DR NOEL NANNUP:
Here in the metropolitan area, around the city of Perth, and of course, even down as far as Fremantle, this area was known as Whadjuk country, and the Whadjuk people spoke a language that was basically one language right through the Southwest. However, it had, uh, different dialects of that language. Where the city of Perth is that area was known as Boorloo. The water coming out of the hills would run off and build back up and run around a chain of lakes through where the metropolitan area is now. Fremantle itself we'd call 'Walyalup' and Walyalup your lungs. So we cry from our lungs and we laugh from our lungs. And when we have a place like that, it simply means a place where people cried by the sea. Now, the reason they cried by the sea was because we believed in our old way that people were buried out there under the ocean. And also spirit children were trapped out there when the sea level rose over a long period of time.
What else have we got? 'Nollamara' — Nollamara is the kangaroo paw. So, as you know, the 'ma' part, the hand, and the general rule of thumb there is if it's like that, it's taking, so you've gotta be careful. If it's opening that way, it's giving. This Swan River is called the 'Devil Yerrigan', and in the old way, 'Derbarl Yerrigan' and Derbarl means mixing. And it's the mixing of sweet water from the hills and salt water from the sea. So it's estuarine and it's, um, subject to tidal movement as well. The tide comes in and the river comes up and goes down.
When we look at the, the city and we think what parts of this city are really important. Well, if we name them in their English names, you'd have King's Park or Mount Eliza. You would have, uh, Point Walter. Uh, you would have, um, the Causeway where the people cross there, we call it Matagarup, and, um, going down river, you would then get to North Fremantle, and there's an area in there that is important to us. And, uh, there's a, there's a cave there that's we believe where the Waugyl lives, the serpent. And then of course, into Fremantle itself. And there was a reef extending out there before it was blasted by C. Y. O'Connor. And that was an important place for us too. And some of the men folk would cross the river there. All the others would cross at Matagarup — the Causeway mark, um, means the water only comes up to your knees. It's safe for everyone to cross, women and children. And walk down.
And then there was a big camp site, just on the side of the bank, just down from here, there's a girls' school built there now called Santa Maria College. Well, that's where our people used to live. And natural grasses grew all along the banks and they were encouraged to grow there, and the main encouragement for them to grow there was the use of fire. So it was burnt regularly about every year, as soon as the grass was dry, someone would light it up. That would be their responsibility, when there's plenty of dew in the air, and it would just gently burn through and burn that grass. And next season, there would be waving with beautiful robust seeds,, we would collect them and grind them on rocks and wood and make flour. So it was really important. Uh, that flour was mixed with zamia fruit, um, which was also ground into a flour, but you had to treat the zamias to get rid of the toxins out of them, because they can be quite poisonous and toxic to people and uh, you'd die if you didn't treat them right. So that's what our people did. And, um, combine that with fish and there was lots to eat.