The people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups, part of the Kulin Nation, are the Traditional Owners of present-day Melbourne and its surrounds. Their relationship to the land goes back more than 40,000 years before European settlement.

Overview

The First People lived lightly on the land, utilising its natural resources with extraordinary skill. Campsites were dotted along the Yarra River which they called Birrarung, the ‘river of mists’. Men hunted kangaroo, emu and possum. They fished from bark canoes, cut and shaped from gum trees, or speared fish from the riverbank. Women hunted for small animals and gathered edible plants and berries, providing up to 60 per cent of the clan’s diet. Life was good and unchanged for thousands of years. Then Europeans arrived and this land and the lives of the traditional owners was forever compromised.

Your tour

Join us to learn more about the world’s oldest and continuous living culture with Boon Wurrung elder, Lance Briggs. This is not your average tour and Lance is not your average tour guide. You will not see Aboriginal artefacts, a kangaroo, or a boomerang. Instead, you will learn how important the land was to Victoria’s Aboriginal people and understand the devastating impact European occupation has had and continues to have on their lives.