Portrait of Bennelong, senior man of the Eora / Dharawal tribe

The traditional owners of the inner Sydney City region of Australia are the Cadigal people. Their land south of Port Jackson stretches from South Head to Petersham. The word Eora (sometimes spelled Iora or Iyora) simply means "here" or "from this place". Local people used this word to describe where they came from to the British. "Eora" was then used by the British to refer to those Aboriginal people. The central Sydney region is still often referred to as "Eora Country". The people described by British settlers as the Eora people were probably Cadigal people, the Aboriginal tribe of the inner Sydney region in 1788 before the first European settlers arrived. The Cadigal clan lived to the southwest of the Balmain peninsula, the Wanegal to the northwest, and the Cammeraygal on the present-day lowe. Image File history File links An undated portrait thought to depict Bennelong, signed W.W. now in the Dixson Galleries of the State Library of New South Wales. ... Image File history File links An undated portrait thought to depict Bennelong, signed W.W. now in the Dixson Galleries of the State Library of New South Wales. ... Portrait (signed W.W.) thought to depict Bennelong. ... The Cadigal, also spelled as Gadigal, are a group of Indigenous Australians who originally inhabited the area that became the Marrickville Local Government Area of Sydney. ... Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge located on Port Jackson Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. ... The Sydney Opera House on Sydney Harbour Sydney (pronounced ) is the most populous city in Australia, with a metropolitan area population of approximately 4. ... 1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

While some claim that Eora means "from here", others claim that "yura", meaning "man", gave the word Iyura or Eora. Some of the words of Aboriginal language still in use today are from the Eora (possibly Dharawal) language: dingo, woomera, wallaby, wombat, waratah, and boobook (owl). Trinomial name Canis lupus dingo (Meyer, 1793) Dingo range Breed standards (external link) ANKC The dingo (plural dingoes or dingos) or warrigal, Canis lupus dingo, is a type of wild dog, probably descended from the Indian Wolf (Canis lupus pallipes). ... This article is about the woomera, a weapon. ... Ancient aboriginal rock painting of a wallaby in Kakadu National Park in Northern Australia. ... Genera and Species Vombatus Vombatus ursinus Lasiorhinus Lasiorhinus latifrons Lasiorhinus krefftii †Rhizophascolomus †Phascolonus †Warendja †Ramasayia Wombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately one metre (3 feet) in length with a very short tail. ... Species See text Waratah (Telopea) is a genus of five species of large shrubs or small trees in the Proteaceae, native to southeastern Australia, from New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. ... Binomial name Ninox novaeseelandiae (Gmelin, 1788) The Southern Boobook (Ninox novaeseelandiae), also called the mopoke or morepork, is a small brown owl found mainly in New Zealand and the more fertile and temperate parts of Australia. ...

The Eora / Dharawal / Darug (Coastal) people lived largely from the produce of the sea, and were expert in close-to-shore navigation, fishing, cooking, and eating in the bays and harbors in their bark canoes.

When the First Fleet of 1300 convicts, guards, and administrators arrived in January 1788, the Eora numbered about 1500. A smallpox-like disease in conjunction with other germs and viruses along with the destruction of their natural food sources saw the Eora practically die out during the nineteenth century.

The Eora / Dharawal / Darug (Coastal) language has been reconstructed from the many notes made of it by the original colonists, although there has possibly not been a continual oral tradition for over one hundred years.

Bennelong of the Eora / Dharawal / Darug (Coastal) tribe served as a link between the British colony at Sydney and the Eora / Dharawal / Darug (Coastal) people in the early days of the colony. He was given a brick hut on what became known as Bennelong Point where the Sydney Opera House now stands. He traveled to England in 1792 along with Yemmerrawanie, and was presented to King George III on 24 May 1793. Bennelong returned to Sydney in 1795.

References

• Daniel Kurupt (gen. ed.) (1994). The Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Australia. Aboriginal Studies Press. ISBN 0-85575-234-3 (set). 
• N. Thieberger, W. McGregor (gen. eds.) Macquarie Aboriginal Words, section "Sydney language".
• http://www.crystalinks.com/aboriginals.html
• http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/Barani/main.html
• http://www.livingharbour.net/aboriginal/index.cfm