Margaret River – Pre Contact
To Noongar people, the Margaret river is known as Wooditchup, named after the magic man, Wooditch, who created the river in the Nyitting or the Dreaming. [i]
Noongar people have a long and continuing connection to this area. Devil’s Lair cave, south of Margaret River, is one of the earliest sites of human occupation in Australia. Evidence of Noongar existence dates back about 48,000 years. Excavations have uncovered stone artefacts, animal bones, hearths, bone artefacts and human remains. Some of the earliest ornaments in Australia were found here, including three ground-bone beads and what may be a bone pendant.[ii]
A long time ago, two young lovers used to meet in a cave south of what is now Gracetown. The woman, named Mittan, was promised to King Bunyitch and when he found out, he had her lover, Nobel killed. Mittan was so distressed she drowned herself in the cave. Noongars call the cave ‘Meekadarabee‘, the bathing place of the moon. Sometimes, if you come to the cave when the moon is bright, you can see her hair and the spaces where her eyes would be, reflected in the water and you may hear her crying.[iii]