The above claimed as their territory the country extending from Ballan on the south to the junctiou of the Serpentine and the Loddon on the north, and from the eastern slopes of Mount Macedon on the east to the Pyrenees on the west.
The names of some tribes are inserted in the map on the authority of the Local Guardians of Aborigines, whose papers, under the head of "Language," may be consulted in reference to the division of the territory in former times.
The map, though compiled with all possible care from the records in my possession, is not as complete as I had intended to make it; but it is probable that settlers throughout the country will add to it, and amend it; and the publication of it may eventually lead to the preparation of a larger and better one.
Though I have specially marked only those names of the "petty nations" mentioned by the late Mr. Parker, it is possible that some names printed as the appellations of tribes are really those of "nations." I have had to depend entirely on the information afforded by my correspondents, and though they have, I am quite sure, used all available means to arrive at the truth, there is so much difficulty in ascertaining the facts, that it is necessary to make allusion to the possibility of error.
Mr. Charles Gray, of Nareeb, who was good enough to prepare a map of his district, thus writes in a letter, dated January 1872:—"I have endeavoured to procure for you the information required, but the result of my enquiry is not at all satisfactory. In fact, my informants (born and reared near this) can only speak positively as to the boundaries of the lands occupied by their own tribe. This I have little doubt will be found the case in almost every instance. In former times, when no native dared cross the boundary of the area occupied by his own tribe, there was no opportunity of learning the boundaries of the lands of others. And I imagine that it is only from a member of a tribe that has occupied a certain area that the boundaries thereof could be learned."
I have already stated that the map furnished by Mr. Gray agrees as far as it goes very closely with the large map furnished by Mr. Goodall.
My compilation, it may be assumed, is nearly accurate in cases where boundaries are given, and one has only to lament that it is not complete for the whole colony.
The extreme difficulty of ascertaining even approximately the number of natives that are in the colony at the present time should teach caution in dealing with the estimates made when there was no machinery for collecting statistics. The Board for the Protection of the Aborigines has had the assistance, during the past sixteen years, of the Honorary Local Guardians in all parts of Victoria, and also the benefit of the labors of its salaried officers, and yet, even now, no more than a mere estimate of the numbers can be given.
Even an estimate is valuable, and it is much to be desired that the authorities in the other colonies of Australia should ascertain the number of natives now living within their territories.
