History

This is the time that our ancestor beings walked the land, creating Country in their wake. Ranges formed, rivers flowed, rocks were laid down; plants, trees, animals, birds, and people all came into being. Embedded in Country is our Law and knowledge. A web of connectivity that speaks to us of the cycle of the seasons, the movement of our animals, and the responsibilities & obligations that each of us hold in maintaining the balance of Country. Because of this law, Bunuba Country has prospered under our stewardship for more than 46,000 years. Through our ongoing practices of story, art, song, dance and ceremony, our law and knowledge has passed down across 2,000 generations of Bunuba families.

Abel Tasman made the first confirmed landing of a European on the Kimberley coastline in 1644, followed by William Dampier in 1688. But it wasn’t until January 1838 that the first malngarri made their way inland through the Kimberley. Charles Grey was the first European to site our river Bandaralngarri, which he named the Fitzroy River in honour of Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle.

William Lukin and J. H. Monger were two of the earliest became the first pastoralists in the West Kimberley. Arriving with 1800 sheep in 1882, they set up the Lennard River Station on Unggumi Country, just to the north of Bunuba land. Pastoralism spread across Bunuba Country, notably in 1884 with the establishment of Lillimooloora Station at Limulurra, 5km southeast of Bandilngan (Windjana Gorge). The natural divide of Miliwundi range between the East and West Kimberley, also determined the form of pastoralism. For the first 10 years, sheep farming was the common colonial practice on the lands to the west of these ranges.

When the first colonists had come to Bunuba Country, our ancestors assumed that this was a temporary incursion and paid them little attention. But as the malngarri spread across our land, their practices began to impact on our country, and on the lives and customs of our people. Unfenced livestock destroyed a lot of our native vegetation which in turn ravaged the natural habitat of many of smaller animals. Although our ancestors tried to maintain their traditional lifestyles, the encroachment of the stations and the impact on our vegetation and native animals meant that there were no longer the food sources to support our families.

For reasons of both cultural and personal survival, it wasn’t long after the arrival of the malngarri that our ancestors responded. Spearing sheep and cattle, along with night-time raids of the homestead gardens and kitchen, became vital sources of food. But the response from the colonisers was swift and violent. Whipping and imprisonment were the formalised responses to the spearing of livestock. Those found guilty were marched in neck chains across the hot flat plains to Derby, where they could be sentenced to up to 3 years in the cold gaols of Rottnest Island.

Our ancestors became more brazen in their raids, hoping to destabilise the small malngarri community. Protected by their knowledge of Country and the natural defences offered by the balili (limestone) of Ganimbiri (the Oscar Range) and Napier Range, these resistance fighters did all they could to ensure the survival of the people and culture. In retaliation the colonisers became increasingly violent, and the lands became stained with the blood of our dawangarri (people). By the 1890s the situation could not be described as anything less than genocide.

This began the deadliest period in our colonised history. Bands of armed malngarri scoured the land in pursuit of Jandamarra, using his name as the excuse to shoot down or arrest any groups of Bunuba people they came across, regardless of their actions. The killings were not isolated to Bunuba Country. All along the Fitzroy Valley, our countrywomen and men were being massacred.

In 1898 the last of Bunuba Country was invaded with the establishment of Yarrangi (Leopold Station) and the expansion of Brooking Springs. We adopted some of the ways of the station life of the pastoralists and the value of our skills and labour is undeniable. It remains widely known that the stations of the Kimberley would not have been profitable without Indigenous labourers, though this was never formally nor financially recognised. From children as young as seven, we were pressed into work on the land. Shepherding, fencing, cleaning, droving, shearing, cart-driving, along with the domestic work of our women, were just some of the many roles that we were expected to perform. And all of this for no wages, just the ‘standard issue’ of blanket and clothing, plus the limited weekly rations of tea, flour, sugar and tobacco. These foods had to be supplemented by bush tucker and if we were lucky enough, a benevolent station manager might share the occasional bucket of milk or fresh meat from a ‘killer’ (cattle killed for station consumption).

We had little autonomy during this time, and we were considered the property of the stations we worked for. Anyone found to be running away from station life, was either returned back or given a prison sentence and then sent back to the station from which they had left. There was an unspoken agreement that no station owner would take on any Indigenous stockmen who had left another property without having been released from their role by their current manager. In time, we adjusted to life on the stations and we continued to look after our sacred places, while working for the malngarri. In bulurru our wet season time, we would be stood down from our duties on the station, and we could return to Country, to conduct ceremony and reconnect with our countrymen and women.

When the Equal Wages law was passed, many of the landowners argued that they could not afford to pay Indigenous labourers, nor to provide to extended families, and we staged our walk-off. First, we left Yarranggi Leopold Downs where we walked 170kms across the ranges and plains to Brooking Station. There, meeting the rest of our family and kin, we followed the river downstream to Fitzroy Crossing. There was one old car that drove back and forth bringing into town as many of the elderly people as it could. For everyone else we walked the 20kms, young and old, cats and dogs, and everything else in between. When we got to Fitzroy, we settled down near where the old township was located and soon found ourselves on the ration line.

The 1970s also saw great changes as people sought to return to country and establish outstations. In the 1970s Junjuwa community was built on an area of land sub-leased from, and adjacent to, the United Aborigines Mission. This was the first community with structured housing built within the township, and it was our Bunuba people who were employed in the vision and construction of this space that we could now make our home. This was followed by the establishment of the Darlngunaya community next to the banks of the river in the early 1990s. In 2004, at Burawa, the site of the old Mission, new houses were built for our community. In the same year land excised from Brooking Springs Station was developed for the Bungardi community. Although Bunuba people are spread far and wide, most of our town-based people remain in these 4 communities today.

In 1992 with the support of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) we were able to take ownership of Yarranggi (Leopold Downs). We increased our holdings again in 1994 with the acquisition of Miluwindi station, and then Yuwa (Fairfield) station in 1995. These stations together add up to around one third of Bunuba country, and it was a very happy time to be able to return to these stations, and manage them, on our terms.

Bunuba Country now encompasses pastoral lands and conservation areas. Since the early 1960s we have collaborated with Parks & Wildlife WA (under their various organisational names) in protecting the conservation values of our Country. In 1963 Dimalurru (then Tunnel Creek) National Park was established, followed in 1967 by Danggu (then Geikie Gorge). In 1971 the last of the Conservation & National Parks was set up at Bandilngan (then Windjana Gorge). In 1994 the Conservation Parks were extended to include Jungiwa (then Brooking Springs) and the Balili (previously Devonian Reef) Conservation Parks. Finally in 2000 the Miliwundi (then King Leopold Ranges) Conservation Park was established, which also includes Darrambal (then Lennard Gorge).

Seeking to protect more of our Country through the conservation and tourism opportunities that Parks & Wildlife WA can offer us, we have a new ILUA with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions for the creation of the new Bunuba National Park. Covering 143,000 hectares, this new Park will protect our life source Bandaralngarri (Fitzroy River), as well as other cultural, environmental, and economic values that Country provides us.