northward of that place by the Witowurrong;[1] the Upper Goulburn by the Taoungurong; the Lower Goulburn and parts of the Murray by the Pangurang; the plains and tributaries of the Loddon by the Jajowurrong; the Pyrenees and country to the westward by the Knindowurrong; the terminations wurro or wurrong referring evidently to diversity of speech, as wurro, wurrong, in several dialects, mean the mouth, and, by a metonymy, speech or language. The petty nations have been erroneously designated tribes, as the 'Port Phillip tribe' 'the Goulburn tribe,' 'the Loddon tribe,' and so on. But the term tribe is more correctly applicable to an association of families and individuals, nearly or remotely related to each other, and owning some individual as their head or chief. And this distinction exists most clearly among the Aborigines. Each of the nations or languages I have instanced, as well as others I have thought it too tedious to enumerate, is divided into several tribes, sometimes as many as ten or twelve, each of which has a distinctive appellation, known by such terminations as bulluk, people; goondeet, men; lar, or, in other dialects, willam or illam, house or dwelling-place. Thus we have on the Goulburn the Yowang-illam, 'the dwellers on the mountain;' the Yerra-willam, 'the dwellers ou the river;' and on the Loddon, the Kalkalgoondeet, 'the men of the forest;' and from Pilawin, the native name of the Pyrenees, and Borumbeet, the well-known lake, we have Pilawin-bulluk and Borumbeet-bulluk. The terms Mallegoondeet and Millegoondeet are very precise in their application, as indicating the men of the Mallee country, or the inhabitants of the banks of the Murray, which is known for a very considerable portion of its stream by the native name of Mille. One tribe in my own neighbourhood, and a rather numerous one, is designated the Worng-arra-gerrar, literally the 'leaves of the stringybark.' Each of these tribes had its own district of country—its extent at least, and in some instances its distinct boundaries, being well known to the neighbouring tribes. The subdivision of the territory even went further than that; each family had its own locality. And to this day the older men can clearly point out the land which their fathers left them, and which they once called their own."[2]
Mr. Joseph Parker states that the Ja-jow-er-ong was divided into seven tribes, as follows:—
| 1. Leark-a-bulluk. | 4. Wong-hurra-ghee-rar-goondeetch. |
| 2. Pil-a-uhin-goondeetch. | 5. Gal-gal-bulluk. |
| 3. Kalk-kalk-goondeetch. | 6. Tow-nim-burr-lar-goondeetch. |
7. Way-re-rong-goondeetch. | |
- ↑ Dr. Thompson informed the Honorable A. F. A. Greeves that when Geelong was his sheep-run, with two hundred miles of water frontage, he ascertained from W. Buckley and others, to whom he had made gifts of blankets, &c., that the Geelong tribe of Aboriginals numbered one hundred and seventy-three souls (men, women, and children). In 1853 they numbered thirty-four souls only, including but one person under ten years of age. They died chiefly of pulmonary affections, and of diseases brought on by over-indulgence in intoxicating liquors.
There were other causes at work, however, that are not mentioned by Dr. Thompson. When the colony was first settled, the diminution in the numbers of the natives was very rapid. Quarrels occurred between the whites and the blacks, and how many of the latter were slain will never be known.
- ↑ The Aborigines of Australia; A lecture; by Edward Stone Parker, 1854, pp. 11-12.
