ABOUT TOODYAY AREA (Page in development)

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For over 45,000 years Noongar tribes moved across this boodja (land).  Toodyay Valley is a culturally rich area and covered in fertile lands. Noongar people were highly active gathering and hunting foods; camping at sites; trading with others; managing their boodja; and, tending to cultural responsibilities.  For Noongar people this is a place where spirits and ancestors live.   

Noongar people achieved balance and adaptability through thousands of years of living in harmony with nature, across all six bonar (seasons). Noongar people know the season for hunting and harvesting by signs in nature.  

To be Noongar is to belong.  It is to have a connection to our waangkiny (languages); our boodja (land), to kaartdijin (knowledge) and to our moort (family).  Family is at the heart of Noongar culture. Noongar ancestral connections are like an intricate system of roots and our people are connected by kinship.  

The Toodyay area is unique being within boundaries of three Noongar tribes:  Yued, Ballardong and Whadjuk. Tribes had dedicated and distinct areas known as Karlerl (meaning home or camping place) and rights to certain waterholes and springs. People moved in extended moort (family groups) across these lands, and camps usually consisted of several small koornt (mia-mia huts).   

Yued (Toodyay Valley and north to Moora)    

Ballardong (to the east and inland toward Merredin)    

Whadjuk (to the west across to Perth and the coast) 

The Toodyay Valley area is covered in Aboriginal heritage sites.  Many are registered. All waterways are protected under the Aboriginal Heritage Act (WA) 1972 

Creation & Spirituality – A Time Before Time  

The nyitting (dreaming) is the Noongar ‘spiritual connection and ancestral times’.  A time before time when the Wagyl (spirit snake) rose from the earth and descended from the sky to create the land forms and all living things.  The Wagyl ensured that there was weirn (spirit) to look after boodja (country) and all that it encompassed.  

During the cooler months the Wagyl lives in springs in the Boolegin (Bolgart) area and frequents rocky slopes nearby. This place is known as magic swamp place or place of snake. The area along with the Toodyay Valley has spiritual importance as a course travelled by the Wagyl when making its way from Boolegin through the hills and valley, Gugulja (Avon River) waterways including Gnilgil (Redbank Pool) and on to Burlong Pool upstream of Narrjuk (Northam) during the hot season.    It is believed that some stones in the waterways in the valley area were eggs laid by the Wagyl and hold great significance. The Darling Scarp also represents the body of the Wagyl.  

Nyitting stories laid down the lore for social and moral order and established kaartdijin (knowledge), cultural patterns and customs.  Our kaartdijin is passed down by our Elders.  

Noongar spirituality lies in the belief of a cultural landscape and the connection between the human and spiritual realms. Everything has meaning and purpose. Life is a web of inter-relationships where maaman (men) and yorga (women) and nature are partners, and where kura (the past) is always connected to yey (present).    

Through our tradition of oral story-telling, paintings, music and kobori (dance) we are paying respect to our ancestral creators, and at the same time strengthening our belief systems.   

Ref: Noongar Kaartdijin Aboriginal Corporation local knowledge, Noongar Elder Rodney Garlett and some  information from the SWALSC cultural website:  www.noongarculture.org.au/

Noongar people have traditionally hunted and gathered food according to the six bonar (seasons). Bunuru, Djeran, Makuru, Djilba, Kambarang and Birak. The bonar tell us which animal and plant resources are plentiful at those times.   

Noongar people are known as the first carers of the land, they always believed that if you looked after the land the land would provide for you. Everything they needed came from the land: food, water, tools and medicines, along with shelter from the elements in caves and koornt (mia-mia).    

Maaman (men) and yorga (women) had different roles. Fishing and hunting for food such as yonga (kangaroo), koomal (possum) and yet (black duck) was traditionally carried out by maaman; while yorga gathered grasses and seeds, and harvested vegetables and roots, along with searching for bardi (witchetty grub), kooyar (frogs) and koonak (jilgies).    

Noongar people made stone tools for specific purposes. Stones shaped like axes, are call kodja. These were attached to a wooden handle for chopping and shaping wooden objects.  Others for cutting and slicing. Some tools were attached to spears using resin or yongka (kangaroo) sinews to create a handle, making the tool easier to use.   

To make flour, yorga would grind koonart (acacia seeds) with a round stone that fitted neatly into our hands. The flat stones are called mullers and would be worn smooth by grinding.  Meal time was generally a communal event, but often portions or parts of the food given were dictated by status such as Elder and some tribal customs.   

Noongar people would also ‘fire the country’ to drive game out and stimulate new growth.  This was a very effective technique but one that would cause enormous trouble to the early colonists. 

Noongar people have traditionally hunted and gathered food according to the six bonar (seasons) which are determined by the weather patterns and nature around us.    In our Noongar language these seasons are called:  

• Birak: Around December /January, the first summer. Season of the young.  Reptiles emerge from hibernation 
• Bunuru: Around February / March, the second summer. Season of adolescence. Children learn the art of tool making. 
• Djeran:  Around April / May, the autumn. Season of adulthood. Time of marriages and courtship ceremonies. 
• Makuru: Around June / July, the first rains. Fertility season.  Time for coast Noongar to travel to inland hunting areas. 
• Djilba: Around August / September, the second rains. Season of conception.  Rains fill lakes and waterholes 
• Kambarang: Around October / November, the wildflower season.  Season of birth. Carpets of flowers.  

For Noongar people, the bush is our gourmet delicatessen. We harvest many types of yurenburt (berries), karda (goanna), bardi (witchetty-grubs), yongka (kangaroo), turtles, and birds’ eggs. Food from the waterways such as djildjit (fish), wardan noorn (eel), cobbler, marron and jilgies are a major resource for Noongars.  

It is an important part of Noongar custom and lore to take only what you need from nature in order to maintain biodiversity.  By eating foods when they are abundant and in season, natural resources are not depleted and will still be available for the next year. As guardians of our country, we achieved balance and adaptability through thousands of years of living in harmony with the bush.  

For more information: 

This presentation provides an overview of the management and protection of Aboriginal cultural heritage in Western Australia, the review of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 and information on Indigenous Lands Use agreements and Native Title settlements in Western Australia. 

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