Cullunghutti - sacred mountain

Australian Aborigines / Indigenous / First Nations research

Conrad Martens, Mount Coolangatta [Cullunghutti], oil on canvas, 1860.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. A Dreaming Story
3. The word Cullunghutti
4. Shoalhaven or Gold Coast?
   
5. References

1. Introduction

Cullunghutti is the Jerrinja Aboriginal (Indigenous / First Nations) word which refers to a 930 feet (284 metres) high, conical-shaped mountain or hill located near the head of the Shoalhaven River in New South Wales, Australia. It has historically been called Coolangatta by non-Indigenous people, having first been recorded with the spellings Coolumgatta, Cullengutty and Cullongatty by the merchant Alexander Berry in 1822. Berry and his partner Edward Wollstonecraft were subsequently granted 10,000 acres of land there in 1827. Like many similar geographical features throughout Australia - viz. Uluru, Gingenbullen, Mount Zeil and Hanging Rock - it is sacred to the local Aboriginal people and a site of ceremony and spiritual importance. The latter is revealed in the Dreaming story The Hereafter presented below. A detailed history of Cullunghutti is to be found in Cullunghutti - the mountain and its people: A documentary history of Cullunghutti Mountain from 1770 to 1920 (Waters & Moon 2013). References are also scattered throughout Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770-1850 (Organ 1990) and Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770-1900 (Organ 1993).

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2. A Dreaming Story

The following Shoalhaven Dreaming story is taken from anthropologist R.H. Mathews’ Folklore of the Australian Aborigines published in 1899 (Mathews 1899, Organ 1990, Waters & Moon 2013). It describes the circumstances surrounding one's fate upon death, and the important role played by Cullunghutti in that process.

The Hereafter

About three-quarters of a mile north-westerly from the Coolangatta homestead, the residence of the late Mr Alexander Berry, is a remarkable rock on the eastern side of the Coolangatta mountain. This rock slopes easterly with an angle of about 30 degrees from the horizon, and on its face are six elongated depressions, caused by the weathering away of the softer portions of the stone. These places are suggestive of having been worn by the feet of many persons having used them, like the depressions worn in pavements by much traffic. This has given rise to a superstition among the Aborigines that these marks were made in the rocks by the feet of the spirits of many generations of natives sliding from the upper to the lower side of it. This belief is strengthened by the fact that the first two depressions are larger than the rest; the next pair on the left of them are somewhat smaller; and the last pair, further to the left are smaller still. The Aboriginal legend is that the larger marks were made by the feet of the men; the medium size by the women; and the smaller by the children. One of the old blackfellows, who was with me when I visited this place, stated that always after a death in the camp, this rock presented the appearance of having been used. If the deceased was a man, the large marks looked fresh; if a woman, the middle pair; and if a child, the smaller slides showed indications of someone having slipped along them.

It was from this rock that the shade of the native took its final departure from its present hunting grounds, and this was accomplished in the following manner:- a very long stem of a cabbage tree, imperceptible to human vision, reached from some unknown land across the sea to this rock. When a blackfellow died, his soul went in the night to the top of the rock, and standing there for a few moments, looked out towards the sea, which is about two miles distant. Then he slid down the hollow grooves, one foot resting in each, and when he got to the lower side of the rock he could distinguish the end of the long pole, on which he jumped, and walked away along it to the sea-coast, and onwards across the expanse of water. The pole continued over the sea, and in following it along the traveller came to a place where the flames of fire seemed to rise out of a depression in the water. If he had been a good tribesman, he would be able to pass through the flames unscathed; but if he had been a bad man, who had broken the tribal laws, he might get scorched and fall into the sea, or perhaps he would get through it more or less singed. After a while the end of the pole was reached at the other side of the sea. The traveller then continued on along a track through the bush, and after a time met a crow, who said: "You frightened me," and thereupon threw a spear at him, but missed him, and the man kept on his way, the crow calling him bad names, and making a great noise. At another place he came to where a large native fig-tree was growing, and two men where there. One of these men was standing on the ground, and was some relative of the traveller; but the other man, who was up in the tree, was a vindictive person, and would kill him if he got the chance. He asked the traveller’s friend to bring him under the tree, but in doing so the friend warns him to take care. The enemy up the fig-tree is gathering figs, and is squeezing them together around a quartz crystal, which has the effect off causing the lumps of figs to increase in size and weight. He then calls out to the traveller to stand out in a clear space, so that he can throw him the bundle of fruit. The pilgrim, however, suspects his evil intentions, and refuses to do this, but walks to a scrubby place under the tree, and being hungry, stoops down to pick up some of the figs which have fallen to the ground, having been shaken off by the wind. The enemy in the tree then throws the bundle of figs at him, which by this time has changed into a large stone, but he misses his mark, owing to the scrub and undergrowth obstructing his view.

The traveller now resumed his journey, and the track along which he was going passed through a narrow, rocky, gorge, with scrub growing on either side, in which were some king parrots of gigantic size, who tried to bite him with their strong beaks, but he defended himself with his shield, and succeeded in getting through the pass. Upon this the parrots set up a great chattering, similar to that made by these birds in their haunts. On proceeding farther on he comes to a forest where there are plenty of trees but no under-scrub, and the grass is green. There are plenty of kangaroos and other native animals of various kinds. Presently he reaches a place where there are large numbers of black people of all ages, amongst whom are some young men playing ball in a clear place near the camp. There the traveller sees his relatives and all his friends who have died before him. He sits down a little way from the people, and when his relations see him, they come and welcome him, and conduct him into the camp, where they paint and dress him in the same way that he was accustomed to ornament his person in his own country. After that, great shouting and corroboreeing is indulged in, and he plays amongst the rest. Presently an old, dirty-looking blackfellow, with sores upon his body, comes near and calls out, "Who came when that noise was made just now?" They answer him that it was only the young people playing about. The ugly old man cannot come into the camp because there is a watercourse defining the boundary of his hunting grounds, beyond which he dare not pass. If he were to see the new arrival he might point a bone at him, or work some other injury, by means of sorcery. This is why the people give him an evasive answer, on receiving which he returns to his own camp, which is a little distance farther on.

If the person who died had been greedy or quarrelsome, or had always been causing trouble in the tribe, he would meet with a different reception at the end of the journey. In order to describe this, it will be necessary to take the reader back to that part of the story where the crow threw the spear. If the traveller has been a troublesome fellow, the spear pierces him and the crow comes and picks mouthfuls of flesh out of him, and knocks him about; after which he pulls out the spear and starts the man on his journey again. When he reaches the place where the large fig-tree is growing, there is no friend there to warn him of danger, so he walks carelessly under the tree, and commences to pick up and eat the ripe figs which have fallen to the ground. The enemy up in the tree watches his opportunity, and throws the bundles of figs, which he has changed to stone by his jugglery, down upon the traveller, bruising him severely and stretching him almost lifeless on the ground. The man then comes down out of the tree and shakes the traveller, and stands him on his feet and starts him on his way, bruised and bleeding from the wounds, and scarcely able to walk. When at last he reaches the forest of green trees and the camp of his countrymen, the people shout to him that they don’t want him there, and make signs to him to go on. The scabby old blackfellow before referred to then makes his appearance, and asked the usual question: "Who came when that noise was made?" The people answer him that a stranger came; hereupon, the old man calls the traveller to him, and takes him away to his own camp. The wounds made by those clever old wizards, the crow and the man in the fig-tree, never heal properly, and give the injured man a scabby and dirty appearance ever afterwards.

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3. The word Cullunghutti

Cullunghutti is a Jerrinja (Shoalhaven) Aboriginal word, as are the English language spelling and speaking  variants of that word:

• Coolumgatta (1822)
• Cullongatty (1822)
• Cullengutty (1822)
• Coolangatta (1838)
• Cooloomagatta (1843)
• Coolloomgatta (1853)

Coolangatta is the most common English language interpretation and spelling of the original Jerrinja. In transferring the original spoken word to an approximate English language equivalent and allocating a spelling, much of the sound and meaning of the original has been lost due to mishearing and misunderstanding of the detailed process required to accurately record the sounds and language as spoken by the local people during that period of first contact in the early 1800s. A study of phonetics and linguistics is required to accurately record language, and individuals with such skills were not available when the word was first written down with a variety of spellings by Europeans such as the English Alexander Berry and various surveyors working in the Shoalhaven region from the early 1800s.

A study of the language of south-eastern Australia has been carried out by linguist and mathematician Dr. Chris Illert since the 1980s and is summarised in his 2013 PhD thesis on what he refers to as the Proto-Australian language (Illert 2013). Illert's research included collaboration with members of the Illawarra and Shoalhaven communities. A phonetic study of the word Cullunghutti based on that research is presented below. Illert's Proto-Australian language framework identified 18 sounds (phonemes), in comparison with the 44 identified in English. This group of sounds was revealed through a study of early word lists and grammar examples from the first century of European settlement in Australia. A list of these sounds is reproduced below (Illert 2018):

Phonemes
phonetic	the sound
a	a
b	b
d	d
d	dh
ɖ	dj
g	g
i	i
l	l
m	m
n	n
ŋ	ng
n	nh
ɲ	ny
r	r
u	u
w	w
y
ʊ	aya or perhaps aia

These sounds form the basic (root) words in Proto-Australian. By studying an 8,000+ item word list, Illert was able to apply meaning to the root-words, such as: mʊra = great, large. A list of 56 root words was then identified: 

Root words

1. bulʊ = down, low, flat, dead, cessation
2. bʊlu = up, high, projecting, commencement
3. bulala = 2
4. burʊ = noisy, quick, energetic, awake
5. bʊru = quiet, slow, lazy, tired, sleepy, still
6. barʊ = either-side, opposing
7. bʊra = between, compromise
8. buru = bouncy, hoppy (as with Kangaroo)
9. bara = waddling (as with Wallaby)
10. darʊ = about, external, outside surface
11. dʊra = through, internal, inside
12. dulu = straight, extended, separated
13. dulʊ = shabby, untidy, bent
14. dʊla = 1, singular, unity
15. gulʊ = dull, lethargic (as with Koala), petrified
16. gʊlu = shiny, radiant, vital, nice/good, alive
17. gʊn = very
18. gula = malevolent, deadly, treacherous, angry, sorcery
19. galu = benevolent, helpful, honest, happy
20. gurʊ = flat, globular, convex, more
21. gʊru = slim, concave, less
22. garʊ = from, out-of, sound
23. gʊra = toward, into, throat, orifice, cave, valley
24. gura = firm (as with stones, hall or muscle)
25. garu = squishy (like nasal mucous), fluffy (like clouds)
26. gilʊ = behind, rear
27. malʊ = blind, obstructing, shielding, opaque, (eye) cataracts
28. mʊlʊ = visible, accessible, clear, channelling
29. murʊla = 5
30. mulʊ = familiar, intimate
31. mʊlu = unfamiliar, strange, unexpected
32. malu = (air) bubbles (as with platypus)
33. mula = (liquid) droplets, progeny, dust
34. mala = inflated, bulging, enhanced
35. mulu = deflated, shrivelled, emaciated, diminished
36. mʊra = large, greatly
37. murʊ = small, slightly
38. mirʊ = 0, ahead, in front
39. miɲ = the, a (singular)
40. ɲin = here
41. nʊra = yonder, distant
42. nurʊla = 4
43. ŋuru = cyclic, oscillatory, twinkle, shimmery
44. ŋara = knotted, coiled, spiral
45. ɲara = full, solid
46. ɲura = half, middle
47. ɲuru = empty, below
48. ɲun = something (plural)
49. ɲuɲ = someone's (plural)
50. ŋulu = sinusoidal, wrinkled, crushed
51. wurʊla = 3, plural, several, lots of
52. wirʊ = profane, improper, left, crocked
53. wʊri = sacred, proper, right, aligned
54. wara = far, distant
55. wuru = away
56. wiɲ = wring, twist, rotate, spin, orbit

These root words were then used singularly or in combination to create elements of the broader proto-language and its derivatives. In the speaking, these roots words - individually or in combination - were often also abbreviated and swapped around within individual words. In regards to the word Cullunghutti, based on the above analysis, it may be said to comprise the following root words:

Cullunghutti

galu : ɲun : wʊri

benevolent : thing : sacred

Therefore it can be said that the word Cullunghutti refers to a benevolent, sacred place. It  has also been recorded that the mountain was referred to as Jellumbagong / Djullubugung by the local man Buthong in 1900. This can likewise be broken down as follows:

Jellumbagong / Djullubugung

galu : mala : ɲun

benevolent : special : thing

This word has a similar meaning to Cullunghutti, in that it describes a special, sacred, benevolent place. Both these words tie in with the traditional understanding of the significant place of the mountain in local culture, as revealed in the aforementioned dreaming story and the fact of the associated ceremonial grounds located nearby (Organ 1990, 1993).

According to the official New South Wales Geographical Names Board definition, Coolangatta means "splendid view" and this is stated to be based on the fact that from the top of the mountain a view of the surrounding landscape of river, ocean and coastal plain can be seen. It is noted by the present author that many Aboriginal word lists allocate a meaning of "beautiful place" or similar to words in which no precise Indigenous definition is available from original sources, and therefore one has been allocated by a non-Indigenous individual or group. Another good example is the word Illawarra which is said to mean "high pleasant place by the sea." Utilising historical mentions by Indigenous informants and the Illert research, a more accurate and precise meaning can be seen in the description of the geography of the place and its prominent, extensive, escarpment feature, as in dulu (= straight, extended, separated) and wara (= far, distant) => dulu : wara, wherein the Indigenous dula is heard and translated as illa. This simplified explanation of some of the phonetic complexity associated with this issue points to a need for caution in allocating non-Indigenous meaning to Australian Aboriginal words and language, especially in an historical context. The actual origin and meaning of the word Coolangatta is a good example, as can be seen from the above and following commentary.

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4. Shoalhaven or Gold Coast?

The author was informed during April 2024 that amongst the non-Indigenous population of the Shoalhaven there existed a widespread belief that the word Coolangatta had its origins in the name of the town located in Queensland, Australia, in a region known as the Gold Coast. The truth is otherwise.

During 1843 Alexander Berry, who referred to his land holdings at the Shoalhaven as the Coolangatta Estate, had constructed locally a twin-mastered, single deck, sailing vessel known as a brigantine (Jervis Bay Maritime Museum 2014). It would be used by him and his partner Edward Wollstonecraft for trade along the New South Wales coast between the Shoalhaven, Sydney and the north coast as far what is now know as Queensland, including transport of cedar from the latter region. Berry called his brigantine the Coolangatta. It was registered in Sydney in October 1844. Thereafter, for a number of years, it traded along the coast. Unfortunately, on 8 August 1846 the vessel was driven ashore just northward of the Tweed River and wrecked (Australian Government 2024). As a result, the settlement of that area was subsequently named Coolangatta. It remains so to the present day and is a prominent tourist destination. The origin of the word Coolangatta is ancient; the town of Coolangatta much less so. The wreckage is believed to lie off the modern-day surfing destination of Kirra Beach.

The Coolangatta brigantine, 1846.

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5. References

Australian Government, Shipwreck - Coolangatta [webpage], Australasian Underwater Cultural Heritage Database, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Australian Government, Canberra, accessed 16 April 2024.

Illert, Chris, A mathematical approach to recovering the original Australian Aboriginal language, Ph.D., School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Western Sydney, 2013, 277p.

----- and John Murphy, The Tharumba Language of Southern New South Wales: Part 1 of Who was right - P.G. King or C. Darwin?, 2018, 24p.

-----, The Proto-Australian Aboriginal language research of Dr. Chris Illert - a bibliography, 1 December 2019. Complied by Michael Organ. [Blog]

-----, John Murphy and Michael Organ, The Traditional Aboriginal Languages of Original-A and Original-B in western New South Wales: Part 3 of Who was right - P.G. King or C.Darwin?, 2021, 48p [Booklet].

Jervis Bay Maritime Museum, The Coolangatta, Shoalhaven connection, Jervis Bay Maritime Museum [blog], Jervis Bay, 22 March 2014.

Longbottom, Marlene and Michael Organ, Alexander Berry, grave robbing and the Frankenstein connection, 5 February 2022.

Mathews, R.H., Folklore of the Australian Aborigines, Sydney, 1899.

Organ, Michael, A Documentary History of the Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770-1850; including a Chronological Bibliography 1770-1990, Aboriginal Education Unit, Wollongong University, December 1990, 646p. [Book]

-----, A Documentary History of the Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770-1900; including a Chronological Bibliography 1770-1990, Report for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, 1 December 1993, 364p. [Report]

-----, Origins of the Australian Aborigines and their language, 20 March 2022. [Blog]

-----, Dr. Chris Illert's Proto-Australian Aboriginal language, 20 December 2022. [Blog]

Waters, Kate and Korey Moon, Cullunghutti - the mountain and its people: A documentary history of Cullunghutti Mountain from 1770 to 1920, Waters Consultancy and the Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Nowra, 2013, 325p.

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Australian Aborigines / Indigenous / First Nations research

Last updated: 25 April 2024

Michael Organ, Australia