Aboriginal heritage
For Palawa (Tasmanian Aborginal people), the significance of Wellington Park, and particularly kunanyi / Mount Wellington, goes far beyond the presence or absence of artefacts. The Wellington Range is regarded as a cultural landscape, rich in lore and spiritual connection.
The mountain is associated with creation stories held close by Palawa. It is a sacred connection between earth and sky, between this world and the resting place of ancestors, and a threshold crossed by water falling as rain on the mountain before making its way down through the landscape to Timtumuli minanya (Derwent River).
The landscape is abundant in food, medicine and ceremonial resources, and enables the Palawa of today to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors. It is Palawa practice to greet the mountain and the mountain waters when setting foot on this country. Ya kunanyi!
In a conventional heritage sense, sandstone rock shelters and stone artefacts are visible reminders of the South East Tribe, one of nine tribes of Tasmanian Aboriginal people at the time of European settlement. Their country ranged from Storm Bay and the D’Entrecasteaux Channel (including Bruny Island) to South Cape, New Norfolk and the Huon Valley.
Within the tribe there were seven to nine bands or kinship units of 40 to 50 people. For the Muwinina people, the area around present day Hobart was their country. They called the mountain kunanyi, a name that has been revived by Palawa today.
The coastline of this country was rich with shellfish, and the land with birds and wallabies. The Muwinina used fire as a method to clear vegetation, and hunt wildlife. French expeditions in the late 18th Century reported extensive burning in the foothills of the Wellington Range by Aboriginal people.
Today, a high concentration of Aboriginal sites have been identified on the Derwent estuary, with occasional sites inland. Very few methodical surveys have been conducted in the hills around Hobart, and no systematic research has been undertaken in Wellington Park.
Stone artefacts have been found in the foothills of the mountain. All archaeological items are protected and of enormous significance to Palawa. It is a serious offence to remove artefacts without a permit under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1975 and offenders will be prosecuted. In addition to artefacts, Aboriginal values within Wellington Park are also protected under the Wellington Park Act 1993.
The South West Platform at the Pinnacle introduces the significance of the area for Aboriginal people prior to European settlement, and for the contemporary Aboriginal community. A key contributor to the panels on the platform, Greg Lehman, has also written extensively on the relationships between the Aboriginal community and sense of place.
Sourced from:
- The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Lyndall Ryan, 1996
- Draft Wellington Park, Values, Use and Management Inventory, 1996
- The mountain: a people’s perspective, Emily Stoddart, 2004
- Wellington Park Recreation Map, 2014
