Milpulo

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The Milpulo were an indigenous Australian tribe of New South Wales. Very little information about them has been transmitted in early accounts of their region.

Contents

Country

Milpulo territory ranged over some 3,500 square miles (9,100 km2). It lay to the northwest of the Darling River from Wilcannia downstream, though extending no further than probably Tandou Lake. [1]

People

The Milpulo appear to have been a back country people, living in the mallee and mulga scrublands, where water could be culled by digging down to their roots, and only coming in to the riverine area when conditions of drought were extreme. They gained a reputation for fierceness from tribes further south, who referred to them as milipulun, implying that they were regarded as "aggressive outsiders(strangers." [1]

Social organisation

According to J. W. Boultbee the Milpulo had the following class system: [2]

ClassTotem
Mukwara
Bilyaraeagle-hawk
Turltakangaroo
Burkuniabandicoot
Uleburriduck
Karnifrilled-lizard
Kilpara
Kulthiemu
Turrucarpet-snake
Nambabone-fish
Birnaliguana
Bauanyapadi-melon
Yerilpariopossum
Muringawallaby

Mythology

Two myths which apparently belonged to the Milpulo. The first is an aetiological tale accounting for the creation of Lake Boolaboolka, the other recounts a tale concerning intertribal fighting near Albermarle. [1] [3] [4]

Alternative names

Notes

    Citations

    1. 1 2 3 4 Tindale 1974, p. 196.
    2. Howitt 1904, pp. 97–8.
    3. Mathews 1908a, pp. 224–227.
    4. Mathews 1908b, pp. 303–308.

    Sources

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