Worimi

Worimi people are Indigenous Australians from the eastern Port Stephens and Great Lakes regions of coastal New South Wales, Australia. Before contact with settlers, their people extended from Port Stephens in the south to Forster/Tuncurry in the north and as far west as Gloucester. They were said to be taller and stouter than those living around Sydney and were said to be more prone to laughter than tears.

Location

The Worimi indigenous people lived in and around Port Stephens and Great Lakes areas (on the coast of New South Wales approximately 60 kilometres north east of Newcastle city centre) from "the Myall Lakes in the north, to Barrington Tops in the west, and the Hunter River in the south".

Lifestyle

The Worimi were, like most other Australian Indigenous people in Australia, hunter-gatherers. They subsisted on resources found within their tribal land areas. Marine food, especially shell-fish were preferred by those tribes that lived closest to the sea - the Maiangal, Gamipingal and the Grewerigal peoples. Due to the reliability of this resource it was preferred over land animals and vegetables. The latter two were used as supplementary foods and added variety to their diet. Animals that were abundant included kangaroos and goannas, possums, snakes and flying foxes. Vegetables eaten included fern roots, stalks of the Gymea lily, and the bloom of the banksia.