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Dyarubbin at Dorumbolooa, where the river turns...

Dyarubbin at Dorumbolooa, where the river turns spectacularly into Kent Reach June 2020

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McGarvie’s list and Aboriginal Dyarubbin

Subjects

Aboriginal Natural Environment Religions and Beliefs Rivers and Catchments

Places

Hawkesbury district Sackville (Dorumbolooa) Wowawme

Natural features

Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin)

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Karskens, Grace

Professor Grace Karskens teaches Australian history at the University of New South Wales. Her research interests include colonial, urban and environmental history. Grace's books include the award winning 'The Rocks: Life in Early Sydney' and 'The Colony: A History of Early Sydney' which won the 2010 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Non-Fiction

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

Rivers and Catchments

Natural Environment

Religions and Beliefs

Aboriginal

Sackville (Dorumbolooa)

North-western rural suburb, named after Viscount Sackville, British Secretary of State for the Colonies. It is the site of the Sackville Ferry, a cable car ferry crossing Hawkesbury River. The Aboriginal name for the area shared by local people with the Rev John McGarvie in 1826 is Dorumbolooa.

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Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin)

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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.

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.

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Wowawme

Area on the Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin) at Sackville. The name was shared by local Aboriginal people with the Rev John McGarvie in 1829 as he wrote a list of place names used by the Darug and Darkinyung people along the river. Wowaw- refers to the Ancestral monster fish Waway or Wau-waiy, while ‘-me’ is the Being’s eye.The river is very deep at this point, and the hollows of the formidable cliffs above look like heavily-browed eyes, watching down the river reach.

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