Our History
pre- and post-colonisation
Coranderrk 1890 – courtesy of State Library Victoria
Always here, always will be.
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Coranderrk Aboriginal Station opened in 1863 and became home to Aboriginal people from across Victoria whose lands had been stolen from them.
Coranderrk is located on Wurundjeri land and we, Wandoon Estate Aboriginal Corporation (WEAC) are its custodians and managers. We are Wurundjeri, and our language is Woiwurrung. We are descended from Wonga and Barak. Together with our four neighbouring groups – Boon Wurrung, Dja Dja Wurrung, Taungurung and Wathaurong – we are part of the Kulin Nation.
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The culture of the First People of Australia is the oldest living culture in the world. No-one knows with certainty how many Aboriginal people were here when our lands were colonised in 1788. The area now known as Victoria supported 36 groups defined by complex lore regarding land, protocols, relationships and language. Each group had a deep and intimate knowledge of their country. The land and the resources it provided was cared for according to lore set down by ancestors. This ensured an inextricable and enduring connection to and respect for country.
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Our ancestors were the ultimate conservationists, they had an intimate connection to the landscape and understood that their actions affected the world around them. Respecting and working with the environment ensured that sustenance and shelter would be provided for generations to come. We are learning from them and sharing our knowledge through Coranderrk.
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Click map to enlarge
The approximate territories of the five Kulin clans (shaded) and some of the other Aboriginal nations of Victoria.
FROM: The Coranderrk Inquiry: A window onto the history of colonial dispossession in settler states. http://www.minutesofevidence.com.au/the-coranderrk-story/
The devastation of European colonisation
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Colonisation:
"The action or process of settling among and establishing control
over the indigenous people of an area." [1]
In 1835 John Batman made a so-called treaty with eight Kulin Ngurungaetas (headmen) to ‘acquire’ the land around Port Phillip. It is possible that the Ngurungaetas considered the treaty as similar to a tanderrum ceremony; a diplomatic rite of reciprocity and exchange that would have resulted in a relationship of ongoing mutual obligation, while providing the colonisers temporary access to, but not ownership of Kulin country and resources (2). They were accommodating the settlers, not ceding to them.
Instead, the Aboriginal people of Victoria were decimated by colonisation. Thirty short years after Europeans arrived in Victoria, only 2,000 Aboriginal people remained (3). Victoria’s white population grew to 100,000 (4) between 1836 and 1851 and grew at a phenomenal rate in the 1850s due to the gold rush. Traditional hunting grounds were destroyed by gold miners and the remaining land taken over by graziers and squatters. Ways of life that had been occurring for tens of thousands of years were destroyed and it became almost impossible to retain and continue traditions passed down from the Elders. Lives continued to be lost through massacres and introduced diseases such as smallpox and influenza, to which Aboriginal people had no immunity to.
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Aboriginal Missions and Stations
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Front View of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Station
Pictures Collection, State Library Victoria
“… in order to make permanent provision for the maintenance and management of the Aboriginal population, a sufficient quantity of land [should] be set aside in different districts, to be held in trust by a Board of Trustees resident in the particular district, in connection with a Central Board to be appointed from residents in Melbourne, under whose control any expenditure incurred on account of the Aboriginal inhabitants shall be defrayed." (5)
In 1858 an Inquiry into the Welfare of Aboriginal People was made, which resulted in the establishment of the Central Board Appointed to Watch Over the Interests of Aborigines. Following the establishment of the Aboriginal Protection Act in 1869, the Board was re-established as the Board for the Protection of Aborigines. The Aboriginal Protection Act gave the Board extensive powers over Victorian Aboriginal people, regulating all aspects of their lives including marriages and where they lived and worked through the establishment of missions and stations. Seven missions and stations were established across Victoria, including Coranderrk Aboriginal Station.
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In the 1850s Billibellary, Ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri/Woiwurrung clans, had developed a relationship with William Thomas, Guardian of Aborigines. They exchanged information and Thomas wrote extensively on Aboriginal cultures and beliefs. Following Billibellary's death in 1846, his son Simon Wonga became Ngurungaeta.
In 1861, Wonga brought five Taungurong men to meet with William Thomas to request for "...a block of land in their country where they may sit down, plant corn, potatoes, etc.- and work like white men". (6)
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Extract from the Parish of Gracedale Plan showing the extent of the Permanent Reservation of Coranderrk. National Archives of Australia
Land was initially set aside near Acheron, however influential and well-connected squatters in the area lobbied to retain
the land. Wonga and the Taungurong people, who had been joined by lay missionaries John and Mary Green and Wurundjeri people from Yering, were moved to land known as Mohican Station. Mohican was cold, inhospitable and unfit for farming. Many people left and it was eventually closed.
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Photograph by Carl Walter
Pictures Collection
State Library Victoria,
Simon Wonga c. 1866
"I bring my friends Goulburn Blacks, they want a block of land in their country where they may sit down plant corn potatoes etc. etc.,
and work like white man"
Simon Wonga
Click the image for more information about Simon Wonga
After a number of false starts, 2,350 acres of land at the confluence of the Yarra River and Coranderrk/Badger Creek was established as Coranderrk Aboriginal Station. This land had been part of 38,000 acres of squatters’ leases taken up by the Ryrie brothers, and at the time Coranderrk was established it was part of the 44,000 acre property known 'Yarradale', owned by William Nicholson (Victorian Premier 1859-1860). In 1864, Simon Wonga presented Governor Barkley an address and gifts to send to Queen Victoria (7). The Queen wrote a letter of thanks in return, which led the Coranderrk people to believe that the land had been given to them in perpetuity. However Coranderrk remained under the control of the government, overseen by the Central Board Appointed to Watch Over the Interests of Aborigines.
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Coranderrk was named after the prolifically growing native shrub of the same name, also know as the Victorian Christmas Bush Prostanthera lasianthos. At its largest, the station covered 4,850 acres stretching from the Yarra River to the foothills of Mt Riddell.
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Towards Self-sufficiency
John Green, a Scottish lay missionary, was appointed as Coranderrk’s first superintendent. He lived at Coranderrk together with his wife Mary and their children. The Greens managed Coranderrk in accordance with the requirements of the Board, but were also respectful and encouraging of the continuation of Aboriginal traditions, language and culture (8).
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Within ten years, Coranderrk had become a village
and was working towards self-sufficiency.
Homes had been built, as well as a kitchen, laundry, dairy and store. Paddocks were cleared, fenced and planted with crops, an orchard established, and cattle provided milk and meat. An aqueduct fed water from Coranderrk Creek into a reservoir and a sawmill was constructed. The hub of the village was the building originally built as a dormitory for orphaned children and the infirm, but which became the schoolroom, church and meeting place.
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Hops kilns at Aboriginal Station, Coranderrk.
Photograph by Fred Kluger, c.1880-82. Pictures Collection, State Library Victoria.
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The people of Coranderrk led a regimented life defined by work, religion and education. They all attended school and church. They produced sufficient food and dairy products for themselves, supplemented with rations. The men hunted for food and skins and went away to earn wages as trackers and sheep shearers. They made cheese and jams as well as baskets, rugs and traditional tools which they sold to visitors and through shops in Melbourne. They made clothing and furniture or purchased them from travelling hawkers. They decorated their houses with feathers, ferns and flowers as well as photos from newspapers and photos of themselves. They played football and cricket and celebrated weddings, birthdays and royal occasions.
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Coranderrk was well on its way to self-sufficiency and to achieve this, John Green experimented with various crops that would provide additional income. He attempted to grow tobacco, but had more success with hops. By 1874, two kilns for drying hops had been constructed.
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For a fascinating insight into life and times
at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station
see our history project:
Coranderrk & Healesville: a Shared History.
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15 posters prepared for WEAC
by Heritage Consultant Nicola Stairmand
with the support of
Yarra Ranges Council.
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Click this image to access 'Coranderrk & Healesville'
Triumph To Tragedy
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The hops crops were successful but ultimately led to upheaval at Coranderrk. For years, local squatters who wanted the valuable land on which Coranderrk was located had been campaigning for Coranderrk’s closure. The Board began to see the value of a hops crop with a work force they thought they could control and manage. Some Board members disagreed with Green's management of Coranderrk, and sought to undermine him. In the mid 1870s, two major changes occurred; Simon Wonga died and the Board forced Green's resignation.
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As Wonga had no children, his cousin, William Barak became the next Ngurungaeta. As management became more authoritarian and life harsher the people of Coranderrk began a prolonged campaign for more autonomy and the reinstatement of Green as superintendent. Barak, supported by many others at Coranderrk, began a campaign of non-violent resistance and astute lobbying. They were aided by European sympathisers such as John Green and Anne Bon, a staunch friend of the Coranderrk people and a long-term, proactive advocate for Aboriginal people (9). During this period, the Board proceeded to starve Coranderrk of funds and appointed a succession of highly inappropriate managers who further ran the station into the ground.
Aboriginal Australians, Coranderrk c. 1912.
Pictures Collection, State Library Victoria
Photograph by Carl Walter
Pictures Collection
State Library Victoria,
William Barak c. 1866
"...we will show to the country that we can work it and make it pay, and I know it will."
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William Barak
Click the image for more information about William Barak
Eventually, in 1881 an Inquiry into Conditions at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station was held. Twenty two Coranderrk people gave evidence about the lack of medical attention and warm clothing, the inadequacy of the houses, the enforced labour in the hops fields which left them with no time to produce their own crops or maintain fences and buildings, the lack of food and provisions and the lack of wages to purchase food with. Following the inquiry, conditions improved somewhat, but the vision of a self-sufficient and self-governed life was lost. John Green was not reinstated as superintendent but remained in Healesville and close to the people of Coranderrk.
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In 1886, the Half Caste Act was introduced meaning that all ‘half-caste’ people (those with Aboriginal and European ancestry) between the ages of 15 to 35 were removed from Coranderrk (and from all other missions and stations) and expected to assimilate into the broader society. This had an enormous impact on the Coranderrk community, breaking up families, destroying the sense of community, and removing the young, fit men capable of working in the fields and with the cattle. By 1893, implementation of the Half-Caste Act had reduced the number of people at Coranderrk to thirty-one. The Board continued to receive pressure from settlers to sell or lease portions of Coranderrk and from the 1890s, Coranderrk was reduced in size. The Board gradually revoked, sold or leased Coranderrk land to others, including 78 acres to Colin MacKenzie (later Sir) in 1920 for a fauna research center, which is now Healesville Sanctuary.
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Coranderrk officially closed in 1924 with all but six of the Coranderrk people being removed to Lake Tyers. Only Lankie and Annie Manton, Alfred Davis and his wife, Mrs Dunnolly and Bill Russell were permitted to remain at Coranderrk.
In 1948 the Coranderrk Lands Bill revoked the reservation of Coranderrk’s remaining land which was then divided up for solider settlement. No Aboriginal soldiers were eligible for the land.
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Towards Tomorrow
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In the 1990s, 200 acres including Coranderrk’s only surviving building – the superintendent’s residence – was purchased by the Indigenous Lands and Sea Corporation (ILSC). The property is now managed by Wandoon Estate Aboriginal Corporation (WEAC).
Through its early vision to establish a self-sufficient and self-governing way of life and the later campaigns to retain what was built, Coranderrk demonstrates Aboriginal resistance to colonisation and the value of astute political activism, caring for country and developing lasting friendships and partnerships.
Coranderrk was forced into failure by politicians and others in power,
but the place, connections and respect for country survive.
Today, despite substantial reductions in size and a period of private ownership,
Coranderrk retains this significance, not only as a physical and spiritual link to the past,
but as continuing, living history.
For a fascinating insight into life and times
at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station
see our history project:
Coranderrk & Healesville: a Shared History.
​
15 posters prepared for WEAC
by Heritage Consultant Nicola Stairmand
with the support of
Yarra Ranges Council.
​
Click this image to access 'Coranderrk & Healesville'
(1) Oxford English Dictionary
(2) School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne, eMelbourne: Aboriginal Melbourne - Batman's Treaties https://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00165b.htm
(3) National Museum Australia, Defining Moments: Coranderrk https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/coranderrk
(4) Dept. Planning (DELWP) Victoria's Historic Population Growth) https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.planning.vic.gov.au%2F__data%2Fassets%2Fword_doc%2F0027%2F29295%2Faccessible-version-of-Victorias-historic-population-growth.docx
(5) https://www.deadlystory.com/page/culture/history/Creation_of_reserve_system
(6) Byrt, P 2005, 'Simon Wonga, Aboriginal leader', Victorian History Journal, Vol. 76, No. 1 April.
(7) The Argus 25 June 1863, p. 5
(8) excerpt_-_john_green.pdf (minutesofevidence.com.au)
(9) NFAW & University of Melbourne, The Australian Women's Register Bon, Anne Fraser (1838-1936) http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE1149b.htm