Final-community Guide 03 04

in their diet. In most groups the women were in      their eggs. On the coast and in the waterways
fact the mainstays of their families in providing    women and men shared the work of gathering
food.                                                shellfish and fishing. The use of nets was
                                                                       common.
Across      the   area,   women
gathered shellfish, lobster,                                           The basic work of men in the
pipis and crabs along the coast.                                       task of gathering food was as
Fern roots and various seeds                                           hunters and fishermen. When
were prepared into a flour or                                          hunting, men used their
paste and mixed with water to                                          knowledge of bush lore, their
be roasted.                                                            agility and their tracking skills,
                                                                       as they stalked their prey.
With digging sticks, hours
                                                                       When fishing, they used their
were spent searching the
                                                     strength, their ability to stay underwater for
ground for edible roots, yams and insects, as well
                                                     long periods and their deftness to good effect. At
as snakes and lizards. Along with men, women
                                                     times each man hunted alone, but mainly they
were adept at climbing trees and helped men
                                                     hunted as a team.
capture small tree-dwelling animals, birds and




                               PLACE
                                              NAMES
S   ome recorded versions of the origin of           Doonan – leaf of a tree, or lightweight tree –
    local place names:                                   such as tea tree

Cooloola – kululu, the coastal cypress of            Kin Kin - king king – Aboriginal name for a
    callitris                                            species of small black ant, prevalent in the
                                                         area
Cooloothin – Kabi dialect for cypress pine
    (kululu) and thin (to swim), referring to        Noosa – a corruption of the aboriginal word
    the     early    rafting   of                                      Noothera       or    Gnuthuru
    cypress pine logs in the                                           meaning shadow or shady
    creek                                                              place

Cooran – guran – dialect for                                           Peregian – emu
    tall, referring to local                                           Pomona – in honour of the
    trees                                                              area’s flourishing orangeries,
Cootharaba – another name                                              as the mythological Goddess
    for the nulla-nulla – the                                          Pomona was the presiding
    scrubs were full of a                                              deity over orchards and fruit
    timber called Spearwood or Waddywood,            Teewah – dauwah, dead wood or dry timber
    very heavy and hard and therefore suitable
                                                     Tewantin – dauwadhum, place of dead logs –
    for weapons
                                                         in reference to the introduction of
Cooroora – Elanda or Illandra Point on Lake              sawmilling. (The late Dr Nancy Cato,
    Cootharaba was originally the holding of             writer of The Noosa Story, decried the
    Lieutenant James O’Connell Bligh (son-               popular theory that the name came from
    in-law of Vice-Admiral Bligh). He named              “tea-want-um”, following a call for
    his selection “Caroora”, and it is thought           supplies from         the Aboriginal leader
    this name was also given to the mountain             known as “King Tommy (or Tuppenywoe)
    near Pomona, now Cooroora                            of Noosa, Weyba and Cootharaba”.)

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