View of Vineyard, Parramatta, between 1851 and 1858, image State Library of New South Wales
The Darug people
The Darug people, who are also referred to as
the Dharruk, Dharung, Dharrook, Darrook,
Dharug and the Broken Bay tribe, are the traditional owners of the Rydalmere
area [1].
The Darug nation spans from Broken Bay to the northeast, the lower Blue
Mountains to the west, the Southern Highlands to the southwest and the Illawarra
to the southeast. John McClymont relates that
"the traditional landowners, the Darug speaking Aboriginal Wallumetta
clan, had subsisted for hundred's of centuries along the northern banks and
hinterland of the Parramatta river… The clan ranged westward as far as the
Subiaco and Vineyard Creeks where the Wallumettagal held corroborees on land
granted to Phillip Schaeffer."
