17-663: Black Mountain , also known as Galambary to the Ngunnawal people, is a small mountain with an elevation of 812 metres (2,664 ft) AHD that is situated to the west of the Canberra central business district on the northern shore of Lake Burley Griffin , in the Australian Capital Territory of Australia . Black Mountain is protected from development by the Canberra Nature Park and
34-622: A broadcasting tower rising a further 195 metres (640 ft) above the summit. The Australian National Botanic Gardens and the CSIRO share the eastern base of Black Mountain, next to the Australian National University. Black Mountain was originally named Black Hill at the same time as the naming of nearby Red Hill . The original name explains why the mountain is not named Mount Black, like nearby Mount Majura and Mount Ainslie . The early European settlers referred to
51-636: A man. The mountain is located west of the main campus of the Australian National University and, together with the Bruce ridge, forms a natural west and northwestern boundary for Canberra city. Black Mountain rises 256 metres (840 ft) above the water level of Lake Burley Griffin that lies at its base. Situated close to the highest point on the mountain is Black Mountain Tower (previously known as Telstra Tower, and Telecom Tower),
68-645: A population in the 1830s of well over a thousand people. A major battle for ownership of the country was fought at Sutton between an invading Ngunnawal band and the Nyamudy inhabitants, which the former won, establishing the Ngunnawal country, which did not extend further south along the Yass River than Gundaroo. The Ngunawal people were northern neighbours of the Nyamudy/Namadgi people who lived to
85-467: A rock shelter near the area of Birrigai near Tharwa , which has been dated to approximately 25,000 years ago. However, it is likely (based on older sites known from the surrounding regions) that human occupation of the region goes back considerably further. They were gradually displaced from the Yass area beginning in the 1820s when graziers began to occupy the land there. Some people worked at properties in
102-406: Is predominantly covered in native bushland and is a haven to native wildlife. Galambary (Black Mountain) is a sacred Aboriginal meeting and business site, predominantly for men’s business. Black Mountain and adjacent Mount Ainslie are referred to as women’s breasts. Galambary was also used by Ngunnawal people as an initiation site, with the mountain itself said to represent the growth of a boy into
119-580: The Ngambri-Guumwaal, Guumwaal being a language name said to mean "high country". This claim to be a distinct nation is disputed by many other local Aboriginal people who say that the Ngambri are a small family who took their name from the Sullivan's Creek area located to the east of Black Mountain in the late 1990s. The earliest direct evidence for Aboriginal occupation in the area comes from
136-521: The Ngunawal-speaking Indigenous people lived around this area. Their tribal country according to the early ethnographer, R. H. Mathews , stated their country extended from Goulburn to Yass and Boorowa southwards as far as Lake George to the east and Goodradigbee to the west. To the south of Lake George was the county of the Nyamudy speaking a Ngarigo dialect. Recent research by Harold Koch (2011) and others shows that
153-404: The Ngunnawal and Gandangara peoples respectively. The two varieties are very closely related, being considered dialects of the one (unnamed) language, in the technical, linguistic sense of those terms. One classification of these varieties groups them with Ngarigo , as one of several southern tableland languages of New South Wales. When first encountered by European colonisers in the 1820s,
170-585: The Ngunnawal country was primarily the land surrounding the Yass River extending between Lake George to the east and the Murrumbidgee to the west, while the southern boundary of the Ngunnawal people was north of Canberra , approximately on a line from Gundaroo to Wee Jasper. Sometimes the whole of the Burragorang language speaking area as far north as near Young is included as Ngunnawal, giving them
187-468: The Ngunnawal nation as descendants of the original inhabitants of this region." He made the error after talking with multiracial people of part Ngunnawal descent whose forebears had come from Yass in the 1920s to find work. In 2012 research for the ACT Government, "Our Kin, Our Country", found "there is no basis within the description of the country supplied by Tindale. The research confirmed that
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#1732783853540204-780: The area in the 1830s, such as quoted in the Queanbeyan Age , there were three groups in the region: the Ngunnawal, the Nyamudy/Namadgi and the Ngarigo. The present dispute originated when the Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory at the time, Jon Stanhope , inaccurately stated that "Ngambri is the name of one of a number of family groups that make up the Ngunnawal nation." He went on to say that "the Government recognises members of
221-502: The language spoken in the Canberra region was a dialect of Ngarigu, 'related to but distinguishable from the dialects spoken at Tumut and Monaro'". The report stated that evidence gathered from the mid-1700s onward was too scant to support any family's claims to be original owners. Some Canberra-area Aboriginal people in inland southeast Australia, including Matilda House , identify as Ngambri. Shane Mortimer defines himself as one of
238-638: The mountain formation as the Canberry Ranges. The bulk of Black Mountain consists of the white quartz Black Mountain Sandstone . This was deposited in the late Early Silurian age. On the south-east slopes and north-west west there are exposures of State Circle shale . The Black Mountain Peninsula contains mudstone in the north and greywacke from the Ordovician age Pittman Formation in
255-538: The region. In 1826 many Aboriginal people at Lake George protested an incident involving a shepherd and an Aboriginal woman, though the protesters moved away peacefully. Historical records of Australia record the last " full-blooded " Ngunnawal person, Nellie Hamilton, dying in 1897, however, this is disputed by Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, as there are many Ngunnawal people still around today. Legal status of native title not current. Goodradigbee River Too Many Requests If you report this error to
272-679: The south on the Limestone Plains. The Wiradjuri (to the west) and Gundungurra (to the north) peoples also bordered the Ngunnawal. At present, three groups contest ownership in the Canberra area: the Ngambri, the Ngarigo, and the Walgalu speaking Ngambri-Guumaal, represented by Shane Mortimer, with widespread connections from across the Snowy Mountains up to the Blue Mountains . According to settlers living in
289-542: The south. [REDACTED] Media related to Black Mountain (Australian Capital Territory) at Wikimedia Commons Ngunnawal The Ngunnawal people, also spelt Ngunawal , are an Aboriginal people of southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. Ngunnawal and Gundungurra are Australian Aboriginal languages from the Pama-Nyungan family , the traditional languages of
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