For thousands of years, the land on which the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney stands has belonged first and foremost to the Aboriginal people. Originally known as the ‘Cadi’, the area was the place of the Gadigal, who had a strong and significant connection to the land, and the flora and flora within it.
The significance and natural beauty of their native land was long known by the Gadigal. But following the arrival of the First Fleet, the area was quickly moulded into a version of England, in a way that would inevitably be a consequence for the Aboriginal communities of the area.
The physical and spiritual heart of Cadi would be irrevocably changed. But in the 21st century we pause to reflect and commemorate 20,000 years of Aboriginal presence on this land.
Who were the Gadigal?
The Gadigal were a group of Indigenous Australians whose traditional lands are located in what is now the city of Sydney. Before being named Sydney in the 1770s, the land was originally called ‘Cadi’. ‘Gal’ means people, so the Gadigal literally means the people of Cadi.
The name Cadi comes from the grass tree species Xanthorrhoea, a native plant that local Aboriginal communities would make sections of spear shaft from the stems and glue together with the resin.
The Gadigal were part of a wider group known as the Eora Nation, who numbered roughly 1,500 individuals in the wider coastal area. There were roughly 29 clans in the Sydney region, with the Gadigal making up around 100 people.
The inhabited area of Cadi included the cove area, known then as ‘Warrane’ and what is today’s Sydney CBD and Royal Botanic Garden. As a coastal community, they were dependant on the harbour for providing the majority of their food.