Gadigal

Pre-colonisation history

The Gadigal people originally inhabited the area that they call "Gadi", which lies south of Port Jackson, covering today's Sydney central business district and stretching from South Head across to Marrickville/ with part of the southern boundary lying on the Cooks River. They are the traditional owners of Sydney Cove, the site of the first British settlement in Australia. Cadi (or Gadi) in the local Dharug dialect meant below or under, indicating that the Cadi-gal belonged to the land below Port Jackson.

Philip Gidley King gave Long Cove as the western boundary which lieutenant governor David Collins identified with present-day Darling Harbour. Arthur Phillip in a letter to Lord Sydney in February 1790 also reported: "From the entrance of the harbour, along the south shore, to the cove adjoining this settlement the district is called Cadi, and the tribe Cadigal; the women, Cadigalleon".

The Gadigal are coastal people who were previously dependent on the harbour for providing most of their food whilst they were living in their traditional lands. They are one of seven clans from coastal Sydney who speak a common language and have become known as the Eora people. "Eora" refers to "people" or "of this place" in Dharug language.

British colonisation of Gadigal country

Soon after his arrival at Port Jackson, Governor Arthur Phillip estimated the Aboriginal population of the area at around 1,500 people, although other estimates range from as low as 200 to as high as 4,000. The Gadigal clan was estimated to have 50-80 people.

The colonisation of the land by British settlers and the subsequent introduction of infectious diseases including smallpox decimated the Gadigal people and their neighbours. The 1789 smallpox epidemic was estimated to have killed about 50% of the Eora population, with only three Gadigal survivors. However, archaeological evidence suggests that some Gadigal people may have escaped to the Concord area and settled there. Since colonisation and its subsequent spread, most Gadigal people have been displaced from their traditional lands.

The former Marrickville Council area, now part of Inner West Council, is situated within Gadigal country and bordering Wangal country. In 1994 the Marrickville Aboriginal Consultative Committee was established and the committee established the Cadigal/Wangal peoples' website.

Gadigal elder Allen Madden estimates that several hundred Dharug people, including at least a hundred Gadigal people in his own family, live in Sydney today.

Popular culture

Australian band Midnight Oil included a song "Gadigal Land" as a single in their The Makarrata Project mini-album project. The song includes a verse written and spoken by Gadigal poet Joel Davison. A statement from Sony Music Australia explained: "It is a provocative recount of what happened in this place, and elsewhere in Australia, since 1788".

In October 2023, the New South Wales government renamed a Sydney Metro station to Gadigal railway station whilst it was under construction, which had formerly been named as Pitt Street station.

Notable people

Nanbaree was a young Gadigal boy who survived the smallpox outbreak in 1789. He was taken to the British colonial outpost at Sydney and became an important interpreter between the Indigenous people and the colonisers.

Notes

References

Sources

• {{Cite web | access-date = 10 March 2021
• {{Cite news | access-date = 10 March 2021
• {{cite news | access-date = 8 August 2020
• {{cite web | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070831074503/http://www.australiast.uts.edu.au/ARCHIVE/CAM01.shtml | access-date = 24 May 2007 | archive-date = 31 August 2007
• {{cite book| title = The History of Small-Pox in Australia, 1788-1908
• {{Cite web | access-date = 10 March 2021
• {{cite web | access-date = 8 August 2020
• {{cite web | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140519063440/http://cadigalwangal.org.au/ClientSite/Home.aspx | access-date = 19 May 2014 | archive-date = 19 May 2014
• {{cite web | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150924085257/http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/education/Resources/indigenous_people_of_sydney# | access-date = 11 April 2017 | archive-date = 24 September 2015
• {{cite web | access-date = 8 August 2020
• {{cite web | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140519062650/http://www.marrickville.nsw.gov.au/en/community/get-involved/advisory-and-consultative-committees/aboriginal-consultative-committee/ | access-date = 19 May 2014 | archive-date = 19 May 2014
• {{cite news | access-date = 10 February 2018
• {{Cite web | access-date = 11 March 2021
• {{cite news | access-date = 10 February 2018
• {{Cite web | access-date = 10 March 2021
• {{cite web | author-link = Norman Tindale | access-date = 22 July 2017 | archive-date = 8 April 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170408011950/http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/eora.htm | url-status = dead
• {{cite journal | title = Smallpox at Sydney Cove – who, when, why?

References

1. Attenbrow, Val. (2010). "Sydney's Aboriginal Past: Investigating the archaeological and historical records". University of New South Wales Press Ltd.
2. (2013). "Aboriginal people and place". Sydney Barani.
3. [https://archive.org/details/b28762964/page/412/mode/1up?q=long+cove An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, John Hunter, 1793]
4. [https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12565/pg12565-images.html An Account of the English Colony In NSW, Vol 1., David Collins, 1798]
5. [https://archive.org/details/historicalrecord1pt2sidnuoft/page/309/mode/1up?q=+cove+ Historical Records of New South Wales, Vol. I Part 2. - Phillip 1783-1792, Britton 1892]
6. (2013). "Aboriginal people and place". Sydney Barani.
7. (13 April 2018). "Smallpox epidemic".
8. (20 April 2002). "City of Sydney: Aboriginal People & Place". Gadigal Information Service.
9. (8 August 2023). "Indigenous name slated for new Sydney metro station".
10. (19 October 2023). "New CBD metro station named Gadigal Railway Station".
11. (20 October 2023). "This new Sydney CBD metro station has been named in recognition of the land's traditional custodians".
12. (1994). "Nanbaree". Muhlings.