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In 2006 a group of Beaumaris secondary students rediscovered the historic Beaumaris Aboriginal Well of Narm (Melbourne) during an excursion with Melbourne Walks,
This activity was a tribute to the Boonwurrung traditional owners and the memory of Beaumaris naturalist Wally Goodbody, who checked and protected the well for over half a century before he died in a boating accident.
For 150 years after settlement, this freshwater well was exposed and visible. Since 1997 however, this rare Indigenous place has largely disappeared under sand movements.
The well is about 50 metres north of the Beaumaris Yacht Club in a flat rock slab that projects from the edge of the dune hillside towards the sea.
The secondary school students dug for an hour to locate the well and then excavate the sand from the interior. It was a significant physical effort with groups of students taking turns to dig with their hands. There was a feeling of pride as the students brought into present view an ancient artefact famous in both settler and Indigenous history. This may have one of the wells described by Joseph Gellibrand, the architect of the Melbourne treaty, when he crossed overland in 1836 to join John Batman’s party at Melbourne.
The well was measured and is approximately 55cm wide at the top, 97cm deep and 25cm wide at the base. It is one of seven well sites on the foreshore between Rickets Point and Black Rock listed by Aldo Massola of Melbourne Museum in the 1950s.
A freshwater well site at Red Bluff, Black Rock beach is now the only one of these sites easily accessible. Wells on the foreshore were fed by freshwater springs running from the dunes into rock cavities which were deepened by hand chipping by the Boonwurrung first people. The collected water would be kept clean with a bark cover. They were possibly further hollowed by colonial visitors to increase the water supply.
We visit the site to check on the health of the Beaumaris well just like Wally used to. When visiting we sit quietly and reflect on the custodianship of this country for millennia. We think of the good people like Wally who continued this custodianship alone for decades. And remind ourselves that we still bear the duty and honour of custodianship of Narm.
Images below:
Beaumaris well image 1958 with Melbourne walks measurements from 2006.
Beaumaris well 1958 with Wally Goodbody
Beaumaris well 1997
Beaumaris well 1997
Beaumaris Well 1997
