Coomee Nulunga

Coomee Nulunga (also known as Maria/Moriah)

c.1829-1914

Coomee Nulunga was a Murramarang woman, born on Yuin country on the South Coast of NSW in the late 1820s. She remembered how her grandmother talked of seeing the ‘great white birds’ arrive decades earlier, a description of what Lieutenant James Cook’s ship would have looked like from the shore as he sailed up the eastern coast in 1770.

Coomee witnessed the arrival of British settlers in the 1830s and 40s

Fateful Last Voyage of Walter Hood – 22 January to 26 April 1870

By 1870, at 18 years old, the Walter Hood was a bit of an ‘old girl’ but still considered sound and seaworthy. After her 1869 voyage she’d spent some time in London being repaired and having her copper replaced, giving her another 6 year rating from Lloyd’s. Her captain, Andrew Latto had already sailed her three times to Sydney and back without incident. Until that fateful last voyage…