Lorne Aboriginal Heritage
The Indigenous custodians of the land that makes up the Otway Ranges is believed to be the Gadubanud people. Their connection to land stretches back thousands of years as evidenced by the aboriginal middens around Lorne.
The Gadubanud people occupied the rainforest plateau and rugged coastline of Cape Otway covering the present towns of Lorne and Apollo Bay.

By Tirin aka Takver – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5541910
Sources:
- “Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of Western and Central Victoria, 1800-1900” by Ian D. Clark
- King Parrot Cottages website: https://kingparrot.com.au/gadubanud-the-king-parrot-people/
Before Loutitt Bay
Gadubanud lands Niewojt 2009 It is hard in the twenty first century to agree on ‘the facts’ about life in what is called the Otways before the arrival of Europeans, and during the period after 1835 when British sovereignty was introduced. Very little evidence today exists in the public arena to say precisely how life was for the...Read more
Middens
A midden is a sacred site for Aboriginal people, as it represents a site where ancestors gathered to eat and cook the shellfish and seafood available along the coast. There is a midden near the South end of the old Coop building at Point Grey and another is about opposite the hospital on the foreshore...Read more