Bennelong
1795 Beenalong returns to Australian shores.
Beenalong is one of several names and spellings of his full name.
The origins of the name stem from the Barramudie fish, Beenalong had a
huge appeitie and would eat the fill of three grown men. Beenalong was a
brilliant dancer and actor and could mimick the sounds of all the new
strange and exotic animals the British had brought with them.
Bembulway is declared an outlaw: The resistance had begun.
Bembulwuy was a Bidgigal/Darug man who according to numerous
reports stood just short of six feet tall and was thick of shoulder and
back. Bembulwuy spent his formative years living with his mother on the
lands of the Darug nation at Guman-Wuyan-tuingabbi Burramaddaga in the
present day Parramatta.
Bembulwuy must have surely had previous knowledge of the
strangers from across the sea's. Considering he had been raised amongst
the Mudyin (family) of Chief Gumberri and had been trained in the lore
of the Boorooberongal clan of the Darug nation
Exert from 100 YEARS of Field of Mars Reserve 1887 - 1987
Published in November, 1987 by the Ryde Hunters Hill Flora and Flora Preservation Society.
The British first encountered the Wallumedegal a few weeks after
the settlement at Sydney Cove. Lt Bradley records that on the 15 Febuary
1788, he and a detachment of three armed boats from the Sirius set to
course attending the Governor on one of his expeditions into the
interior.
"The stopped at a neck of land (later named Looking Glass Point
in Gladesville) to breakfast. We were soon met there by a native armed.
He laid down his spear as soon as he joined us, and had more curiosity
than we had before met with. He examined everything very attentively
and went into our boats from one to the other. In the Long Boat he sat
down and with the help of one of the people he contrived to manage an
Oar, though very awkwardly. The Governor gave this man a hatchet and a
looking glass to see if any person was there, and then pointed to the
Glass and the shadows which he saw in the Water signifying they were
similar. Another man joined up soon after and a third was laying off in
a canoe. Wanting to see him get out of the canoe, we enticed him on
shore. He had a stone slung by way of an anchor which he let go just as
the canoe took the ground. He slept one leg out of the canoe keeping
the weight of his body in its center till he had foot hold of shore to
remove it to that leg. In this manner he landed without any risk of
over-setting the Canoe"
What you hear next is a contemporary interpretation of the what
might been sung at time of the first sightings and arrival of the 'First
Fleet'