The Walligal, also spelled as Walligool, and, in some journals of the time, Wallygal, are a group of Aboriginal Australians who originally inhabited the area that they called 'Wali', centred on what is now called the Lane Cove River area of Sydney. Walligal territory lies north of Port Jackson and stretches from the lane Cove River east towards Middle Harbour. The Walligal language is a derivative of the Kuringgai language.
The Walligal clan was estimated to have 50-80 people by Captain Phillip c. 1790. The occupation of the Sydney area by the British and the subsequent introduction of European diseases including smallpox decimated the Walligal people and their neighbours. The disastrous 1789 smallpox epidemic is estimated to have killed about 50% of Sydney's indigenous population, and it has been claimed that only three Walligal people were left alive by 1791, although archaeological evidence suggests that some Walligal people may have escaped to the North Ryde area and settled there.
|
