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First page of John McGarvie's list of 'Native names of places on the Hawkesbury’ 1829

By
John McGarvie
From the collections of the
State Library of New South Wales
[A 1613, Poems and prose, 1825-1835, p25]
(Reverend John McGarvie papers, 1825-1847)

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Appears in
McGarvie’s list and Aboriginal Dyarubbin The Dyarubbin Project: Aboriginal history, culture and places on the Hawkesbury River
Subjects
Aboriginal Cultural and Language groups Diaries Geography and cartography Rivers and Catchments
Artefacts
Real Secret River: Dyarubbin project Rev John McGarvie's list of 'Native names of places on the Hawkesbury’ 1829
People
McGarvie, John
Natural features
Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin)
Places
Hawkesbury district

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McGarvie, John

Second Presbyterian minister in colonial Sydney, the first incumbent at Pitt Town and Ebenezer, and of St Andrews Scots Church. While living in the area, he recorded the names of places along the Hawkesbury River, or Dyarubbin, that local Aboriginal people shared with him. His papers are held in the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.

State Library of New South Wales

The Dyarubbin Project: Aboriginal history, culture and places on the Hawkesbury River

The winner of the State Library of NSW Coral Thomas Fellowship in 2018-19 was a collaborative project, The Real Secret River: Dyarubbin. Based on a list of Aboriginal words recorded along Dyarubbin (the Hawkesbury River) in the 1820s by Reverend John McGarvie that is held in the Mitchell LIbrary, winning the Fellowship allowed the team behind the project to work on the recovery, recognition and revitalisation of the river's Darug and Darkinjung history, culture and Language.

McGarvie’s list and Aboriginal Dyarubbin

This essay follows on from Introducing the Dyarubbin Project: Aboriginal history, culture and places on the Hawkesbury River, New South Wales

Aboriginal

Rivers and Catchments

Cultural and Language groups

Geography and cartography

Diaries

Rev John McGarvie's list of 'Native names of places on the Hawkesbury’ 1829

full record »

List of 178 Darug and Darkinyung names of places along Dyarubbin (Hawkesbury River)  compiled in 1829 by the Reverend John McGarvie, Presbyterian Minister at Ebenezer and Pitt Town, as he and his Aboriginal informant/s travelled along the riverbanks. The words appear in geographic order and often with locational clues, like settlers’ farms, creeks and lagoons. The list is in McGarvie's papers in the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

McGarvie, John

Second Presbyterian minister in colonial Sydney, the first incumbent at Pitt Town and Ebenezer, and of St Andrews Scots Church. While living in the area, he recorded the names of places along the Hawkesbury River, or Dyarubbin, that local Aboriginal people shared with him. His papers are held in the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.

full record »

Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin)

full record »

River that runs for 120 kilometres from the confluence of the Nepean and Grose rivers west of Sydney to Broken Bay north of Sydney. The Darug and Darkinjung people who lived along the river called it Dyarubbin.

Real Secret River: Dyarubbin project

Collaborative research project led by Professor Grace Karskens as the Coral Thomas Fellow at the State Library of New South Wales 2018-2019. Once every place on Dyarubbin and its tributaries had an Aboriginal name, reflecting ways in which this Country was understood, used and experienced. Now only a handful survive on maps and in common usage. Using a list made by Reverend John McGarvie in 1829 that records the place names used by the Aboriginal people along the Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin), a team of Darug people, historians, archaeologists and linguists identified the original locations, allowing for the recovery, recognition and revitalisation of the river's Aboriginal history, culture and Language.

full record »

Hawkesbury district

Area surrounding the Hawkesbury River to Sydney's north and north-west, which was important in early colonial agriculture and the site of the early towns of Richmond and Windsor.

full record »