Sydney Dreaming: Indigenous tourism on the city's doorstep

Have you ever caught the ferry across Sydney Harbour, leaned over the railing and imagined what Sydney must have been like 500 years ago? The answer is we will never really know, but you can get an insight by engaging in some homegrown tourism.

The Rocks Aboriginal Dreaming Tour

When members of the First Fleet landed on the rocky peninsula on the western side of Sydney Cove in 1788, they rather prosaically called it ‘The Rocks’. It became the site of the first convict encampment, but Aboriginal tourism icon and operator of The Rocks Aboriginal Dreaming Tour, Aunty Margret Campbell, says its Aboriginal name was Tallawoladah.

Aunty Margret’s reputation among Aboriginal communities and in the global tourism market is unparalleled in Australia. She is passionate about shining a light on her culture on the margins of Sydney Harbour.

“My tour is about showing people the physical Dreamtime Story in a seasonal environment,” says Aunty Margret.

“When the English came here, they failed to see the very thing that we were trying to show them: how to manage resources and practice sustainability – something we’d been doing for thousands of years.” 

She explains how the colonists watched the behaviour of the Tallawoladah families walking about or using canoes to travel up to (what we now call) Balmain and they dismissed them as simply ‘nomadic’.

Aunty Margret. Credit: Destination NSW

“But we always shifted with the living seasons, so my tour is about seventy-two seasonal knowledge connections – showing people what it’s all about to care for the landscape and having that connection with country,” says Aunty Margret.

“People forget that much of The Rocks was and remains sandstone. This was the first big quarrying zone. Quarried without permission, that is,” she adds with a grin. 

The land occupied by the Metcalfe Bond Stores at 66-84 George Street was one of the first major quarries in Sydney and the largest of several quarry sites in The Rocks. Aunty Margret’s tour meets on the forecourt at Cadman’s Cottage, 110 George Street. It’s the oldest surviving residence in the City of Sydney.

“It’s important as it’s the point where freshwater [the Tank Stream] runs into the saltwater,” she says.

From Cadman’s Cottage, you’ll stroll with Aunty Margret, uncovering the Aboriginal people’s saltwater heritage and their spiritual connection to the harbour and foreshore. The tour is 90 minutes, with two daily departures from 10.30am to midday and 1.30pm to 3pm.

The Royal Botanic Garden Aboriginal Tour 

Wiradjuri woman, Renee Cawthorne, is the manager of Aboriginal education and engagement at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. “While this was Sydney’s ‘first farm’, it was really the colonist’s first farm,” she says. 

Walking you through the lush garden, Renee underscores the cultural significance of its plants for the Gadigal people. Moreover, she and a colleague are currently rewriting signage in the Gadigal language. 

Renee explains how much of the flora has been used for traditional food and medicines. Indeed, some plants were a natural anti-scorbutic (scurvy treatment), which healed the colony’s sickly denizens.

She reveals bush tucker and various plants used to make cultural objects and tools such as coolamons. These are traditional Aboriginal carrying vessels with curved sides, ranging in length from 30cm to 70cm, and similar in shape to a canoe. Aboriginal women traditionally used them to carry water, fruit, nuts, and to cradle babies.

Credit: Renee Crawthorn

“The great misconception about Aboriginal Australia is it was one homogenised clan,” says Renee. “Within the Sydney basin alone, the Eora Nation comprised some twenty-nine clan groups, each with its own diversity and cultural practices. So, there’s much to learn about Aboriginal Australia in our own front yard.” 

Renee indicates trees used for making boomerangs and woomeras and the tour is often shaped by whether you have a male or female as your guide. Renee won’t discuss men’s business and vice versa.

This unique leafy ramble takes roughly 90 minutes and the whole tour is wheelchair/scooter accessible. The tours meet every Thursday, Friday and Saturday and run from 1pm to 2pm. The best way to get there is by public transport and the closest train stations are Circular Quay and Wynyard. Alternatively, parking at the Domain is $12 all day on weekends and offers a picturesque walk to the gardens.

Girri Girra Aboriginal Experiences

Girri Girra is owned and operated by the affable Tim Selwyn, an ex-colleague from NAISDA Aboriginal College, where I had the great privilege to teach Indigenous students for four years. Back in 2013, Tim’s mum, Anita Selwyn, was named Central Coast Aboriginal Person of the Year for helping her community.

Darkinjung Country extends from the Hawkesbury River in the south to Wollombi in the west and Hunter River in the north. We meet Tim at Bulgandry Aboriginal Art Site at Kariong.

Kariong means ‘meeting place’ in the Darkinjung language and surprisingly few locals know about this remarkable site. My 81-year-old neighbour has lived on the Central Coast all his life and confessed he’s never been there. And it’s not like you have to machete through scrubland to find it. The carpark is right off Woy Woy Road, with wheelchair-friendly footpath access all the way.

Tim takes two boomerangs and some gum leaves to sing us to country, circling and chanting an ancient melody. Most indigenous cultures are based on oral traditions passed on by elders and Tim continues this practice. He’s a skilful storyteller and guide, having worked with tourists since he was 14.

A Bulgandry depiction of a woman and kangaroo

The carvings at Bulgandry are 12,000 years old. Tim says National Parks has done an excellent job maintaining the site, but he frets about vandalism, indicating some graffiti. I tut and shake my head. “What’s the solution?”

“Education,” says Tim. “Respect for culture and country starts at the beginning.”

Over the next 40 minutes, Tim unpacks the hidden meaning of the petroglyphs, like a tour guide describing Van Gogh’s processes in a museum. He’s engaging and challenges you to think.

While I’ve visited the site before, Tim guides us down a secret path to a carving that I’d not seen – a giant whale, the totem of the Darkinjung. It’s rather moving and seems the perfect denouement for the tour.

We leave with a deeper understanding of the ancient culture in our backyard and a feeling of mindfulness and connection to country.