The Ngurelban or Ngurai-illamwurrung are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria.

Language

The Ngurelban language was similar to that of the Taungurung, the neighbouring tribe to their east.[1]

Country

Ngurelban tribal territory takes in an estimated 3,000 sq. miles of land. According to Norman Tindale, it runs along the Campaspe River,[lower-alpha 1] has its northern boundary edging on Echuca, its western frontier probably not beyond Gunbower. It extended south of Tatura along the Goulburn River to Old Crossing (Mitchellstown), and north of Seymour.[3]

Social organisation

Ngurelban were organised according to three groups or clans:[3]

  • Pimpandoor to the northwest, at Colbinabbin, known for keeping their distance and for having a relationship of tense rivalry with other groups;
  • Ngooraialum, a northern clan; and
  • Paboinboolok, the group at Lake Cooper.

History of contact

By the late 1830s the pressure of the effects of grazing on their pastoral lands from livestock introduced by squatters had started to create serious problems for the Ngurelban. In 1839 one of them, Moonin Moonin, complained that:

Jumbuck and Bulgana (sheep and cattle) were eating and destroying Aboriginal game pastures and staples like yams and mirr-n'yong roots.'[4]

Alternative names

  • Gunn-el-ban
  • Gnurellean.
  • Nouralung-bula,
  • Nguralung-bula.
  • Noorillim.
  • Ngooraialum
  • Ngurilim.
  • Ooraialum ( a mishearing that dropped the initial ng-).Oorilim. Oorallim.
  • Woo-ral-lim.
  • Panyool.
  • Paboinboolok. Panpandoor.[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ There is possibly some confusion in these reports. Barkwick wrfites:'Tindale's 1974 description of a 'Ngurelban tribe' on the Campaspe merges Tuckfield's report with Curr's and Howitt's descriptions of clans speaking a different language at and east of the Campaspe.'[2]

Citations

  1. ↑ Atkinson & Aveling 1987, p. 45.
  2. ↑ Barwick 1984, p. 125.
  3. 1 2 3 Tindale 1974, p. 207.
  4. ↑ Kiernan 2008, p. 289.

References

  • Atkinson, Alan; Aveling, Marian, eds. (1987). Australians, 1838. Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates. ISBN 978-0-521-34073-1.
  • Barwick, Diane E. (1984). "Mapping the Past: An Atlas of Victorian clans, 1835-1904. Part 1" (PDF). Aboriginal History. 8 (2): 100–131.
  • Kiernan, Ben (2008). Blood and Soil: Modern Genocide 1500-2000. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 978-0-522-85477-0.
  • Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Ngurelban (VIC)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University Press. ISBN 978-0-708-10741-6.
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