Why PONRABBEL?

Here is a little background for the eJOURNAL ponrabbel. 

Why ponrabbel? Well The Ponrabbel was a bucket dredge on the Tamar, and for the most part, working in the upper reaches of The Tamar to maintain the estuary's navigability and Launceston as a port. 

It was once thought that ponrabbel was a name/word for the estuary in Tasmanian Aboriginal language but the story is a little more complex than that. It is now understood that the 'place' where the three rivers come together was known as ponrabbel and waterway named 'The Tamar River' after a river in CORNWALL UK was known to Aboriginal people as Kanamaluka.

The area around the Tamar Estuary was a ‘PLACEscape’, or a 'CULTURALlandscape', occupied by various bands of Aboriginal people, who were later called ‘The Northern Midlands Tribe’ by the Europeans who had moved into the valley and taken the Aborigines’ land. According to contemporary 'authorities', the estuary itself was known by the Aborigines as "kun.er.mur.luk.er", and it now seems that "ponrabbel" refers to the place cum 'CULTURALlandscape'. 

Port Dalrymple was recorded as being called "lor.er.nul.ray.tit.te.yer" and the Port Dalrymple bands known as the "le.ter.re.mair.re.ner" and "py.he.mair.re.me.ner" people. In a contemporary context the underlying assumptions attached to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people's 'languages', and their use in place naming, may be contested in a linguistic and cultural context given the paucity of anthropology and linguistics of the colonial era when Aboriginal vocabularies were collected. 

Meanings can be found in context and given that the 'palawa' people's cultural realities and belief systems were looked at from the 'perspective of colonisation' 'ponrabbel's palawa' meaning/s is open to contention. 

Nonetheless, in palawa-kani there are no Proper Nouns and the language is typically denoted in italics and expressed exclusively in lower case. Consequently it is proposed three years on that the eJOURNAL ponrabbel be likewise expressed in lower case, OR in all capitals – NEVER as a Proper Noun – in acknowledgement of palawa protocols. 

It is also anticipated that the contributions for ponrabbel will need to be dredged from the communities that make up what is now known as The Tamar Region. Also, the eJOURNAL will be an outward expression of INSTITUTE43. 

So, why 43? Some time ago a geographer working for Tasmania's Lands Dept, numbered all of Tasmania's 'river catchments'. He started on Flinders Island and worked around mainland Tasmania, down the east coast, up the west coast and across the northern coastline numbering river catchments as he went. It turns out that he gave the number 43 to the Tamar. The Esk rivers that flow into the Tamar, and the Tamar itself, and together they drain significant portion of the State. So, the number 43 carries an implication of 'placedness' – and in turn a starting point from which a network of networks might make sense.