Darkinung country, Darkinung people, and Darkinung culture

Mathews records the Darkinung language and identifies his informants as: Tilly Clarke, native of Hawkesbury, Mrs Henry Barber amended to read Annie, native of Wollombi and Tom Dillon’s sister, Mrs Everingham; Joe and Jack Gooburra and Kunda whose father is a native of Wollombi. The below entries deal with Darkinung expressions and grammar:

Mathews thus names the Aborigines of the Hawkesbury branches and the Hawkesbury/Hunter ranges as the “Darkinung tribe”. This occurs nearly 70 years after their country is first identified in 1824 by a Hawkesbury Aboriginal companion to John Blaxland junior as Wallumbi (Wollemi or Wallambine). The pronunciation of their country by the last Darkinung “fullblood” initiated man, Joe Gooburra, is spelt Wallendbine.

Of Darkinung country, Darkinung people, and Darkinung culture Mathews writes: “One of the principal dialects was the Darkinung, which was spoken by the natives occupying the country on the southern side of the Hunter River, from Jerry’s Plains downward toward Maitland, extending southerly to Wollombi Brook, Putty Creek, and including the Macdonald, Colo, and Hawkesbury Rivers...A small remnant of the Darkinung Tribe, numbering about sixty persons – men, women and children – are at present located on a Government Reserve on the left bank of the Hawkesbury River, about twelve miles below Windsor [at Sackville] …Two initiated men surviving – Joe Gooburra, a pure black, and Charley Clark, a half-caste…with whom I have been acquainted for some years…On the north the Darkinung are bounded by the Wattung (Kattung) and other tribes…on the other side of the Hunter River; on the west they are joined by the great Wiradjuri community…Kamilaroi touched the north-west corner of the Darkinung territory about Jerry’s Plains” .(Mathews, the Burbung of the Darkinung Tribes; Ford p295-6)