Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/84

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58
NATIVE TRIBES OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA
CH.

Congaro language,[1] which extends to the Warrego where the two-class system obtains.

Where two large groups of tribes which speak different languages meet there will be found a tract of country where the language is composed of both. For instance, the Kamilaroi language extends northwards to the Gwydir River. To the west of the Upper Darling River and extending to the Culgoa it is Wollaroi. Between the Darling and the Gwydir the language is mixed Kamilaroi and Wollaroi. Similarly between the Bogan and the Kamilaroi boundary, which runs north-westward from Wonabarabra to the junction of the Peel River and the Darling, the language is a mixture of Kamilaroi and Wiradjuri.[2]

The Wollaroi, Kamilaroi, and Wiradjuri tribes have all the same social organisation, and their languages are branches of the same stock language. In such cases the people living respectively on either side of the common boundary speak a dialect compounded of both tongues, and probably could converse with members of either tribe.

With the most northern of the Kamilaroi we come into contact with other tribes having the same organisation and sub-class names, but speaking other languages. These are the Bigambul, the Ungorri, and other tribes of the same group. The former inhabited the Darling Downs and part of the Gwydir districts, about Gooniwindi, Warialdra, and Carol in the Namoi district. The name Bigambul, which is also that of the language, is derived from biga, meaning "like," the "same," "so much," "so many."[3] The Ungorri, speaking a language of the same name, were in the country extending to St. George, Charleville, Nive, Taroom, Surat, and Condamine.[4]

Some Queensland Tribes

Within 50 or 60 miles of Maryborough (Queensland) and including Great Sandy Island there were many tribes,

  1. R. Crowthers.
  2. Frank Bucknall.
  3. Biga anotha-mara, biga anotha-tina, being " as many as I have fingers and toes." Biga nabu na bogo, "as many as there are leaves on the tree."
  4. J. Lalor.