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Explore the Sackville North area in Google Maps.

Explore Brewongle EEC and surrounds in this drone video. 

The Dharug speaking Boorooberongal people are the traditional custodians of the water Country of the river. Dyarubbin (also Deerubbin) was a major resource providing fish, eels, shell fish, crayfish and birdlife for food hunting. Line fishing, spearing and netting were employed to catch fish. Line fishing was done by women and spear fishing by men, while netting was a community activity.

The river was also the life of communities providing fresh water and a method of transport via canoes known as noweys. Dyrabubbin had its own Dreaming stories of creation linked to Gurangatch the eel creator of the river.

Prior to British settlement, the adjacent land of river flats was park like and abundant with food, both plants and animals. Plants were used in season and according to tried and tested preparation methods which reduced toxicity. Early British observers noted that the women tended fields of midyini (root vegetables) alongside the river. These observers then tried the root vegetables also known as yams and made themselves quite ill as they had not prepared them properly. The root vegetables being tended to have been noted as the yams - Dioscorea transvera and Dioscorea bulbifera.

Fire-stick farming was employed to encourage regrowth of plants and new shoots that would attract small and medium sized animals to forage and thus make them easier to hunt. Fire-stick farming is often called Cultural Cool Burning. Fire-stick farming had the long-term effect of turning dry sclerophyll forests into grasslands increasing populations of grazers such as kangaroos. This method has a number of purposes other than to facilitate hunting. It can reduce hazardous wild fires by controlling fuel loads and reducing weed build up, and it can change the composition of plant and animal species and increase biodiversity.

There were strict Aboriginal lores regarding maintaining the health of the water and land which were related to totems. Each language group, clan and individual were assigned animals or plants for which they held dreaming stories. You could not eat your totem and were responsible for your totem like it was kin. In this way sustainable limits were placed on the use of various plants and animals by the totems holders. If totem holders observed that their plant or animal was in danger then they could say no to hunting or gathering for a number of seasons to allow it to recover.

Watch the videos below from Aunty Edna Watson and Uncle Wes Marne to gain a deeper understanding of some significant sites close to Brewongle EEC.