| Aboriginal Occupation
| 
Source: SA Museum
|
There is evidence of longstanding Aboriginal occupation in the Murray-Darling Basin. The Negrito Aboriginal people arrived in Australia some 50,000 years ago and reached the Murray around 40,000 years ago. Deep deposits of mussel shells indicate that Aboriginals have long been dependent on the River Murray. The Murray Valley provided the Aborigines with a permanent water supply; an abundance of food, ceremonial centres and raw materials for shelter, clothing, tools, weapons and transport.
The oldest Aboriginal remains known on mainland Australia were found in sand dunes near Lake Mungo in Western New South Wales, where Aboriginals occupation continued until 18,000 years ago when the waters of the lake dried up. Aboriginal names for the Murray included INDI, near its source, MILLEWA around ECHUCA, and MURRUNDI for a section of the river in South Australia.
The Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal people from the Lower Murray have a Dreaming story of the way the Murray was formed. It reads:
| In the Dreaming, Ngurunderi (a Dream Time hero) travelled down the River Murray in a bark canoe, in search of his two wives who had run away from him. At the time the River was only a small stream below the junction with the Darling River. Ponde (a giant cod fish) swam ahead of Ngurunderi, widening the river with sweeps of its tail. Ngurunderi chased the fish, trying to spear it from his canoe. Near Murray Bridge he threw a spear, but it missed and became Long Island. At Tailem Bend he threw another: the giant fish surged ahead and created a long straight stretch in the River. At last, with the help of Nepele (the brother of Ngurunderi’s wives), Ponde was speared after it had left the River Murray and had swam into Lake Alexandrina. Ngurunderi divided the fish with his stone knife and created a new species of fish from each piece… |
<Back to History of the Murray>
|
