Indigenous Australia

Barangaroo (c. 1750–1791), fisherwoman and prominent figure in Sydney’s early colony, was born sometime around 1750 to the Gamaragal (Cammeraygal) clan whose Country was located on the lower north shore of Sydney Harbour, New South Wales. The names of her parents and close kin are no longer known.

It is likely that as a child Barangaroo went through the custom of malgun, which entailed the top joint of her left little finger being amputated by a ligature. Early colonists speculated that malgun was part of the marriage ceremony but were later told that it aided in the women’s ability to fish by preventing the handline from catching on the little finger. Fisherwomen provided most of the food for their families by going out on the harbour in their nuwi/nawi (bark canoes). This occupation was not only vital for the clan’s wellbeing but also potentially dangerous. In her youth Barangaroo would have learned how to make bara (fish hooks crafted from shells, particularly turban shells) and garradjun (fishing lines made from bark worked into fibres that could be twined into rope); she would also have learned the songs that fisherwomen sang while out in their nuwi. Her nasal septum was pierced, perhaps when she was between eight and sixteen years of age, and on occasion she adorned it with a bone.

Sometime in the 1770s or 1780s Barangaroo married and had two children. She may have attended the first meeting between British colonists and Gamaragal women at Manly in February 1788. In April 1789, when the devastating smallpox epidemic killed more than half of the local people, she survived but lost her husband and both children. She was subsequently wooed by Bennelong (c. 1764–1813), a Wangal man who was kidnapped by the British in November 1789. On 3 February 1790 Governor Arthur Phillip took the shackled Bennelong by boat to South Head, where he saw Barangaroo. She told Bennelong the whereabouts of Colby, his fellow kidnappee who had escaped and was a rival for her affections. Barangaroo had a close relationship with Colby’s wife Daringa (c. 1770–1795), also known as Barangaroo Daringa, as signalled by their exchange of names.

Bennelong escaped from the British in May 1790. Soon thereafter he and Barangaroo were married. Their relationship was both affectionate and tempestuous. The couple were often seen ‘feasting and enjoying themselves’ (Collins 1971 [1798], 599) at Me-mel (named Goat Island by the British), which Bennelong told the British had been passed down to him from his father, but were also observed fiercely arguing. As a senior Gamaragal woman, Barangaroo held significant sway over Bennelong and others.

On 15 September 1790 Barangaroo was officially introduced to the British officers. They had taken Boorong (also known by the British as Abaroo) and Nanbaree, two young orphans and translators who had lived with them for a year, to the north shore in the hope of meeting with Bennelong. Barangaroo, like the other Gamaragal women, kept her distance at first; however, after her husband spent time with the colonists, eating and having his beard groomed, she approached and was persuaded by Bennelong and Boorong—who dressed her in a petticoat—to meet the white men. When Bennelong and the officers laughed at her appearance, she removed the petticoat. She agreed to have her hair combed and trimmed but refused to drink their wine. The officers initially perceived her as gentle and timid and believed she exuded modesty; soon they would discover that she was influential, wily, and strategic. At their request Boorong tried to persuade Barangaroo to join the settlement so that Bennelong might resume their hoped-for role as an intermediary. Instead, Barangaroo urged Boorong to quit the colonists and return to her own people.

The next month Bennelong agreed to visit the governor, a decision that alarmed Barangaroo who remained suspicious of the British. Failing to dissuade him, she broke his fishing spears in a rage, eventually leading him to try to appease her with gentle caresses; he appeared to the British as ‘anxious only to please her’ (Tench 1979 [1793], 190).

In November 1790, finding it increasingly difficult to meet with Bennelong, the British agreed to build a twelve-foot brick house at Dubbagullee (now known as Bennelong Point) to try to curry his favour. Barangaroo and others began to visit this house, bringing them into closer and more frequent contact with the colonists, and Barangaroo grew attached to a European child and exchanged names with her. During this time, Bennelong had an altercation with a Gweagal man from Botany Bay, sustaining a wound to the head. His reprisal ultimately resulted in him taking the man’s daughter, Kurubarabula, as his third wife, though she spent most of her time with her Gweagal kin.

The convicts’ theft of Aboriginal fishing gear, including the women’s bara, lines, and nets, caused ongoing tension. In May 1791 the British invited Eora, the local word for people, including Barangaroo, to witness the corporal punishment of a convict for stealing Daringa’s fishing tackle. Instead of being satisfied by this demonstration of British justice, the Eora were horrified, and while some women wept, Barangaroo was infuriated, grabbing a stick and threatening the soldier administering the punishment, proving again that her character was ‘fierce and unsubmissive’ (Tench 1979 [1793], 222).

Barangaroo gave birth to a daughter, Dilboong, in August 1791. Bennelong wanted her to have the baby at Government House, but she preferred to labour alone in the bush. David Collins, judge-advocate, was surprised to see her up and collecting firewood shortly after giving birth.

Not long after Dilboong’s birth Barangaroo became ill. Bennelong called for Willemerring, a karadji (clever man and healer) from Broken Bay, to come and tend to her but he failed to arrive and she passed away. Bennelong quickly and solemnly organised her cremation, only inviting a small group of Eora and Phillip, Collins, and John White, the colony’s chief surgeon, afterwards burying her ashes in the gardens at Government House. It was customary to avoid using the name of a person who had died, so Daringa, who shared names with Barangaroo, relinquished both. Soon after Barangaroo’s passing, Bennelong staged a punitive contest at a large whale-feast gathering, spearing Willemerring in the thigh as punishment for his role in Barangaroo’s death. A few months later, Dilboong too passed away.

In the late nineteenth-century Barangaroo’s name was celebrated. In 1886 a road at Toongabbie estate was named after her in remembrance of the ‘earliest Australian celebrities and proteges of Governor Phillip’ (Sydney Morning Herald 1886, 11). The North Shore Steam Ferry Company named one of its vessels for her in 1889. Later she came to be remembered in her own right as a formidable and powerful Gamaragal woman. Following a public competition, an entire precinct at East Darling Harbour was named in her honour in 2007. This was followed by the opening of the harbourside Barangaroo Reserve in 2015 and the Barangaroo metro station in 2024.

Shino Konishi is a Yawuru woman who lives and works on Whadjuk Noongar Country.