

The restoration & education work being done by Wurundjeri people & Merri Creek Management Committee is a great example of the power of community action over decades.

https://mcmc.org.au/

#Melbourne #MerriCreek #Narrm #Wurundjeri

Early morning slow run. Greeted by friendly kangaroo at the customary 8km mark. Beautiful morning. #melbourne #kangaroo #running #runner #yarra #Wurundjeri

This stand-alone building in #collingwood #Australia is wrapped entirely of #Australian #Indigenous art.

Painted by Ky-ya Nicholson-Ward, from the #Wurundjeri people.

The Wurundjeri people are Australian Aboriginal peoples from the #KulinNation. They are the Traditional Owners of the Birrarung (Yarra River) Valley, covering much of the present location of Narrm (Melbourne).

The messages are clear, and are supported wholeheartedly by the vast majority of #Australians; #AboriginalLivesMatter, #NoMoreDeathsInCustody and #truth, #justice and #healing.

I stand in solidarity with our traditional owners of the land; #Australias #Indigenous peoples past, present and emerging.

:firstnations: :flag_torres_strait_islands:

#KyyaNicholsonWard #victoria #melbourne #narrm #repect #treaty #treatynow #ulurustatementfromtheheart #voiceofparliament

Perfect running conditions this morning. 11C now, 30C later on. Song highlight - #NeilYoung & #PearlJam - Throw Your Hatred Down. #running #runner #melbourne #Wurundjeri land

Another day, another run. For me, consistency has always been more important than pace or distance. #running #runner #Melbourne #Wurundjeri land #NeilYoung

Nice sunny Melbourne afternoon. Slow 10km run (@5.54/km) to the yarra river and back. Tom Petty and Mudcrutch provided the song highlight. “Sometimes …I get dreams of flying”

#music #running #TomPetty #Melbourne #Wurundjeri country

Down in the flatlands
Feel the sunlight on your skin and the healing virtues of the wind

#running #Melbourne #Wurundjeri #lyrics #BobDylan

I’m brand new to #mastodon & here’s my #introduction : 
I live on #Wurundjeri Country in #Melbourne #Australia 
- I live and love #politics #policy #auspol #publicpurpose & work across #government & #academia #university 
- love #reading #literature #currentaffairs #history #historicalfiction
- love #classicalmusic #philipglass #baroque #bach 
- play #doublebass used to play #bass in bands years ago #indi #pop 
- #GenX

Now that I have two followers, time for an #introduction

I'm a nutrition scientist and sports myotherapist based in #melbourne and the #macedonranges on #wurundjeri #woiwurrung country :firstnations:

My work is split between sports injury management, dietary assessments and #bikefitting.
I work primarily with endurance athletes, but I also have a keen interest in #publichealth and #healthpolicy

Outside of work, I'm also interested in,
#roadcycling
#environmentalscience
#cooking
#birdwatching

I'm a firm believer that Monte Carlos are better than Kingstons.

Time for an #introduction.

I’m Gary living in #naarm #wurundjeri country (colonised as #melbourne #australia).

Originally from #MargaretRiver #Kalgoorlie and #Perth

I was a global IT Exec for many years - now retired from all paid work.

Busy now doing #Genealogy esp #DNA work

Also a very happy #EV owner and advocate

Heavily impacted by #MelbourneMetro construction in St Kilda Rd

Just having some fun playing tunes by the #MerriCreek in #Wurundjeri! Tune in now at www.starlifter.fm

#Melbourne #Electro #Techno #Acid

Time for an #introduction.

Hi I’m Ed a blow in from #london living in #naarm #wurundjeri country (colonised as #melbourne #australia). Long time #energy geek, specialising in #battery #energystorage but now building out a 100% #renewablenergy #EV charging network with Evie Networks.

#cyclist , I haven’t owned a car since 2006, passionate about #publictransport #activetransport #Sharedmobility . Streets are for people not storing rapidly depreciating, rusting lumps of metal.

I speak English, French, German and Japanese and Italian at highly variable levels of proficiency.

#sake nerd, and I #homebrew occasionally.

#citrus orchard on my #Abbotsford roof. Mess around making #electronicmusic with #syntheizers

#自己紹介 エドと申します。#イギリス人ですけど　#オーストラリア　の　#メルボルン　で住んでいます。#日本酒 オタクです。

#introduction #introductions
recent mastodon recruit after getting the shits with the zuck empire. youngest of the millennials. owner of one very large and stupid orange cat. living on #wurundjeri lands (that's so-called #melbourne ). weaponised adhd and specialising in #textilearts , traditional #printmaking , #fermenting (+ brewing) and preserves, video #gaming and #gardening.
interested in everything.

currently projects include hand tufted rugs, apple cider, scanning old gaming mags, renovating my house, woodworking, conceptualising, being a fucking nuisance.