Freddie Dowling, the consultant on this story, is one of the elders of the Pangerang people.

He is a storyteller and published author. His No More the Valley Rings with Koorie Laughter is a collection of stories, the majority of which were told to him by his father and his grandmother, Annie Lewis, the niece of Mary Jane Milawa.

These stories were written down in 1975 for his own family "so that their descendants could reflect on who they were and learn something of their culture and how it was before white settlement changed everything".

The junction of the Torryong (Ovens River) and Poodumbia (King River) was an important meeting place for the Pangerang people, who lived on the high side of the river in winter, away from the floods, and then the low side in summer, to fish and swim.

Bindagaree is the lookout post (also known as the Glenrowan/Benalla lookout) with a view of all the country towards the Strathbogie Ranges from the Pangerang (Warby) Ranges.

Any smoke from Mount Major in the West could be seen from here too.

Jillamatong (Jubilee Falls) are between 95m and 130m high.

This is a women’s place where the women went to have their babies, it is a secluded place that often had flowing water.

The area known as Munbundowie (meaning bandy legs) or Horseshoe Bend Lagoon, a backwash to Reedy Creek, is the place of the last corroboree, near where the big tree was half cut down.

This tree is depicted in the story about the last corroboree on Reedy Creek retold by Freddie Dowling in his book No More the Valley Rings with Koorie Laughter.

At this last corroboree, “beneath the spreading branches of the scared yarrunga, by the Munbundowee lagoon” it was decided an impressive mob of warriors would show themselves peaceably to the invading settlers’ camp, composed mainly of drovers, near present day Benalla, thinking “any normal adversary would soon forget about settling into an area so populated by warriors.”

However, once the settlers saw this mob, instead of leaving, they began shooting. Further down the creek is the mussel catching area and midden sites that are evidence of time, diet and occupation.

The reeds (Phragmites australis) that grow along the banks of the Torryong (Ovens River) were used to make reed spears for fishing. These are known as Jareel: thin reed spears.

The end of the reed is hollowed out and beeswax is used to hold in the spear head. Spears were traded with other groups and were often traded for stones from this area; the reeds grow thicker and stronger on the drier watercourses in other areas.

Close to Jareelyallock (Reedy Creek), the men would come along with their boomerangs and would throw them low towards the ducks.

The ducks would then fly low along the creek to where the women would be waiting in the rushes with their nets stretched across the creek – tied between two trees.

The women would then come out and catch the ducks. This is the place where the two trees were, where they slung the net across the creek.

This photograph features the leaves of the Black Wattle, an acacia.

Tanning hides was women’s work and done down by the river bank. Black wattle bark was stripped and used to tan skins, in holes dug at the edge of the river or lagoon.

This is a photo of a Red River Gum on the Torryong (Ovens) River. Freddie Dowling says fallen trees in the river are good places for fish to live and breed and were a good place to catch fish.

Squirrel Gliders (Petaurus norfolcensis) are commonly found around the Ovens River and its tributaries. This one was found impaled on a barbed wire fence and was freed by Freddie Dowling and allowed to return to a nearby tree.

Gunyuk (Black Swan), also known as Mary Jane Milawa, was the last member of the family named Milawa. Mary was the youngest sister of Luana, who was the great grandmother of Freddie Dowling.

When they were very young, Mary Jane and Luana were accompanied by some Wiradjuri people from their home land to live at a safer place at Lake Moodamoot (now known as Lake Moodemere).

Luana later married a drover Wally Dowling, Freddie’s great-grandfather. Mary Jane, however, pined for home and returned to live her life as a single woman ‘eeking’ out a meagre existence along the river flats east of Wangaratta, just below where the town of Milawa is today.

Mary Jane died in 1888, aged about 60, and is buried in the Wangaratta cemetery. This story was told to Freddie by his grandmother and grandfather.

The following is a poem written by Freddie Dowling for his great-great-aunt.

Mary Milawa (Freddie Dowling)

Once in a beautiful valley

A sweet little baby girl was born

And her proud mother said to her father

Our tribe The Pangerang will live on

As she grew up in the valley

That little girl had known a perfect life

But her tribe could never know in their dreaming

That the years ahead were filled with strife

For the White Man came

And tore their world apart

They did not seem to realise

That the Black Man owned this land

So they took the Black Man and his country

And killed the ones who fought for what they owned

And by the time that little girl became a woman

She walked in her world all alone

Then on the sixth day of November 1888

Mary Jane Milawa passed away

And that lonely broken hearted woman in her sadness

Took her final Walkabout alone

So no more the Valley rings with Koorie laughter

And no more Corroborees by the big lagoon

But the gum trees by the river show the shadows

Of Dark People…every night beneath the moon

In this video Pangerang Elder Freddie Dowling discusses Bindagaree, the lookout post (also known as the Glenrowan/Benalla lookout) with a view of all the country towards the Strathbogie Ranges from the Pangerang (Warby) Ranges. He also talks about how he has gained wisdom from his forebears.

Director/editor: Tamsin Sharp

Cinematographer: John Sones

Wangaratta Digital Quilt Project