Thus, ‘firestick farming’ occurred when a
group was leaving a given area to replenish green grassland and remove unwanted
shrubbery, so that hunting and general movement was made easier. Thick
forest-land was left as such to retain bush habitat for edible vegetation and
game. Tracks were maintained as groups moved through, simply by uprooting and removing obstacles. The idea
of ‘changing’ or ‘clearance’ or ‘building upon’ an identifiable stretch of
ground and working upon it in a ‘lineal’, ‘progressive’ or ‘developmental’ way
was not the aim.
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A view of Lapstone Hill from the perspective of 'Emu Plains Road', painted by an early colonial artist, Augustus Earle. |
Indications—from available European
writings of the period—tend to support the notion of both ‘clear forest areas’
as well as ‘dense bushland’ coexistent with ‘plenty’ upon first arrival. There
were plenty of emus at ‘Emu Plains’ for example, and Blaxland, Wentworth and
Lawson, along with the other explorers of the time, were always able to shoot
game when the necessity arose. They came across ‘open forest areas’ and clear
streams such as that near Sun Valley as well as
tough, bush-bashing vegetation which made progress difficult. In short, Darug
and Gundungarra land management practices had provided a complex yet plentiful,
some might say ‘idyllic’ environment, for human existence.
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Kangaroos feeding at Euroka Clearing, near Glenbrook. Spaces such as these were cultivated by controlled burning, so that a 'patchwork' of cleared and thickly forested country was maintained. |
It is logical to assume that these factors
alone made survival and reproduction for Darug and Gundungarra clans vastly
more difficult. Then there was the likelihood of killings and deaths from
disease as the European population became more omnipresent. Many Indigenous
people became fringe dwellers—there is certain evidence of a substantial
presence of Aboriginal people at Springwood up until the 1830’s---and many
sought work on the farms of the Marsdens (St. Marys), Blaxlands (St. Marys and
Wallacia) and Coxes (Richmond and Mulgoa) down on the Cumberland plain.
As land became available and white
settlement expanded during the latter half of the nineteenth century, Darug and
Gundungarra families were herded into more confined settlements, generally
termed ‘missions’ and ‘reserves’. There was the first gathering of families at  |
Some of the Darug survivors: the Everinghams, Barbers and George H. Morley, photographed at the turn of the century. They came from clans in the Hawkesbury region. |
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Three proud residents of 'The Gully': Aunty Joan Cooper, Aunty Dawn Colless and Aunty Betty Locke, did much to restore awareness of Darug/Gundungarra presence in the Blue Mountains. |
The ‘Gully’ was a well known settlement in the Mountains which held descendants of both Darug and Gundungarra nations. It lasted until the 1950’s when a car racing circuit called “Catalina Park” was established there. The Aboriginal people were evicted and dispersed, although many of their descendants continued to live in their original ‘Country’[2]. According to the last census, there are currently about 1,000 Aboriginal people living in the
