The Wandandian are an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

people of the South Coast of New South Wales with connections to the

Yuin The Yuin nation, also spelt Djuwin, is a group of Aboriginal Australians, Australian Aboriginal peoples from the South Coast (New South Wales), South Coast of New South Wales. All Yuin people share ancestors who spoke, as their first language, ...

and

Tharawal The Tharawal people and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Yuin language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, scattered along the coasta ...

nations.

Country

The Wandandian lands extended over an estimated from

Ulladulla Ulladulla () is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia in the City of Shoalhaven local government area. It is on the Princes Highway about south of Sydney, halfway between Batemans Bay to the south and Nowra to the north. Ulladulla has cl ...

to the

Shoalhaven River The Shoalhaven River is a perennial stream, perennial river that rises from the Southern Tablelands and flows into an open mature wind wave, wave dominated estuary#Lagoon-type or bar-built, barrier estuary near Nowra on the South Coast, New Sou ...

and

Nowra Nowra () is a city in the South Coast, New South Wales, South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south-southwest of the state capital of Sydney (about as the crow flies). As of the 2021 census, Nowra has an estimated po ...

. To their south were the Walbanga. The tribes to their west were the Ngunawal and Walgalu.

People

Norman Tindale cites a report by a Richard Dawsey reprinted in one of the early volumes edited by Edward Micklethwaite Curr, regarding the tribes from Jervis Bay to Mount Dromedary, as referring to the Wandandian. According to this reference, the tribes divided themselves into two classes, the ''Piindri'' (tree climbers) and the ''Kathoongal'' (fishermen), and that according to their mythological lore the Earth had been once devastated and had to be repopulated by people from the Moon. Aboriginal union organiser for the

Builders Labourers Federation The Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) was an Australian trade union that existed from 1911 until 1972, and from 1976 until 1986, when it was permanently deregistered in various Australian states by the federal Hawke Labor government and som ...

Kevin "Cookie" Cook was a

and Wandandian man.

Some words

* ''barbatha'' or ''baiing'' (father) * ''meunda'' or ''mane'' (mother) * ''moomaga'' (white man) * ''tchingar'' (

starfish Starfish or sea stars are Star polygon, star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class (biology), class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to brittle star, ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to ...

, hence "policeman", since like the marine animal, the latter seize and detain)

Alternative names

* ''Tharumba'' * ''Kurial-yuin'' (meaning "men of the north") * ''Murraygaro'' * ''Jervis Bay tribe''

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales South Coast (New South Wales)