The Coodjingburra Clan

Nestled within the heart of the Bundjalung Nation, the sacred land of the Coodjingburra Clan stretches from the Tweed River to the Brunswick River.

Aboriginal sites and places are recognised by traditional custodian descendants as tangible evidence of our ancestor’s cultural practice and traditions; as such, they retain a very real and meaningful value through to the present day.

Scientific assessment of cultural evidence from some selected sites supports the fact that Aboriginal people were living in the Tweed from at least 10,000 years ago, and a Carbon-14 dated midden and occupation site on Stradbroke Island (in South East Queensland) is recorded as more than 20,000 years old.Our Aboriginal oral tradition tells a story of ‘Three Brothers’ who came to this land and its people in the ‘Dreaming’, gave the lore, and formed the nucleus of tribes with whom today’s traditional custodian descendants identify.

A common feature of our Aboriginal identity is language:

Which is known in the Tweed and further south as Bundjalung; in south east Queensland people prefer Yugambeh; and further west, in Kyogle Shire, people use Githabul as both a language and name for group identification. The language dialect for the Tweed is known as Ngandowal, a name referring to the people who say ‘Ngando’ for the word ‘who’ or ‘somebody’. However, part of the Tweed Coast and south to the Byron area is Minyungbal, where the word ‘Minyung’ means ‘what’ or ‘something’ and can be used as identification for people of this area.

There is general acceptance among our Tweed Aboriginal community for the presence of three main groups in the Tweed River Valley. These were the Coodjinburra people for the Tweed Coastal area, the Tul-gi-gin people for the North Arm, and the Moorang-Moobar people for the Southern and Central Arms around Wollumbin (Mt Warning). However, European settlers used other names and described them as Chubboburri, Gandowal, Duthurinbar, Wirangiroh, Wollumbin, Murwillumbah, Ngarrumbul, Kitabul, and Ngarartbul. These names largely reflected a lack of understanding of our culture, our language and our connection to each other.

Bundjalung origin story - the Three Brothers

Long ago, Berrung, with his two brothers, Mommóm and Yaburóng, came to this land. They came with their wives and children in a great canoe, from an island across the sea. As they came near the shore, a woman on the land made a song that raised a storm which broke the canoe in pieces, but all the occupants, after battling with the waves, managed to swim ashore. This is how 'the men', the baigal black race, came to this land. The pieces of the canoe are to be seen to this day. If anyone will throw a stone and strike a piece of the canoe, a storm will arise, and the voices of Berrung and his boys will be heard calling to one another, amidst the roaring elements. The pieces of the canoe are certain rocks in the sea. At Ballina, Berrung looked around and said nyung? and all the baigal about there say nyung to the present day, that is they speak the Nyung dialect. Going north to the Brunswick, he said minyung, and the Brunswick River paigal say minyung to the present day. On the Tweed he said ngando to the present day. this is how the blacks came to have different dialects. Berrung and his brothers came back to the Brunswick River where he made a fire, and showed the paigal how to make fire. He taught them their law about the kippara, and about marriage and food. After a time, a quarrel arose, and the brothers fought and separated, Mommóm going south, Yaburóng west, and Berrung keeping along the coast. This is how the paigal were separated into tribes.

Recorded by Livingstone 1892
Transcribed by Margaret Sharpe 2023
Published in Gurgun Mibiñyah and used with permission from author.

Population numbers of these three groups are known to have fallen dramatically, before and after permanent European settlement, mainly through the unchecked spread of European sourced illness and disease. Research suggests that prior to any European contact each of the three groups may have contained from 500 to 700 members, distributed in smaller family groups across what was then their area of ‘country’. With a loss of access to food resources, death from illness and disease, and intolerance shown by some European settlers, population numbers plummeted and were only about 10% of original numbers within 60 years of settlement.

The Tweed Valley around Wollumbin (Mt Warning) was rich in natural resources and supported many plants and animals which were collected and hunted for food by Aboriginal people. Traditional people managed the landscape and avoided overexploiting these resources in a way that is poorly understood and little recognised in today’s wider community.

Although camp locations were moved regularly to allow resource recovery some natural resources, such as rock outcrops suitable for the manufacture of stone tools, were used extensively for vast periods of time.

High altitude topographical features were often the focus of social and spiritual custom and the location of many of our Aboriginal sites directly reflects the connection and significance value of these places. Wollumbin retains a high cultural and spiritual status beyond the Tweed Valley and this is reinforced by our knowledge of different stories with regional group gatherings for ceremony and cultural expression at certain sites across the Valley. Descendants of traditional custodians maintain that connection and support initiatives to protect and preserve our heritage sites and places.

Tweed Shire Council Aboriginal Advisory Committee – Used with permission.

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