along the waterways of the Big Scrub. The relationships that formed as a result of this contact were largely cordial, as the cedar getters used the local knowledge of the Bundjalung to locate stands of valuable timber.45 As the pace of white settlement increased through the 1880s, the impact of European settlement on the Bundjalung peoples’ traditional lifestyle increased, as it became increasingly difficult to maintain hunting and ceremonial practices. Aboriginal people began to camp on the outskirts of white settlements, as had happened in other parts of NSW settled earlier. The Aboriginal Protection Board (APB) had been formed with the task of creating and implementing policies designed to mitigate against conflict occurring between Aboriginal people and the newcomers. In 1887, the APB gazetted the Dunoon Aboriginal Reserve (now Modanville) in the hope that the local Aborigines would abandon their traditional lands, leaving them available to white selectors, whilst residing within the boundaries of the reserve. The reserve was situated on poor quality land and thus did little to attract local Aborigines, who were more interested in obtaining independent farming lands or continuing to camp on their traditional lands in the area.46 However, eventually the reserve did accommodate more of the local Aboriginals. In 1910, a traditional corroborree was held at the reserve, which attracted great attention in the local papers and was one of the first large corroborrees to be held in many years.47 As part of the process of contact, the inevitable massacres of the local Aboriginal peoples occurred, as it had in every region into which the European settlers had moved. Although relations were often cordial at first, once settlers began to take up land and begin keeping stock, conflicts would begin. These conflicts could arise from the hunting of stock by the Aboriginal peoples, anger at their sites being interfered with or just simple competition for ever decreasing natural resources as the native landscape was cleared. The massacre of over 100 Aboriginals at Ballina in 1846 was only one such example within the Bundjalung lands, with another massacre on the Orara further south another recorded example of the growing friction between the two peoples. Massacres were not just perpetrated with guns, as often whole families and clans were eliminated using arsenic infused damper, or individuals and small families would be eliminated, with no or little record kept of their deaths.48 By the early 20th Century, encroachment on traditional Aboriginal lands by white settlers meant that opportunities for Aborigines maintaining some level of independence became increasingly limited. This led to the growth in importance of the Dunoon Aboriginal Reserve as an Aboriginal settlement.49 During research for this report, no reference was found that indicated the location of the early reserve, however it is likely to be the same location that later references call ‘the Pinnacle’.50 S 14T(1)(d), S 14T(1)(f), S 14T(1)(g), S 14T(3)(a), S 14T(3)(b), S 14T(5)(b)
.51 Hundreds of people used the site until the Aboriginal Protection Board built a manager’s residence and all 45
Alexander, M and Hobbs, D. 2010. Old Bar Precinct 3: Aboriginal Heritage Assessment. Ainsworth Heritage. p.30. Heritage Concepts for Parsons Brinkerhoff Australia Pty Ltd. 2006. Aboriginal and Historic Archaeological and Cultural Heritage Assessment and Statement of Heritage Impact-Rous Water Lismore Source. Lismore. p.24. 46
47 48
Northern Star, 13 June 1910 and 30 June 1910. Accessed via www.trove.nla.gov.au Elder, B. 2002. Blood on the Wattle: Massacres and Maltreatment of Aboriginal Australians Since 1788. New
Holland Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd, Sydney. p.235. 49 Ibid. p.25. 50 RRHS File. Wiyabal Bundjalung 51 Pers Comm S 14T(1)(d), S 14T(3) .
48 Proposed Dunoon Dam – Heritage Impact Assessment
