The next exhibition to be held at the Bangalow Historical Society’s museum, titled Uncovering our Past, explores life in our area before white settlement. In preparing for the exhibition, Tanya Pearson, one of the museum’s team of expert researchers, delved into the archives at Southern Cross University, where she works as librarian. Tanya came up with some fascinating references and descriptions about what was found on arrival in this area, written by the first settlers and government surveyors. “Thankfully we have books in our collection that help us piece together our local history,” she said. “Over the years, we have gathered together and saved the records, research and knowledge of so many people and organisations. Together, this paints a picture of the Big Scrub, before and after the arrival of white settlers.” These findings form the basis of this exhibition.
Volunteers operating the Bangalow Historical Society rooms are often asked who lived around here before white settlement, and where they lived. While it is well known that there were seaside camps around Byron Bay and inland in the Lismore area, far less is known about the area we now know as Bangalow 2479.
An article by geographer and academic D.N. Jeans, from The University of Sydney, describes what was going on before 1861, when Sir John Robertson’s Crown Lands Alienation Act came into being. ‘When a piece of country was wanted for private ownership and alienation from the Crown, a government surveyor made a plan of the portion to be alienated,’ it explains in his chapter in the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service book, Rainforest Remnants.
So the Crown owned everything, until the land was surveyed and could be purchased from the Crown, a process called “alienation”. The original “portion plans” are kept in the Plan Room at the Lands Department in Sydney, appropriately numbered. Not only do these portion plans refer to land of a particular size, they also ‘contain information about vegetation at the time of alienation’, D.N. Jeans explained. (Before the land was officially documented in this way, it may well have been settled by squatters – but that’s another story.)
By 1864 the Crown issued new instructions to its surveyors. Not only did they have to mark the corner trees around each plan they identified, they also had to mark ‘the boundaries of swamps, forests, plains, lands liable to inundations…the geological and mineralogical character of lands surveyed, the suitability for towns, for cultivation and building purposes, the supply of water and indigenous produce as timber, grass etc’, the same chapter reveals. After 1864, the surveyors’ descriptions included the names of tree species, and commented on soils.
You may have heard that at the time of settlement, the Big Scrub covered 75,000 hectares. In The Big Scrub Rainforest – a Journey Through Time, there’s a description of this land of the Bundjalung people, who ‘held a belief that the land belonged to them, and they belonged to it’.
‘The Big Scrub was a unique feature of the Bundjalung Country, which stretches south to the Clarence River, north to Beaudesert, and west to the Great Dividing Range’, it reads in that book. ‘The natural features and landforms that formed their Country, including the Big Scrub, were understood to be the creation of their Dreamtime ancestors. Bundjalung people’s relationship with the landscape was cyclical, shaped in accordance with seasonal changes and renewal. This contrasted with the thinking of the Europeans, who believed that mankind was on a forward trajectory of linear progress’.
While we may not have found out specifically where in 2479 the Bundjalung people of this time lived, writings of early European surveyors and settlers clearly documented what food was available. ‘The Big Scrub harboured an incredible diversity of plant and animal life that was hunted and gathered, by Bundjalung people for food and other needs’, it continues in that book. ‘This comprised nuts and berries, roots and fruit. Forestdwelling animals included snakes and birds. Possums provided pelts for body coverings, and vines, rushes and grasses the material for bindings, baskets and bags. Creeks and streams were a critical source of fresh water, as well as sustaining tortoises and other creatures, also hunted. Waterfalls, highpoints and other landforms and features scattered throughout the Big Scrub landscape embodied cultural stories that tell of the interconnectedness of the landscape and all that lived upon it.’
The Bangalow Historical Society is producing a short film with Delta Kay, from Explore Byron Bay. Delta takes tours of the land around the Bangalow Museum, Piccabeen Park, in which she points out edible bush tucker plants, and plants used for natural medicine, jewellery, fibre, tools and weapons. The film will reflect information shared in her tours.
The Uncovering our Past exhibition opens 21 September at the Bangalow Historical Society Museum, corner Ashton and Deacon Streets, Bangalow. It will feature beautiful line drawings of native plants and animals found in the area, drawn by Andy Erskine and Dailan Pugh, some of which will be for sale. Check out Bangalow Historical Society Facebook page for details.