Wadawurrung Survivors

The Last Recorded Wadawurrung Survivors: Memory, Misclassification, and Enduring Identity

MLA Educational Series — Indigenous History, Survival, and Cultural Continuity on Wadawurrung Country

During the late nineteenth century, colonial officials and anthropologists claimed that the “last of the full-blood Wadawurrung” people had died. This claim, repeated in newspapers and government reports, reflected colonial obsession with racial classification rather than cultural truth. The Wadawurrung people never became extinct — their descendants survived through family lines across Geelong, Ballarat, and the Bellarine Peninsula. However, identifying the last individuals officially recorded as “full-blood” Wadawurrung reveals both the violence of this language and the resilience of those who carried identity forward in a hostile colonial world. This article traces the names, records, and oral histories of the last known survivors described in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sources, and it explores how Wadawurrung identity continued beyond the labels imposed by colonisation.

Historical Context: The Colonial Obsession with “Extinction”

By the 1860s, government anthropologists, missionaries, and journalists across Victoria began documenting what they believed were the “last remnants” of Aboriginal nations. This reflected the colonial ideology of social Darwinism — the false belief that Indigenous peoples would inevitably “die out” as Europeans expanded (Broome, 2005; Reynolds, 1987).

For the Wadawurrung, whose Country stretched from the You Yangs and Geelong to Ballarat, Skipton, and the Bellarine Peninsula, this notion of disappearance was tied to the frontier violence of the 1830s–1840s. Massacres, disease, and the spread of squatter runs drastically reduced population numbers. Yet many survivors relocated to Missions such as Framlingham and Coranderrk, or lived on the fringes of Geelong and Ballarat, maintaining identity despite forced assimilation.

Colonial records referred to people as “full-blood,” “half-caste,” or “quadroon” based on physical appearance and ancestry — terms now rejected for their racism and inaccuracy. However, these same records help identify individuals who preserved Wadawurrung heritage through extraordinary endurance.

The Last Recorded Wadawurrung “Full-Blood” Individuals

Purranmurnin Tullawurnin (early 1800s–c.1874)

As documented in John Goodall’s Framlingham Mission journals (1872–1874) and later confirmed by Jan Pritchard (2012), Purranmurnin Tullawurnin was one of the last Wadawurrung women recorded as “full-blood” in colonial terminology. Goodall described her as “a woman of the old time, from the Barwon country — a memory of the convict man [Buckley] and the early camps”. She lived her later years at Framlingham and was remembered as an Elder who taught stories of the Barwon River and the spirits of the stars. Her daughter Fanny, born from her relationship with William Buckley, carried her lineage forward, ensuring that Wadawurrung identity survived through descendants (Pritchard, 2012; Goodall, 1873).

Woolmudgin (also known as King Billy of Ballarat) (d. c.1880s)

One of the last recorded Wadawurrung men publicly known in the Ballarat region was Woolmudgin, also called “King Billy”, who appears in government and local press accounts in the 1870s. According to Ian Clark (1990), he was recognised by both settlers and Aboriginal people as an Elder associated with the northern Wadawurrung clans near Mt Buninyong.
Although newspapers of the time sensationalised his presence, oral accounts from the Ballarat area describe him as a respected figure who maintained cultural knowledge, including smoking ceremonies and burial customs (Clark, 1990; Critchett, 1990).

Nellie and Louisa (the “Bellarine sisters”) (fl. 1880s–1890s)

Census and police correspondence from the 1880s list two elderly Wadawurrung women — identified only as Nellie and Louisa — living at camps near Indented Head and St Leonards on the Bellarine Peninsula. Both women were recorded by Assistant Protector William Thomas as belonging to the Barrabool Hills people. They worked in fishing, basket weaving, and shell collecting, and were among the last to speak Wadawurrung fluently in the region. Thomas noted their distress at being described as “last of their tribe,” stating that they still had kin at Framlingham and near Ballarat (Thomas Papers, 1841–1885; Broome, 2005).

Mary (Marri) or “Queen Mary of Geelong” (d. c.1885)

Known locally as “Queen Mary,” this woman was frequently mentioned in Geelong newspapers of the 1870s–1880s. She camped along the Barwon River and sold woven rush mats and necklaces in town. While described by settlers as the “last Geelong native,” records show she maintained close kinship ties with other Aboriginal families who travelled between Colac, Coranderrk, and Geelong. Oral histories from the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (2022) identify her as possibly connected to Purranmurnin’s extended family, marking her as one of the last matriarchs of the lower Barwon (Clark, 1995; Wadawurrung Oral Histories, 2022).

King David (Murrum Murrumbean) (d. 1867)

A prominent Wadawurrung man known as King David, or Murrum Murrumbean, was issued a brass breastplate by settlers near Geelong in the 1840s. Colonial newspapers reported his death in 1867, calling him “one of the last of the Wathaurong race.” However, descendants later disputed this claim, noting that several of his relatives continued to live in the Geelong area into the 1900s. His story illustrates how early declarations of “extinction” ignored living descendants and cultural continuity (Broome, 2005; Presland, 1994).

The Myth of Extinction and the Truth of Survival

By the 1890s, officials and local historians frequently declared the “last full-bloods” of Victorian nations had died. Yet, this was a colonial fiction. Wadawurrung families endured — often classified by the government as “half-caste” or “assimilated” and thus erased from official recognition. Despite forced removals and restrictions under the 1869 and 1886 Aboriginal Protection Acts, people maintained kinship networks across Victoria. Oral histories and mission registers demonstrate how Wadawurrung identity persisted through family names connected to Framlingham, Coranderrk, and Lake Tyers.

This continuity challenges the extinction myth and highlights the strength of women like Purranmurnin Tullawurnin, who preserved stories of the rivers, stars, and ancestors through displacement and control.

Language, Memory, and Cultural Continuity

By the early twentieth century, Wadawurrung language was said to be “no longer spoken.” Yet, fragments survived in song, ceremony, and place names — preserved by descendants and later reconstructed by linguists such as Ian Clark (1990) and community Elders. Modern cultural revitalisation efforts by the Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation have restored hundreds of words and stories, reuniting families with the language once thought lost. The rediscovery of genealogical links between families at Framlingham, Colac, and Geelong confirms that Wadawurrung identity never ended — it evolved, adapted, and endured.

Legacy and Recognition

Today, descendants of the families once labelled “the last of the Wadawurrung” proudly identify as part of a continuous and living culture. Through truth-telling, language revival, and the Victorian Treaty process, these descendants reclaim their history from colonial misrepresentation.

The lives of people such as Purranmurnin Tullawurnin, King Billy (Woolmudgin), Queen Mary, and the Bellarine sisters remind us that “full-blood” was never a measure of culture or belonging. Their stories show that Wadawurrung sovereignty — of Country, spirit, and kinship — could not be extinguished by violence or assimilation.

Their descendants’ survival across generations remains the most powerful testimony to the endurance of Wadawurrung identity in the face of attempted erasure.

Conclusion

The so-called “last full-blood Wadawurrung” were not the end of a people but the last generation to be seen through the distorted lens of colonial classification. Through individuals like Purranmurnin Tullawurnin and others recorded in missions, oral history, and family memory, we can now trace unbroken lines of continuity that reach into the present. The Wadawurrung people endure — not as remnants, but as living descendants of a culture that continues to speak, sing, and protect Country. Their stories are not about ending, but survival.

References

Barwick, D. (1998). Rebellion at Coranderrk. Canberra: Aboriginal History Inc.
Broome, R. (2005). Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Clark, I. D. (1990). Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria, 1800–1900. Clayton: Monash Publications in Geography.
Clark, I. D. (1995). Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Critchett, J. (1990). A Distant Field of Murder: Western District Frontiers, 1834–1848. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Goodall, J. (1870–1875). Framlingham Mission Journals. Manuscript Collection, State Library of Victoria.
Presland, G. (1994). Aboriginal Melbourne: The Lost Land of the Kulin People. Melbourne: Harriland Press.
Pritchard, J. (2012). Untold Stories: Framlingham and Its People. Warrnambool: Jan Pritchard.
Reynolds, H. (1987). The Law of the Land. Ringwood: Penguin.
Wadawurrung Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (2022). Oral Histories and Cultural Narratives Project. Geelong.
Thomas, W. (1841–1885). Assistant Protector Journals. Public Records Office Victoria.

Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter (22 October 2025)

MLA

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Magic Lands Alliance acknowledges the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay respect to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples’ communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of their respective communities.