SYDNEY FORESHORES' HISTORICAL & ARTISTIC LEGACY

 Mosman Art Society exhibition, BUNGAREES FARM, highlights the historical legacy  and the artistic worth of Middle head on Sydney's foreshores.

It  is to be opened on 30th January  by Mary Darwell, Executive Director of Arts NSW at the Camouflage Fuel Tanks-15 Dominion Crescent, 

 Middle Head, Sydney. 

The exhibition, which,  runs from Saturday 31 Jan to Sunday 8 Feb and is of contemporary Aboriginal audio, video, performance and installation art exploring Bungaree’s legacy.

It marks the 200^th anniversary of the establishment of Bungaree’s Farm by Governor Macquarie on 31 January 1815.

For more information:-http://events.mosman.nsw.gov.au/events/989/bungarees-farm

Bungaree, an Aboriginal man from Broken Bay, settled in Sydney in the 1790s.  He became a familiar sight there, dressed in discarded military uniforms given to him by various governors. 

He accompanied Matthew Flinders on two of his voyages of discovery and sailed with Phillip Parker King to north-western Australia in 1817.

.Macquarie and Bungaree were to become firm friends, where he proved very helpful in making contact with new tribes.  Bungaree has been described as witty, intelligent, something of a diplomat and is  recognized as an effective intermediary between colonists and Aboriginals.

Bungaree, 1826  Augustus Earle
Hand-coloured lithograph State Library




Settle and Cultivate      From 'Mosman Meanders & foreshore flavours

The first settlers, convicts and military personnel were keen to farm the land and raise food, but their inexperience in farming techniques in the unfamiliar landscape resulted in near starvation due to early crop failures.

They were uninterested in traditional Australian agriculture, apart from some animals which they would shoot, fish, or catch.   For the first 50 years, they imported most of their food from Mother England, until they managed to grow some of the vegetables they were used to back home. 

They didn’t observe Aboriginal harvesting or any traditional methods such as the use of fire to flush out creatures.  They did describe;  that the ‘forests’ were, in general   ‘entirely free from underwood.’   The harbour clans shaped their environment by creating particular habitats, as the result of the burning off process which promoted certain fire-resistant species.   

However, Phillip and other officers quickly appreciated the significance of seafood for harbour clans.  In 1789, First Fleeter Watkin Tench description,” (They)  Wholly depend for food on the few fruits they gather; roots they dig up in swamps; the fish they pick up along the shore, or contrive to strike from their canoes with spears. Fishing, indeed, seems to engross nearly the whole of their time, probably from its forming the chief part of subsistence.” 

This understanding was used to develop an important point of common interest, and therefore a currency strategy, where fish became the most frequent exchange.  Later rum became currency , in exchange for produce from small farmers.  It was consumed in large amounts by the English and Irish who brought with them a love of drinking – a culture we are said to have retained to this day.

Bungaree’s Farm      

In 1815 Governor Macquarie established an Aboriginal-run farm,  the exact  boundaries of  which are uncertain.   However, in 1815, the Sydney Gazette described it as being situated on “the peninsula of Georges Head, being nearly surrounded on all sides by the sea.”

In an attempt to ‘acculturate’, Governor Macquarie had decided to settle ‘friendly’ Aborigines on land they could farm, and  erected  huts at Georges Heads, the settlement called George’s Town.   Bungaree, along with 16 other Aboriginal men and their families, were presented with a piece of fertile land, with access to the harbour for fishing, along with related farming tools and equipment, and convicts to teach the men basic farming practices.  The Aboriginal ‘settlers’ received clothing, seeds, farming implements and a fishing boat called the Bongaree. 

At the ceremony to mark the establishment of the farm Macquarie presented Bungaree with a metal breast plate inscribed ‘Chief of Broken Bay Tribe’,  a fictitious title.

Bungaree did spend some time there in between his voyages of discovery but the group did not take to farming, preferring to eat the seeds.  The social experiment persisted until 1821 when it collapsed and the farm was abandoned. 

From 1825 onwards, grants were made to Europeans who farmed the land and in 1829, a fishery and vegetable garden were established at Chowder Bay.  In the 1830's the government  botanist built a cottage on 15 acres of cleared land and did a great deal of experimental work in acclimatising foreign seeds and plants  to Australian conditions.