In Birpai Country

Before I begin tomorrow my traveling around to visit family and friends in another part of New South Wales (Goulburn) as well as in Victoria (Melbourne) and Queensland (Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast), I share this evening a few photos of my time with mum in Port Macquarie.

The New South Wales coastal town of Port Macquarie is for the Birpai, the Indigenous people of the area, known as Guruk.

The area around Port Macquarie and the Hastings (Doongang) River has been home to the Birpai for tens of thousands of years.

Of course, traditional Birpai life changed forever with the mapping and naming of the area by Surveyor-General John Oxley in 1818. Three years later in 1821, Port Macquarie was founded as a penal settlement for convicts sentenced for secondary crimes committed in New South Wales. The region was opened to free settlers nine years later.

My parents moved to Port Macquarie from our hometown of Gunnedah in 2002. Dad crossed over into the sweet unknown in 2019. Mum still lives in Port and we’ve been enjoying our time together since I arrived from Minneapolis (via San Francisco) on February 26. I was last in beautiful Birpai Country last May (2024).

Australian Sojourn 2025
• Return to the Great South Land
• Photo of the Day – March 4, 2025

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Guruk (2023)
• Last Days in Australia (2023)
• Guruk (2019)
• Last Daysin Australia (2019)
• Flower Moon Rising (2019)
• A Walk Along Lighthouse Beach (2019)
• Guruk Seascapes, from Dawn to Dusk
• On Sacred Ground
• Port Macquarie (2016)
• Town Beach (2010)
• Lighthouse Beach (2010)
• Flynns Beach (2006)

Images: Michael J. Bayly.