Indigenous Occupation of the Lower Irwin 
Very little seems to have been recorded or is known of the indigenous peoples who inhabited or made use of the lower Irwin River area. They are thought to have been called the Wattandee1, and formed part of a greater group of peoples called the Nunga.
They are thought to have been called the 'Wattandee'...
The middle reaches of the Irwin River, which they called Yarranoo murraja2 (murruja = river;Yarranoo = river in flood), appears to have been their permanent place of habitation at places called Minya-noo3 (Mingenew), Trawberrie4 (Strawberry) and Pedowangi5 (Peterwangy).
The seasonal visits of the Wattandee to the coast during the summer months would have provided relief from the hot inland conditions. More importantly it would have helped in their beliefs as Wattarn Borungar6, sea totem people.
Their belief was that the place where the sun set was the distant land to where kanyongooo7, or spirit of deceased Wattandee, went after a long journey beneath the sea8.
The mouth of the river with its lagoon estuary and offshore reefs was an ideal home for many animals, in particular fur seals (Australian sea lions). The Wattandee called them thunga or dhunga, which combined with their word for place arra, resulted in the name thungarra or dhungarra to describe the "seals meeting place"9.
... the name 'Thungarra' or 'Dhungarra' to
describe the "seals meeting place"
The seals have largely disappeared but it is thought that the anglicisation of that ancient indigenous name is what gives us the present day town name of Dongara.
Following the taking up of grazing leases, the misunderstanding and skirmishes between the European and indigenous peoples culminated in a major conflict in dense melaleuca thickets north of the town on the 4th and 5th of June 1854. Firearms were superior to spears and for all intents the indigenous people departed the area.
In August, the few Wattandee who remained submitted themselves to Lockier Burges at Irwin House. After promising good conduct they were restricted in their movements, and became increasingly dependent on the goodwill of the Europeans10.
Under different circumstances the collective knowledge of the Wattandee, learned over many generations and thousands of years, might have been useful for those Europeans who had taken up land along the river prior to 1872. That year the region was lashed by storm winds and torrential rain.
...the collective knowledge of the Wattandee, learned over many
generations and thousands of years, might have been useful
for those Europeans who had taken up land along the river
The assumed seasonal Irwin River was turned into Yarranoo murraja, "the river that flows in flood".
All were swept before the raging waters or stripped by the winds and pounding sea.
The newspaper "The Inquirer" reported ‘…..the only peoples seemingly not surprised by the damage were the natives of the district. They said the sand hills at the estuary and bay, bare and always drifting were in this state because in the Dream Time there had been a great storm and the bushes buried themselves for protection and had never come up again’11.
The seeming lack of knowledge about those indigenous peoples remains a continuing challenge for future researchers and historians.
- White, I., (Ed) Daisy Bates:-The Native Tribes of Western Australia, Canberra 1985 p.58
- Bain, M.A., Ancient Landmarks p.15
- ibid p.57
- ibid, p.20
- ibid p.325
- White,I.,op.cit., p.210
- ibid p70
- ibid p. 299
- Bain, M.A., op. cit., p. 172
- ibid p. 190,191
- ibid p. 387,388