Gweagal

 ( Aboriginal Peoples Of New South Wales ) 

The Gweagal (also spelt Gwiyagal) are a clan of the Tharawal people of Aboriginal Australians. Their descendants are traditional custodians of the southern areas of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

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Country The Gweagal lived on the area of the southern side of the Georges River and Botany Bay stretching towards the Kurnell Peninsula. Their traditional lands, while not clearly defined, might have extended over much of the area from Cronulla to as far west as Liverpool.

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Culture The Gweagal are the traditional owners of the white clay pits in their territory, which are considered sacred. Historically clay was used to line the base of their canoes so they could light fires, and also as a white body paint, (as witnessed by Captain James Cook). Colour was added to the clay using berries, which produced a brightly coloured paint that was used in ceremonies. It was also eaten as a medicine, an antacid. Persoonia and other local berries were mixed in the clay.

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Aboriginal rock shelters Natural and modified caves or rock shelters were utilised by the Gweagal, including during walkabout – seasonally guided maintenance of land and the "natural gardens" tended by the Aboriginal people. A rock cave collapse at Port Hacking before 1770 claimed many lives of the Gweagal. This cave was later dynamited, revealing many skeletons. In the Royal National Park some of the caves were used as burial sites. In tribal lands and Dreamtime places this cultural practice continues.

There is a large cave located in Peakhurst with its ceiling blackened from smoke. There are caves located around Evatt Park, Lugarno with oyster shells ground into the cave floor. A cave has also been discovered near a Baptist church in Lugarno, and another near Margaret Crescent, Lugarno (now destroyed by development), which was found to contain ochre and a spearhead on the floor of the cave when it was excavated. Another cave exists on Mickey's Point, Padstow, which was named after a local Gweagal man.

The Gweagal decorated their caves and homes with carvings, sculpture, beads, paintings, drawings and etchings using white, red and other coloured earth, clay or charcoal. Symbols such as "water well" with a red ochre hand directed newcomers to wells and water storage. Footprints on a line signalled that there were stairs or steps in the area. The dwellings had thermal mass which help to keep an even temperature year-round. Rugs, furs and woven mats provided further warmth and comfort. Fire was used to cook, produce materials and keep their shelters warm.

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Food source The territory of the Gweagal had much to offer. The Georges River provided fish and oysters. Various small creeks, most of which are now covered drains, provided fresh water. Men and women fished in canoes or from the shore using barbed spears and fishing lines with hooks that were crafted from crescent-shaped pieces of shell. Waterfowl could be caught in the swamplands near Towra Point and the variety of soils supported a variety of edible and medicinal plants. Birds and their eggs, possums, wallabies and goannas were also a part of their staple diet. The abundant food source meant that this group was less nomadic than those of Outback.

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Middens have been found all the way along tidal sections of the Georges River where shells, fish bones, and other waste products have been thrown into heaps. These, as well as environmental modifications such as dams, building foundations, large earthen excavations and wells, gives evidence of where the Gweagal established villages for long periods, and are found where oysters, fresh water, and strategic views come together. Middens have been found in Oatley, and Oatley Point was known as a feasting ground. In Lugarno a midden is still existent and may be found in Lime Kiln Bay.

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History

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First contact with Europeans The Gweagal first made visual contact with Cook and other Europeans on the 29 April 1770 in the area which is now known as "Captain Cook's Landing Place", in the Kurnell area of Kamay Botany Bay National Park. It was the first attempt made, on Cook's first voyage, in the Endeavour, to make contact with the Aboriginal people of Australia.

In sailing into the bay, Cook noted two Gweagal men posted on the rocks, brandishing spears and fighting sticks, and a group of four too intent on fishing to pay much attention to the ship's passage. Using a telescope as they lay offshore, approximately a kilometre from an encampment consisting of 6–8 , Joseph Banks recorded observing an elderly woman come out of the bush, with at first three children in tow, then another three, and light a fire. While busying herself, she looked at the ship at anchor without showing any perplexity. She was joined by the four fishermen, who brought their catch to be cooked.

When Cook and crew made their first landfall two Gweagal men came down to the boat to fend off what they thought to be spirits of the dead. They shouted " Warra warra wai," meaning "You are all dead," and gestured with their spears. Cook's party attempted to communicate their desire for water and threw gifts of beads and nails ashore. The two Aboriginal men continued to oppose the landing and Cook fired a warning shot. One of the Gweagal men responded by throwing a rock, and Cook fired on them with small shot, wounding one of them in the leg. The crew then landed, and the Gweagal men threw two spears before Cook fired another round of small shot and they retreated. The landing party found several children in nearby huts, and left some beads and other gifts with them. The landing party collected 40 to 50 spears and other artefacts.Blainey (2020). pp. 141–143

Cook and his crew stayed at Botany Bay for a week, collecting water, timber, fodder and botanical specimens and exploring the surrounding area. The Indigenous inhabitants observed the Europeans closely but generally retreated whenever they approached. Cook's party made several attempts to establish relations with the Indigenous people, but they showed no interest in the food and gifts the Europeans offered, and occasionally threw spears as an apparent warning.

Blainey (2020). pp. 146–157

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The Gweagal Spears and Shield Cook and Banks returned to England in 1771 with a large collection of flora, fauna and cultural artefacts from their first Pacific voyage. This included 40 to 50 spears from the Gweagal people. Banks was convinced the spears were abandoned (on the shores of Kurnell) and "thought it no improper measure to take with them all the which they could find, somewhere between 40 or 50". Cook gave some of the spears to his patron, John Montagu, First Lord of the Admiralty and Fourth Earl of Sandwich, who then gave them, to his alma mater Trinity College at the University of Cambridge in England. The La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council and La Perouse Aboriginal Community Alliance worked with the Cambridge museum towards repatriation of the three known remaining spears. On 23 April 2024, the spears were repatriated to the Gweagal people by the university.

The British Museum holds an Aboriginal shield which it had previously identified as probably the one acquired from Botany Bay in 1770. The shield was lent to the National Museum of Australia in Canberra for an exhibition called Encounters: Revealing stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander objects from the British Museum, from November 2015 to March 2016. Shayne Williams, a Gweagal elder of the La Perouse Community of Botany Bay, saw the shield, thought it was not typical of locally made shields, and asked the British Museum to further investigate its provenance. Following the investigation, anthropologist Nicholas Thomas concluded in 2018 that the shield is made of red mangrove and is not the one taken from Botany Bay in 1770. Williams states that it is very likely a Gugu Yimidhirr shield acquired by Cook during his stay at the Endeavour River in north Queensland (a region where red mangrove is abundant).

Historian and archivist Mike Jones, while not disputing the outcome of the workshop or Thomas' conclusion, has challenged the use of purely European sources and perspectives to support the provenance of Indigenous artefacts, saying that the shield has become a "cultural touchstone". Legal academic Sarah Keenan wrote in 2017 that Indigenous perspectives and methodologies were not used in the workshop, and a different conclusion may have been reached, or other knowledge gained about its significance, had such methods been applied. However, representatives from the local indigenous community did participate in the workshop and their perspectives were taken into account. Thomas states that the fact that the shield is not the one represented in the story of the Gweagal Shield does not mean that it should not be repatriated.

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Notable people

• Biddy Giles, or Biyarrung, (b.1820-died ca 1890s) was a Gweagal woman who lived throughout her life on traditional Gweagal land, and frequently impressed whites who employed her as a guide by her profound knowledge of the botany and landscape. She was a fluent Dharawal speaker.
• Rodney Kelly (born 1977) is a Gweagal activist campaigning for the return of a shield held by the British Museum, as well as other Indigenous Australian artefacts in museums across Europe and Australia.

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See also

• Eora
• Repatriation (cultural heritage)
• Tharawal
• Australian Aboriginal artefacts

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Notes

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Citations

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Sources

• (2025). 9781921410741, University of New South Wales Press. . ISBN 9781921410741
• Joan Lawrence (1999). 9780908272556, Kingsclear Books. . ISBN 9780908272556
• Mark McKenna (2025). 9781743820377, Black. . ISBN 9781743820377
• Peter Turbet (2025). 9781922013002, Rosenberg Publishing. . ISBN 9781922013002

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Further reading

• Article by Keenan here.
• J. L. Kohen (1993). 9780646136196, Darug Link in association with the Blacktown and District Historical Society. ISBN 9780646136196
  ( Trove and Worldcat entries)

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