Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/121

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NUMBERS AND DISTRIBUTION.
39

Dr. Gummow, in a letter to me dated the 9th April 1872, says that he has tested Mr. Beveridge's boundaries and names of tribes by the Aborigines themselves, and, with one slight difference, all agree.

Dr. Gummow added the area occupied by the Yamba-yamba or Wamba-wamba tribe.

The Yaako-yaako tribe hold the country around Lake Victoria and the Rufus.[1]

I am indebted to the Rev. Mr. Hartmann, of the Lake Hindmarsh Station, for the divisions of the Wimmera district. The names of the tribes as given by him are as follows:—

1. Lail-buil Between Pine Plains and the River Murray.
2. Jakelbalak Between Pine Plains and Lake Albacutya.
3. Kromelak Lake Albacutya.
4. Wanmung Wanmungkur Lake Hindmarsh.
5. Kapun-kapunbāra River Wimmera, towards Lake Hindmarsh.
6. Dûwinbarap West of River Wimmera.
7. Jackalbarap West of Dûwinbarap.
8. Jarambiuk Yarriambiack Creek (so called).
9. Whitewurudiuk East of Yarriambiack Creek.
10. Kerabialbarap South of Mount Arapiles.
11. Murra-murra-bārap Grampians.

Mr. Hartmann states that the native tribes of the Wimmera proper have not a common name for all, although they may be considered as being one and the same tribe.

The boundaries of the areas occupied by the tribes in the Western district, and the names of the tribes, have been communicated by Mr. H. B. Lane. He obtained the information, he states, from Mr. Goodall, the Superintendent of the Aboriginal Station at Framlingham.

Mr. Goodall furnishes the following valuable and interesting list:—

1. Burhwundeirtch-Kurndeit[2] East of Muston's Creek.
2. Ynarreeb-ynarreeb From Mount Sturgeon to Lake Boloke.
3. Moporh (a country of water-holes) West of the Hopkins River.

  1. Mr. Eyre, in a report dated 28th May 1842, stated that when he visited Lake Victoria there were assembled there five different parties of natives within a distance of three miles. One encampment, on the west side of Lake Victoria, was formed of the tribes from a considerable distance below the junction of the Rufus and the Murray, and consisted of probably 100 natives. The second encampment, at the junction of the Rufus and Lake Victoria, comprised the Lake tribe and those from the Murray or other sides of the Rufus, and numbered about 300. Three other parties from the eastward, inhabiting the country about the Darling and the Rufus, were not less than 200 in number. Of these—600 in all—200 were full-grown men. This far exceeded, Mr. Eyre says, any muster that he had previously thought it possible the natives could make. For sixty miles before reaching Lake Victoria he had not seen a single native. The people were living on fish they caught in the lake, of which they had abundance.
  2. Kurndeit signifies a country or tribe, and may be added to any of the names.