Aboriginal heritage
The Aboriginal heritage of the Hornsby Shire region was at least 15,000 to 20,000 years old by the time European settlers arrived in 1788. The local tribes were the Ku-ring-gai and Dharug people, who called the Hawkesbury River 'Vhen Ruphen'.
Their main food source along this river was yams, however they also ate fish and shellfish. Men and women fished, while women also hunted small animals such as lizards and snakes, with men hunting the larger animals such as kangaroos and wallabies.
By 1795 much of the land had been cleared and crops established. Aborigines were forced inland to find food.
As food became more scarce, local tribespeople began stealing sheep and crops from the settlers' farms. Many of the farmers would shoot to kill on sight; others were more tolerant. Retaliation from Aborigines appears to have been rare.
Between 1794 and 1800, 26 settlers and up to 200 Aborigines were killed.
Most of the settlers were male convicts and the Aboriginal women faced a new danger. Many were abducted, raped and held against their will. The settler Robert Luttrell was killed in 1811 by an Aboriginal man who discovered him attempting to abduct and rape an Aboriginal woman.
During this period the Aboriginal populations also had to constantly fight for survival against the diseases that the settlers brought with them, such as smallpox and influenza.
Soon, the local Aboriginal culture itself was imperilled, and unfortunately the struggle to maintain their traditional lifestyle was finally lost. As the Aboriginal people were either forced to leave, killed or died, they left behind important traces of their existence - but their traditional life in the region had come to an end.
There are more than 200 known sites in Hornsby Shire, including rock-shelter, midden and engravings. Burial sites are not common, but they are the most sacred sites to Aborigines. Around the year 1900, a burial site was discovered in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.
Middens and carvings can be found at Bobbin Head and Berowra Waters. Carvings of all many types are evident throughout Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. A collection of ceremonial carvings can be found off the Pacific Highway near Berowra. The most visible of these include carvings of footprints and a larger-than-life man with a smaller woman. The man is holding a boomerang above his head.
Many of the place names in Hornsby Shire are derived from Aboriginal words. It was Sir Henry Copeland who named Ku-ring-gai Chase after one of the local tribes, while "chase" is an English word meaning an enclose land were animals are kept for hunting.
