Wallumattagul PeoplePrint Page

The plaque commemorates the traditional owners of the area, the Wallumattagul People, and also demonstrates a positive attitude to the reconciliation process.

During the Bicentennial celebrations in 1988, the council followed advice from a committee of Fred Lehany, Nancy Keesing and Geoff Grace and named an inlet on the Parramatta Foreshore near Gladesville Reserve as Wallumatta Bay to commemorate an aboriginal language group which had lived in the area. This is now on the State maps. It was intended that the inlet would be commemorated with a sign. Fred Lehany, Nancy Keesing and Geoff Grace have since died.

In 2000, the group Bennelong and Surrounds Citizens for Reconciliation proposed to Hunters Hill Council that the identification of the site would demonstrate that Hunters Hill citizens have a positive attitude to the aboriginal reconciliation process.

The Wallumattagal, named the area around the Ryde/Hunters Hill area Wallumatta. Wallumatta is said to mean place of rushes, probably after the spiny rush plant (lomandra longifolia) which grows prolifically in the area Both the flowers and the succulent white leaf base were edible and the seeds could be used in damper. The leaves were used to weave bags. The first encounter of the Wallemattagal with the white settlers was on 2/2/1788 but by 1789 large numbers of their people had died from the small pox. As people whose history was passed on orally, most of the language and culture was lost to future generations.

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