Launched on 22 May 2022 at the Hawkesbury Regional Museum, 8 Baker Street Windsor is the first of 11 guided walks prepared by Oonagh Sherrard with guests from the local community – Dharug and European.

 

Listen to stories of Dyarubbin / The Hawkesbury River at Streeton Lookout and original music and song they have inspired as you look out over the river at Freeman’s Reach…or from the comfort of wherever you are. 

 

Dharug educator Rhiannon Wright is our guide as we take in the glorious view over Dyarubbin and her vast floodplain, contemplate Dyarubbin’s formation, a time when the river was 6km higher and how the river’s dreaming, the rainbow serpent, Gurangady, reflects the rivers geology. 

 

We learn how the Dharug cared for the resources of Waradya / Lagoons and the Richmond floodplain, known as Marrang Ngurra / place of sands, about the impact of colonisation, land grants and how soldiers worked them to their advantage along the river here on Freemans Reach. 

We listen to Arthur Streeton’s inspiration for his famous painting, “Purple Noon’s Transparent Might”, after which the Lookout takes its name: and what it tells us about the river and the effect of colonisation on the Dharug and Dharug Country 

We hear about the effects of damming, the sustainability of Sydney’s water supply, groundwater, irrigation and the lack of management of the whole catchment. How recent flooding sits with the theory of the 30-50 year flood cycle, the proposal to raise the Warragamba Dam wall and contamination from PFAS through Bakers Lagoon across the Richmond lowlands. 

And we consider how we might care for and celebrate this beautiful and important river, learning how earth laws might help recognise and protect the river as a living being. 

 

Artwork by Burubiranggal Dharug Leanne Mulgo Watson

 

Link to walk one: https://www.hawkesbury.nsw.gov.au/museum/historical-walks/11-stories-from-the-river#walk1

 

 

Howe and Deerubbin Parks Audio Walk: Balga Ngurrang / Windsor 

is narrated by Dharug educator Rhiannon Wright and includes stories (in order of appearance) from:

Erin Wilkins, Dharug educator

Leanne Mulgo Watson, Dharug artist 

Jasmine Seymour, Dharug artist and educator

Children form Windsor Public School, years 5 & 6 2019

Ted Books, Hawkesbury local, former Hawkesbury Councillor and descendant of John Grono

Kate Mackaness, Community Action For Windsor Bridge

Grace Karskens, Emeritus Professor of History at UNSW and author of “People of the River”

Martin Gauci, Community Bushcare Officer, Hawkesbury City Council

Tom Hubble, Associate Professor of Geology, University of Sydney

Jen Dollin, Head of Sustainability Education, Western Sydney University

Sharon Lamb, Hawkesbury local and descendant of Henry Kable

Sue Cusbert, Technical Officer, Western Sydney University

Ron Males, Hawkesbury local

Jan Barkley-Jack, Historian and author of “Hawkesbury Settlement Revealed”

Children from Windsor South Public School’s Dharug language class 2021

Bruce Gardiner, Cornwallis farmer (from an archival interview recorded in 1988 for the On the Record Project, Courtesy of Hawkesbury Voices, Hawkesbury Library Service.)

Kirstie Fryirs, Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University

 

Sue Rosen Associates are proud to have contributed from our oral history archive to the project.