Archaeology of Koori occupation

Archaeological evidence has provided an account of Koori occupation in the Port Philip region. This evidence takes a variety of forms such as the tools or other implements that were used (artefacts) or the places where Kooris have left some trace of their presence (sites).

Such artefacts and sites have been found all over the Port Philip region. Within the land of the Kulin there are about 1500 archaeological sites of various types. About 200 of them are within the Melbourne metropolitan area itself.

Cultural heritage sites and artefacts

The western suburbs of Melbourne have numerous cultural heritage sites that traditionally, the Kulin peoples utilised in their daily living.

Bunjil is the creation spirit of the Kulin and the language groups of South East Australia. The Kulin creation spirits and totems are Bunjil in the form of an eagle, and waa the crow.

Before the invasion, the lands of the Kulin were abundant in food sources. Indigenous grasslands are still remnant in St Albans at the Iramoo site of the University.

Five ceremonial sites, or 'earth rings', the rarest of sites in Aboriginal archaeology, have been recorded in the Port Philip region in the vicinity of Sunbury and have been placed on the Register of the national Estate. The Sunbury sites consist of circular ditches with an associated cairn of stones in the centre.

At Green Gully, close to the Maribyrnong River, an Aboriginal burial site was discovered in 1965. It was dated to about 6500 BP. A stone tool from the site and charcoal from a fire suggested that the site may be about 17,000 years old. In 1977, a group of Koori burials were discovered during sand mining close to the Werribee River. The burials were about 7300 years old.

Shell middens have been located at Sandringham, Brighton and Merri Creek, Coburg. Surface scatters have been recorded near the Maribyrnong River and an important artefact scatter is located along Kororoit Creek at the Bullum Bullum site.

Heritage scar trees

Approximately 100 scar trees have been recorded in the Melbourne area in areas such as Richmond, Doveton and Heidelberg. Many still remain along the banks of the Maribynong River.

At Mount William near Lancefield within the language area of the Woiwurrung, there is an area that was much prized as a source of stone for making hatchet heads. The area surrounding the outcrops, a site that takes up more than 40 hectares, is covered with the debris of many years quarrying by Kooris. Not all hatchet heads came from Mount William, although that quarry was probably the most important in the region. Outcroppings of silcrete, which was favoured for making small flaked implements, are known to occur in the Keilor area and on the Mornington Peninsula. Grinding grooves, associated with the production of edge-ground hatchets, have been located near Mount Macedon, not far from the stone quarry at Mount William.

Language groups

There were three language groups within the Kulin Nation whose territory bordered Port Phillip Bay:

• the Wathaurong who lived on the Bellarine Peninsula and into the Otway Ranges and east as far as the Werribee River
• the Woiwurrung who claimed the area drained by the Yarra River and its tributaries
• the Boonwurrung to their south, on the Mornington Peninsula, around Westernport Bay, perhaps as far east as Wilson's Promontory, and as far north as the southernmost reaches of the Dandenongs.