Worimi

File:Dharag-Neighbors1.png

The Worimi's lands extended over {{convert|1,500|mi2|km2}} according to Norman Tindale, who specified that the tribal area encompassed the Hunter River to the coastal town of Forster near Cape Hawke. It reached Port Stephens and ran inland as far as roughly Gresford and in proximity of Glendon Brook, Dungog, and the upper Myall Creek. To the south, their territory extended to Maitland.{{sfn|Tindale|1974|pp=201–202}}

The Worimi were divided into four bands:

• Garuagal (the country adjoining Teleghery Creek and along the lower Hunter){{efn|Elkin states:'living along the tidal reaches of the Hunter River from its mouth to Maitland.' {{harv|Elkin|1932|p=360}}}}
• Maiangal (sea-shore south of Port Stephens, inland to Teleghery Creek)
• Gamipingal (northern side of Port Stephens, left bank of Karuah){{efn|Elkin adds:'and east of the Karuah River to Tea Gardens.' {{harv|Elkin|1932|p=360}}}}
• Buraigal (right bank of the Karuah up to Stroud){{efn|Elkin adds:' from Limeburner's Creek up to Stroud.' {{harv|Elkin|1932|p=360}}}}{{sfn|Enright|1932|p=76}}

{{main|Gathang language}}

The language of the Worimi peoples is Gathang, which is undergoing revival in the 21st century.{{cite web | title=Gathang (Birrbay, Guringay & Warrimay) | website=Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative | url=https://muurrbay.org.au/languages/gathang/ | access-date=10 August 2023}}

The Australian Agricultural Company was established upon an act of the British Parliament in 1824. The aim of the legislation was to further the cultivation and improvement of what it termed 'waste land' in the colony of New South Wales. In January 1826, a company agent, Robert Dawson (1782–1866), set up camp near the shoreline at Port Stephens. He confined his settlement activities to the coast, with farms on Stroud creek, outposts on the Manning River, stock-mistering in Gloucester Vale. Despite good reports, according to a modern historian, Dawson's numerous improvements,{{sfn|Flowers|1966}} were judged inadequate and the area around Port Stephen was seen as disappointing, with useless outskirts, the central zone rocky, steep and the Gloucester flats water-logged: sheep suffered from foot-rot.{{sfn|Roberts|2013|pp=57–58}} The Company wanted to push beyond the hills that hemmed the settlement in, and Dawson was dismissed for mismanagement and replaced by the Arctic explorer, William Parry.

Dawson himself soon after published a vindication, and then a glowing account of the area, together with an account of the Worimi. He found the Worimi a 'mild and harmless race', and attributed any harm they might cause to the maltreatment they received from settlers, who elsewhere had been shooting them like dogs.{{sfn|Dawson|1831|pp=51ff.}} Of the situation around Port Stephens, he wrote:

There has, perhaps, been more of this done near to this settlement, and on the banks of the two rivers which empty themselves into this harbor, than in any other part of the colony; and it has arisen from the speculators in timber..The natives complained to me frequently, that 'white pellow' (white fellows) shot their relations and friends; and showed me many orphans, whose parents had fallen by the hands of white men, near this spot. The pointed out one white man, on his coming to beg some provisions for his party up the river Karuah, who, they said, had killed ten;: and the wretch did not deny it, but said he would kill them whenever he could. It was well for him that he had no white man to depose to the facts, or I would have had him off to jail at once.'{{sfn|Dawson|1831|p=58}}

The Worimi fostered, cared for and lived on resources found within their country. Marine food, especially shell-fish were favoured by people living closest to the sea. Due to the reliability of this resource it may have been preferred over land animals and vegetables. The latter two were used as supplementary foods and added variety to their diet. Animals that were abundant included kangaroos and goannas, possums, snakes and flying foxes. Vegetables eaten included fern roots, stalks of the Gymea lily, and the bloom of the banksia.{{sfn|Sokoloff|1980}}

Today the Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council{{sfn|Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council}} is working closely with Worimi descendants to provide opportunities that promote, foster and protect the culture and heritage. In July 2016, the New South Wales Government recognised {{convert|5.9|ha|acre|1|abbr=on}} of the suburb of {{NSWcity|Soldiers Point}} as a place of historical value for Aboriginal people, noting the particular importance in cultural and spiritual terms that it held for the Worimi.{{sfn|Norris|2016|p=15}}

{{colbegin|colwidth=22em}}

• Bahree
• Cottong
• Gadang, Kutthung, Guttahn, Kattang (language name)
• Gingai/Gringai/Gooreenggai
• Karrapath/Carapath
• Kutthack
• Molo
• Port Stephens tribe
• Wannungine
• Warrangine (at Maitland)
• Warrimee/Warramie
• Wattung/ Watthungk

{{colend}}

Source: {{harvnb|Tindale|1974|p=202}}

• garua ('salt-water', hence the hordal name, 'Garua-gal', 'belonging to the salt water')
• gami ('spear', hence the name Gamipingal, 'belonging to the spear'){{sfn|Elkin|1932|p=360}}

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist|20em}}

{{refbegin|35em}}

• {{cite book| title = The Present State of Australia: A Description of the Country, Its Advantages and Prospects, with Reference to Emigration: and a Particular Account of the Manners, Customs, and the Condition of Its Aboriginal Inhabitants | edition = 2nd

| last = Dawson | first = Robert | year = 1831

| publisher = Smith, Elder & Co.

| url = https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.7610

| page = [https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.7610/page/n82 51] }}

• {{cite journal | title = Notes on the Social Organization of the Worimi, a Kattang-speaking people

| last = Elkin | first = A. P.

| author-link = A. P. Elkin

| journal = Oceania

| date = March 1932 | volume = 2 | issue = 3 | pages = 359–363

| doi = 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1932.tb00034.x | jstor = 27976153

}}

• {{cite journal | title = Initiation Ceremonies of the Aborigines of Port Stephens, N.S.W.

| last = Enright | first = Walter John

| author-link = Walter John Enright

| journal = Royal Society of New South Wales

| date = 5 July 1899 | pages = 115–124

| url = https://downloads.newcastle.edu.au/library/cultural%20collections/pdf/enrightjul1899.pdf

}}

• {{cite journal | title = The language, (Gadjang (also spelt Kattang, Kutthung, Gadhang, Gadang, Gathang), weapons and manufactures of the aborigines of Port Stephens

| last = Enright | first = Walter John

| author-link = Walter John Enright

| journal = Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales

| year = 1900 | volume = 34 | pages = 103–118

| doi = 10.5962/p.359339 | s2cid = 259733588 | url = https://downloads.newcastle.edu.au/library/cultural%20collections/pdf/enrightsept1900.pdf

}}

• {{cite journal | title = The Kattang (Kutthung) or Worimi: An Aboriginal Tribe

| last = Enright | first = Walter John

| author-link = Walter John Enright

| journal = Mankind

| date = March 1932 | pages = 75–77

| url = http://livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au/nodes/view/57475

}}

• {{cite book| title = Dawson, Robert (1782–1866)

| last = Flowers | first = E. | chapter = Robert Dawson (1782–1866) | year = 1966

| publisher = Melbourne University Press

| volume = 1 | series = Australian Dictionary of Biography

| url = http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dawson-robert-1969

}}

• {{Cite news| title = State government recognises Aboriginal significance of Soldiers Point land

| last = Norris | first = Sam

| newspaper = Port Stephens Examiner

| url = http://www.portstephensexaminer.com.au/story/4009765/aboriginal-heritage-recognised-at-soldiers-point/

| date = 4 July 2016

}}

• {{cite web| title = Port Stephens History

| publisher = Port Stephens Council

| url = http://www.portstephens.org.au/pages.asp?code=90

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070829000232/http://www.portstephens.org.au/pages.asp?code=90

| access-date = 12 September 2007 | archive-date = 29 August 2007

| ref = {{harvid|Port Stephens Council}}

}}

• {{Cite book| title = History of Australian Land Settlement

| last = Roberts | first = S.H. | year = 2013

| orig-year = First published 1969

| publisher = Routledge

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_UCgYXKEahUC&pg=PA422

| isbn = 978-1-136-26720-8

}}

• {{Citation| title = The Worimi: hunter gatherers at Port Stephens

| last = Sokoloff | first = Boris

| publisher = Raymond Terrace and District Historical Society | via = Trove

| url = http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/26803630

| date = 1980 | access-date = 8 November 2013

}}

• {{Cite book| chapter = Worimi (NSW)

| last = Tindale | first = Norman Barnett | year = 1974

| author-link = Norman Tindale

| title = Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names

| publisher = Australian National University Press

| chapter-url = http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/worimi.htm

| isbn = 978-0-708-10741-6

}}

• {{Cite book| title = The First Frontier

| last = Turbet | first = Peter | year = 2011

| publisher = Rosenberg Publishing

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gbvGAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA86

| isbn = 978-1-922-01300-2

}}

• {{cite web| title = Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council

| url = http://worimi.org.au/

| access-date = 11 June 2016

| ref = {{harvid|Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council}}

}}

{{refend}}

• [https://worimiconservationlands.com/the-worimi-warrimay-have-always-been-and-remain-today-the-traditional-custodians-of-a-large-area-of-land-the-worimi-nation-oral-history-passed-down-by-the-elders-record-that-the-w/ The Worimi] at Worimi Conservation Lands website

{{Aboriginal peoples in New South Wales}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales

Category:Port Stephens Council