LIFE OF FANNY BALBUK

The draining and filling in of swamps caused great concern amongst Nyoongar people. A Nyoongar woman named Fanny Balbuk protested the occupation of her traditional home ground by settlers.

Balbuk was born in 1840 on Matta Gerup (place 25) in the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River). From there, a straight track led to a swamp where once she had gathered gilgies (freshwater crayfish) and vegetable food. Known to the newcomers as Lake Kingsford, the swamp was later drained to make way for the Perth Railway Station.

Daisy Bates describes how Fanny Balbuk would break through and climb over fences, continuing to walk her traditional bidi (track) to gather bush foods at Lake Kingsford. When a house was built in her way, she broke its fence palings with her wanna (digging stick) and forced her way through the rooms. She was often arrested. She would “stand at the gates of Government House, cursing everyone within, because the stone gates guarded by a sentry enclosed her grandmother’s burial ground” (Bates 1938).

Yoondoorup (place 29) is thought to have been Balbuk’s mother’s birthplace. Matta Gerup (place 25) was the old fording place where the Causeway now stands. Joorolup was the other side of Matagarup—going towards Minderup (South Perth).

The rushes below the late George Shenton’s house in South Perth were called Goorgugu - a sound very closely resembling the English word “gurgling,” applied to the sound of the water among reeds and rushes.

Glendalough succeeded the old Bibbulmun name Goobabbilup. There was a red ochre pit in this vicinity which her father had given to Balbuk, and she claimed payment for any wilgi (ochre) taken from her Wilgigarup.

Both grandmothers of Fanny Balbuk have their grave sites in Perth. One lies buried beneath Bishop’s Grove, the residence of Perth’s first Archbishop; the other lies beneath Government House (Bates 1929).