The Swan Valley is home to the Whadjuk Noongar (Bibbulmun) people. The land west of the Derbal Yerrigan (Swan River), was the domain of the Mooro Clan and the eastern side, the Beeloo Clan.
The site of All Saints Church in the Swan Valley was a huge Warrine garden. A remnant of a Noongar yam garden can be seen at Walyunga National Park, marked by the banks lined with stones placed there by generations of women as they dug out the gardens to create the aerated, fertile humps and hillocks (as the Europeans referred to them). These humps and hillocks captured water and leaf litter to nourish the garden, and the uneven ground kept out animals such as kangaroos.
The stone-covered banks slowed the passage of water, so the gardens were not washed away in a heavy deluge. The gardens occupied the alluvial soil, so they were soon overrun by European settlement. Long thin allotments of land were allocated so that each had access to the river which was the transport artery for the new settlement.
In the streams and tributaries joining the Derbal Yerrigan, Yanget (bulrushes) grew. These were burnt to the waterline in Boonooroo (hot season) in preparation for the Djeran (autumn) harvest, when the fibrous root masses were gathered, roasted, peeled, pounded and made into carbohydrate rich cakes (mandjalee) which were baked in the ashes. Noorook wetj (emu eggs) were also collected at this time. Emus lay their eggs after the first rains in Djeran, when the emu appears in the night sky as a dark shape.
Roots and tubers were the staple food of the Bibbulmun people of the South West of Western Australia. In the sandier soils, Kar (milkmaids), Nollamarra (kangaroo paws) and Bohn (bloodroot) grew and were harvested in Kambarang (late spring) and Birak (first summer). Kar gave a handful of juicy tubers, Nollamara an edible rhizome and Bohn, a bright orange, spicy, onion like bulb. Edible wattles yielded gums and fine seeds that were roasted and ground. The flour was mixed with water and again baked in the ashes to make the little cakes called Mandjalee. Berries grew in the foothills above Bells Rapids. Tjunguri (twining fringe lillies) also grew at Walyunga and the fleshy tubers were eaten raw or roasted.
Yonga (kangaroo), Wetj (emu), Karda (goanna), Djildjit (fish) and Djerap Kep-ak (waterbirds) were plentiful. The fish and waterbirds along with Marron, Gilgie (freshwater crustaceans) and Kooboolong (frogs) were collected from the abundant waterways in Makooroo (winter). Yonga and smaller marsupials were hunted during Makaroo. People stayed near their camps in Makaroo and started venturing further afield and connecting with other family groups in Djilba (early spring).
Lake Yakine, close to Edgecombe winery, is a beautiful wetland named by a local elder for the critically endangered Western Swamp Tortoise (Yakine or Yagan). Yakine are not present in the lake but Booyi, the long neck tortoise, abounds.
This was a land providing substantial seasonal food sources for Whadjuk people. Today you can still search for these foods, but the great harvests are no longer there. Instead, European viticulture and market gardens have replaced the traditional foods. But, led by Maalinup Aboriginal Galllery, offerings of bush tucker can still be found in the Swan Valley today – follow the Bush Tucker and Beyond Trail.
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