Background
Fanny Balbuk (sometimes recorded as "Tulbuk") was born on Matagarup and her traditional country included the swamps and wetland which once stood on the area currently occupied by the Perth Railway Station and Perth Cultural Centre.
Fanny Balbuk (sometimes recorded as "Tulbuk") was born on Matagarup and her traditional country included the swamps and wetland which once stood on the area currently occupied by the Perth Railway Station and Perth Cultural Centre.
She is remembered for her fierce commitment to land rights, and her reactions to the buildings, fences and homes which quickly replaced her land as the Swan River Colony expanded at the cost of Noongar peoples" land, language and lives. Fanny Balbuk was born to Joojeebal (Doodyep) and Coondenung on Matagarup in 1840. Fanny Balbuk was born near the causeway on Noongar Whadjuk country and would collect Gilgies and vegetables from the swampy areas around Perth.
She was a descendant of Yellagonga and her traditional country covers the Perth Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics area.
Balbuk was well known among the colonists who had grown up around her, and remembered for her unwavering commitment to maintaining her land rights in the earliest days of the Frontier Wars in Western Australia. Balbuk would walk the track between her birth site and the Railway Station, regardless of any new obstacles, buildings or fences which would spring up in her path as the colony grew.
She just kept going and didn’t take any notice of the new city going up. That’s a story of defiance and determination.
