Victorian History floats on Aboriginal Stringy Bark Canoes across flooded rivers.

Question. Did you know that Original and European people built the economy of Victoria together through Entrepreneurship and technology that fell out of account in the 20th century, untaught and forgotten?

There were no bridges in Victoria in the 1800s. In their Stringybark canoes, the original people of Victoria helped transport European people and goods across rivers.

Recently an analysis of the Victorian parliament found the representation of women in parliament was low, but Indigenous of a state population of 0.8% at 0% representation.

This example by Victoria does not mean any other state is more considerate in recognising and sharing with indigenous people, as Aboriginal people are still in many instances being classed as non-contributors to Australian History.

“The Aboriginal inhabitants of this country are a harmless, liberal, kind-hearted race; remarkably simple in all their manners. On our first settling among them, they not only abstained from all acts of hostility but showed us every kindness in their power. Though we were invaders of their country and they had, therefore, a right to treat us as enemies, when any of us lost ourselves in the bush and were thus completely in their power, these noble-minded people shared with us their scanty and precarious meal, suffered us to rest for the night in their camp, and in the morning directed us on our way. It is unnecessary to adduce instances in support of facts attested by many witnesses and well known to the community”

— Sydney Gazette, 20 April 1827.

A Majority of Australians do not comprehend or do not know Australian history.

You cannot look at any part of Australian History without finding Indigenous people attached to it like glue. Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australia are chained together in Australia's Foundation records. Hardly any industry in Australian history was built without the contribution of the original ancestor's sweat and indentured labour. Many of these contributions stand out and demand respect from us today if we are to truly walk together as brothers and sisters into the future.

We can't just talk about our history and relationship in Australia when it is convenient, yet walk past each other on the street or do not sit down with each other at school, work or at the dinner table. These conversations need to go beyond any aboriginal group, community or family. Indigenous Australians are a sharing and caring people, not suicide bombers or a group of people out to target Australia because of the past actions and atrocities committed against them. We want non-Indigenous Australians to share with us as brothers and sisters do. It saddens me when I do not see the same human concern, loyalty and love shown to Aboriginal people in 2024 as they have Australia after two centuries of patience.

Stringy Bark Canoes, building Victoria.

Many times when a conversation pops up about original history, many non-indigenous Australians jump to the conclusion of the conversation leading straight to the massacres and mistreatment. This is part of the historical story and reality of Australia that binds all who now reside on this landmass and all who call it home today.

Rufus River Massacre (State Library of Victoria, IMP27/07/66/308, engraving by Samuel Calvert)

This episode of Australian history is uncommon and one you may not have heard before, certainly not taught in school growing up in Australia. This part of history has been shelved and forgotten for 100 years but has now been brought back to life today, and one I feel is very important to share.

*The original people of Victoria skills and technology fell out of records in the 20th century. Image by Culture Victoria.

Victoria Early Settlement

The Original people of what is now known as Australia managed waterways across the continent. In Victoria, the land's original people made Stone Fish Traps and water ecology sites that predate Stonehenge and the Pyramids and the history behind the building of the economy and wealth of Australia stand out.

“Led our horses into the stony rises: masses of larve, steep stone - horse could barely walk - plenty ash hills, round sharp layrs, plenty huts of dirt and others built of stones…At the native camp they had oven baking roots…Stone houses, stone weirs…”

Mt Napier bore north and Mt Eels WNW (Robinson 20/3/1842 in Clark 2000c: 42)

Budj Bim World Heritage Site - Victoria - Over 6000 years old.

The recent documentary ‘Seeing the land from an aboriginal canoe’ brings back the history of the original people of Victoria and their unacknowledged economic example of contribution to Australia’s foundation. 

An area at the bank of the Murray River. In the foreground, the Aborigines are making a canoe out of the bark of the red rubber tree. On the river, there is an Aboriginal family with dogs who are crossing the Murray River in a bark canoe. By Gustav Mützel - Australia – William Blandowski’s Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, Public Domain.

“In a real crucial way Aboriginal people were part of the foundation and the mapping out of Victoria as we know it today”

— Lucinda Horrocks - Seeing the land from an Aboriginal canoe - Culture Victoria

Bark was stripped from the tree. It was fired to shape, seal and make it watertight, then moulded into a low-freeboard flat-bottomed craft. In this Canoe of, Busby Park [Gippsland, Victoria], 25th November [1860] The hand paddles are shown on the left, adjusted.
Eugene von Guerard: Volume 11: Sketchbook XXXII, No. 13-14 Australian. 1860-1861. State Library of NSW

*Original ferry service for the newcomers to Victoria. Image by Culture Victoria

Making a Bark Canoe.1888. Inland, NSW?
Ellis Rowan. from Garran: Picturesque Atlas of Australasia (1886-1888) page 711.

Filmmaker Lucinda Horrocks highlights how the original people made a significant contribution to the early economy of Victoria in the 1800s, with canoes being used as transport to help the new European arrivals.

*From station life in New South Wales. 1883. Image by Culture Victoria.

During the arrival of the British and migrants to Victoria in the early 1800s, the original people's entrepreneurship helped to build Victoria. There were no bridges built-in Victoria back then, and flooding made it hard for settlement. Without the help of the original ancestors and their Stringy Bark canoes, there would be no Victoria as we know it today. The Australian postal service, e-commerce deliverer, bus and taxi service in the 1800s were all pretty much placed in the hands of the original owners. By transporting all new arrivals and goods in and out of Victoria, they established the major trade and transport system that helped build Victoria.

*From station life in New South Wales. 1883. Image by Culture Victoria.

The original ancestors of the area guided the people, cattle and pets across the Murray. Alfred Howitt conducted geological research and wrote about how he depended on Aboriginal guides to build, and man canoes for ferrying his exploration team across rivers. In one instance, a piano was even ferried by a canoe. Many new arrivals in Victoria also could not swim at the time and were transported across the river in original Stringybark canoes.

When the big floods arrived, many lost their lives or were trapped in floodwaters. The original ancestors were again there to help and save many British and early migrants. Even through the pain and struggle they faced brought by the new arrivals to their country, they were still standing there as a brother or sister when the invaders of their land needed them. These were very different times to live as an ‘Aboriginal person’. Aboriginal people were still being badly treated, shot or killed.

One of the worst floods in Australia’s history happened in Gundagai in 1852. The local elders warned the town people that previous floods had covered the tops of the large gum trees, and the marks of former floods water levels were visibly higher than the last flood of 1844. The townspeople ignored the warnings and still purchased and built on properties in town. Many settlers lost their lives in the floodwaters, public buildings were swept away, and the property damage was devastating. One aboriginal man stands out during the 1852 flood named ‘Yarrie’. He worked as a shepherd at Nangus station and played an important part in rescuing many of the townsfolk.

*Depiction of last flood in N.S.W. Image by Culture Victoria

During raging floodwaters, Yarrie went out on his canoe and plucked people hanging on to their houses or rooftops, saving them from almost certain death and risking his own life simultaneously. He walked away and helped save 49 rescued lives single-handedly without asking for any reward or payment, yet he and his people still lived in very harsh conditions. An estimation of around 100 people perished during the flood.

In Geelong around 1840, an unidentified aboriginal man helped a domestic servant lost in the bush. She tells of him cutting a piece of bark from a tree used for a canoe, placing her on it, and paddling her across the river. J. Cary, ‘Canoes of Geelong Aboriginals’, Geelong Naturalist 1, (1904): 36.

“There were no V.C.’s or George Medals for bravery back in the fifties. If there had been, the great Australian hero - Yarrie – would have ‘copped the lot.”

— Gundagai Independent. 26 June 1952.

Original Wonder Women - A hero of her time.

Aboriginal women 1886, Print

Another notable case is of an aboriginal woman and her stringybark canoe, who went out and saved a group of men at Moe. One European over-landing party in the 1870s were afraid to cross the flooded water and had eaten all their supplies when this wonder woman found them. When she heard them cooee-ing, she crossed the flooded waters, not once, but twice, bringing them tea, sugar and damper. These men's lives were in this aboriginal woman's hands, the party depended on her canoeing and bush skills for their survival, or they probably would have met their maker in the bush.

Woman and child in a canoe. 1805. Artist unknown. State Library N.S.W

The representation of women in Parliament should have improved decades ago. Women's role in the foundation of what is now 'Australia demands respect in all areas.

The use of stringybark canoes goes right into the time of the Goldrush as still Victoria's major transport and trade system. Victorian history is an example of Aboriginal contribution to the foundation of the country now known as Australia. It is time we start re-teaching history in a more shared way, and Victoria is a perfect example. These moments in history stand out and demand our respect. In a historical conversation involving Aboriginal people, many Australians must go beyond that first conclusion. The honest re-telling of history needs to be in every school curriculum and taught to every Australian child sitting in a school chair. Teaching the kids what we were not in school is correcting the mistakes and the only way to move forward together.

*Night Fishing. Sketch by S.T. Gill. Image credit Culture Victoria

We acknowledge the original owners, ancestors, and elders past and present of the region known today as ‘Victoria’

Find out more on Stringy Bark canoes below

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#Cover image attribute to Culture Victoria

*Images credited to Culture Victoria, under ‘fair use’ - Any reproduction and sale may be subject to copyright?

*Video from Wind and Sky productions on Culture Victoria via Youtube

Further Sources and Information

Seeing the land from an aboriginal canoe - Culture Victoria

“To many white men- analysis of Victorians new parliament reveals diversity gap persists” by The Gaurdian

Melbourne's invisible Indigenous history - ABC

Melbourne's invisible Indigenous history - itunes ABC podcast

Film explores significance of Aboriginal entrepreneurship in Victoria during colonial times - ABC