Mooro
The Mooro are a
Swan River in Perth north to the Moore River beyond the northern limits of metropolitan Perth and east to Ellen Brook.[1] Evidence of Aboriginal occupation of the Swan Coastal Plain extends back more than 40,000 years.[2]
Prior to colonisation and during first contact, the Mooro clan traversed the lakes and wetlands running parallel to the coast, including
Mount Eliza in what is now Kings Park
.
At the time of European settlement,
George Grey reported on favourable encounters with groups of Mooro. John Butler, a Swan River settler who in March 1834 went north to search for cattle pasture, reported that "the natives were those Wanneroo men who frequent Perth in company with the Yellagonga tribe – they were friendly towards us but we were cautious in letting them see our bread".[3]
However, competing demands for resources and cultural misunderstandings resulted in conflict.
By the late 1830s, having been largely removed or restricted from the lands on which they had been self-sufficient, and decimated by European diseases and conflict with settlers,[4] the traditional lifestyle had gone into demise. A census by Francis Armstrong (1836 C.S.O. 58:163) counted 28 Mooro. Within less than twenty years, the community had basically disintegrated, with the remaining people exiled to permanent waterholes on the outskirts of Perth.
References
- ^ North Beach Historical Society (1980). Recollections from a shoreline. Artlook (The West Australian). pp. 61–63.
- ^ Heritage Council of WA (June 1998). "Yaberoo Budjara Heritage Trail" (PDF). p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 August 2006. Retrieved 4 January 2007.
- ^ Daniel, Guy; Cockman, Margaret (February 1979). The Story of Wanneroo. West Australian Newspapers Ltd. p. 3.
- ^ Brittain, Robert Keith (1990). Yellagonga Regional Park, City of Wanneroo : ethnography position paper for Department of Planning and Urban Development. Kidd and Povey.