Nobbys Island

This is an essay for the ecotone Wiki on “Islands and Place”.
It is tempting to write on Australia, the island continent, but where do I begin? There are the coral islands in the Great Barrier Reef, there is Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island (where the Bounty mutineers finally settled). I must also not omit Tasmania, the Apple Isle. I am however not going to write about any of these - rather I am going to continue with my series on “Places of the Spirit”. Our journey to spiritual places will take us to my current home - Newcastle.
My favourite walk takes me from Newcastle beach to Nobbys breakwater. To get to the breakwater we walk along an isthmus towards a flat cliff formation with a lighthouse on top of it. The breakwater extends from this head out to sea and guards the mouth of the Hunter River. Careful observation will ascertain that the isthmus we walk along is manmade; in fact it was made by convicts. It leads out to what once was Nobbys Island.

Nobbys island was first sighted by Captain James Cook in 1770 and described as “a small clump of an island lying close to shore”. Since then, Nobbys has played a vital role in the history of the port city. An early problem facing captains of sailing ships entering Newcastle was the loss of wind in the ship's sails as they passed the towering Nobbys outcrop at the port's entrance. To alleviate this, the top was taken off Nobbys, reducing it to half its original height, with the resulting rock used in the construction of the breakwater. A lighthouse was erected on Nobbys and was brought into service on the 1st of January, 1858. (Hunter Port Authority)

But what of the story of Nobbys head prior to British settlement? Nobbys island in fact has a legend that has been passed on for generations before the white settlers laid eyes on it. The Awabakal people, original owners of the land, believed that Nobbys was the home of an immense kangaroo “ú Why-bay Gamba”. When he shook himself, the island trembled and rocks fell which accounted for the stratification of the cliff face.

A giant kangaroo assailed a female wallaby. Such an act conflicted with the laws governing the kinship pattern of survival based on purity of blood lines thereby destroying the totemic structure so strongly emphasised in the Bora teaching. After the deed became known, flocks of wallabies gave chase to the perpetrator, who fled over the hills and through the bush. although he kept ahead by superior leaping, he knew that the capture and death were inevitable because the sea offered no escape. But as he neared the sea a mist intervened and he was lost to the sight of his pursuers. He took advantage of this respite by swimming to Nobbys Island which he entered and shut himself away from sight. The wallabies gave up the chase believing the sea had claimed the kangaroo. But, according to tradition, the kangaroo was never certain of his safety. Now and then he would jump up and down in his island and cause the cliff to tremble and break away as a warning to any wallabies and other animals not to come too close to his island refuge. (from "Nobbys Coal River Historic Precinct Workshop Prelude to a Heritage Masterplan")

This story of the giant kangaroo is part of the Newcastle tribal story.
Nobbys is the place of the spirit of “ú Why-bay Gamba”. Perhaps no longer an island as seen below in this painting from the 1830's, but still a place of the spirit.

Comments

[fredf]

I have no islands to write about. Thanks for providing me one to imagine knowing... a former island, at least.

[Jenny]

Are you sure there isn't a little island that you've been to that has moved you? The US must have hundreds of islands! Not having been to North America, I'm interested in anything you can describe for me - from Manhattan to tiny islands in the middle of lakes or streams. Everything is new for me - so tell me about the birds, the animals, the plants, the Native American legends..anything you can think of.

[chantel n jess]

hey what you dong i like what u have done wif the place love me n jess xoxox hope to hear bak from u