Dalla people

Last updated

The Dalla, also known as Jinibara, [1] are an indigenous Australian people of southern Queensland whose tribal lands lay close to Brisbane.

Contents

Language

The term Dalla refers to a variety of staghorn fern, which was said to be applied also the language they spoke. [1] The language itself was closely related to the Gubbi Gubbi language. [2]

Country

Dalla lands, estimated by Norman Tindale to encompass around 3,000 square miles (7,800 km2), were centred on the hinterland ranges just north of Brisbane, such as the D'Aguilar, Glass House, Blackall and Jimna ranges west of the present-day Sunshine Coast. [2] The territory encompassed Nanango, ran east to Nambour, Palmwoods, Durundur, including the upper Brisbane River and the headwaters of the Mary River. [3] To their west were the Wakka Wakka people, the Gubbi Gubbi were to their north, divided from them by the Mary River. East towards the coast was the southern Undanbi clan of the Ningy Ningy who, together with the Djindubari on Bribie Island, the Dalla referred to as 'Saltwater people' (Mwoirnewar). [2]

Social system

The Dalla traditionally comprised five clans:

Food

The Dalla lived in an ecologically rich environment, flush with kangaroo, possum, bandicoot, echidnas, goanna, scrub turkey and a rich assortment of birdlife. The rivers yielded freshwater turtle, cod, eels, mussels and crayfish. The native grasses were harvested for seeds and nuts and bread was made from fern roots. Roasted and crushed river chestnuts, once soaked, were mixed with honey for cakes. Cunjevoi seeds, once leached of their toxins, were also used to make cakes that were a sidedish for eating with roasted game. Other vegetables in their diet were a waterlily with a flavour not unlike that of an artichoke, pencil orchid roots and wild yams. They had access to a native passionfruit, limes, oranges and quandong berries, eaten after they had been sweetened in sand pits. Most prized was the bunya nut which flourished in the region. [2]

The ripeness of bunya nuts was signaled by the onset of bark loss in stands of sugar and white gums. Messages were sent to relatives and nearby tribes to meet up and feast on the harvested nuts at bush clearing set in the mountains as Baroon Pocket, a site described as a paradise in the wilderness by a German missionary who saw it, and one now flooded out by the Baroon Pocket Dam. [2] This intertribal feasting was reciprocated by the coastal peoples who, when the Blue Mountain lorikeets showed up on the Brisbane river, who alert hinterland tribes like the Dalla that mullet (and flounder, bream and whiting) were now running in the bay, ready for fishing. The Dalla would camp on the shores of Moreton Bay and join the culling, which included huge quantities of oysters, so plentiful that they were dredged up by the ton to be burnt for lime when whites settled there. [2]

History of contact with whites

A late attempt at salvage ethnology undertaken by Lindsay Page Winterbotham who, supported and advised by Norman Tindale, conducted over several years (1950-1955) in-depth interviews with a Jinibara man, Gaiarbau (Willie Mackenzie) which resulted in a massive manuscript conserving Dalla traditions and music which, on failing to get published, he entrusted to the Queensland Museum. [5]

Notable people

Notes

    Citations

    1. 1 2 3 Tindale 1974, p. 167.
    2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Connors 2015.
    3. ↑ Tindale 1974, pp. 166–167.
    4. ↑ Tindale 1974, p. 166.
    5. ↑ Leo 2008, pp. 101–102.

    Sources

    Related Research Articles

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Kondalilla National Park</span> Protected area in Queensland, Australia

    Kondalilla is a national park in the Blackall Range of South East Queensland, Australia, 91 km north of Brisbane. William Skene founded this area on his property while searching for lost cattle. He named it Bon Accord before giving it to the Queensland Government who, during the fifties, renamed it Kondalilla which is an Aboriginal word for running water. The area was first officially protected in 1906 as a recreational area, becoming a national park in 1945.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunshine Coast, Queensland</span> Region in Queensland, Australia

    The Sunshine Coast is a peri-urban region in South East Queensland, Australia. It is the district defined in 1967 as "the area contained in the Shires of Landsborough, Maroochy and Noosa, but excluding Bribie Island". Located 100 km (62 mi) north of the centre of Brisbane in South East Queensland, on the Coral Sea coastline, its urban area spans approximately 60 km (37 mi) of coastline and hinterland from Pelican Waters to Tewantin.

    The Goreng Goreng, also known Kooreng Gooreng, are an inland Freshwater Australian Aboriginal people of Queensland, and also a language group. The Goreng Goreng area is between Central West Queensland in the north around Boyne Valley, extending westerly as far as the Great Dividing Range along the Dawes, Auburn, Nogo and Callide Ranges to meet the Wulli Wulli and Ghunghulu to their immediate west over the Great Dividing Range.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Gubbi Gubbi people</span> Aboriginal Australian people of south-east Queensland

    The Gubbi Gubbi people, also known as Kabi Kabi, are an Aboriginal Australian people native to south-eastern Queensland. They are now classified as one of several Murri language groups in Queensland.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Kilcoy, Queensland</span> Town in Queensland, Australia

    Kilcoy is a rural town and locality in the Somerset Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, the locality of Kilcoy had a population of 1,996 people.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Bunya Mountains</span> Mountain range in Queensland, Australia

    The Bunya Mountains are a distinctive set of peaks forming an isolated section of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland. The mountain range forms the northern edge of the Darling Downs in the locality also called Bunya Mountains near Bell and Dalby. The mountains are south of Kingaroy and just to the south west of Nanango. The range is the remains of a shield volcano which was built from numerous basalt lava flows about 23-24 million years ago.

    The Turrbal are an Aboriginal Australian people from the region of Brisbane, Queensland. The name primarily refers to the dialect they speak, the tribe itself being alternatively called Mianjin/Meanjin/Meeanjin. Mianjin is also the Turrbal word for the central Brisbane area. The traditional homelands of the Turrbal stretch from the North Pine River, south to the Logan River, and inland as far as Moggill, a range which includes the city of Brisbane.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackall Range</span>

    The Blackall Range is a mountain range in South East Queensland, Australia. The first European explorer in the area was Ludwig Leichhardt. It was named after Samuel Blackall, the second Governor of Queensland.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Jagera people</span> Australian Aboriginal people of the Moreton Bay to Toowoomba areas of Queensland

    The Jagera people, also written Yagarr, Yaggera, Yuggera, and other variants, are the Australian First Nations people who speak the Yuggera language. The Yuggera language which encompasses a number of dialects was spoken by the traditional owners of the territories from Moreton Bay to the base of the Toowoomba ranges including the city of Brisbane.

    Wakka Wakka, or Waka Waka, people are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland.

    The Djindubari, also written Jindoobarrie or Joondubarri, are or were an Aboriginal Australian people of southern Queensland, whose traditional lands were located on Bribie Island. They are thought to be a horde or clan of the Undanbi.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Dundalli</span> Aboriginal lawman

    Dundalli was an Aboriginal lawman who figured prominently in accounts of conflict between European settlers and indigenous aboriginal peoples in the area of Brisbane in South East Queensland. Traditionally described as a murderer, savage and terrorist, he is now thought variously to have been a guerilla leader or to have coordinated a decade-long resistance to white colonization the area. He was hanged publicly in Brisbane in 1855 by order of the Sheriff of New South Wales.

    <span class="mw-page-title-main">Butchulla</span>

    The Butchulla, also written Butchella, Badjala, Badjula, Badjela, Bajellah, Badtjala and Budjilla, are an Aboriginal Australian people of K'gari, Queensland, and a small area of the nearby mainland of southern Queensland.

    The Undanbi are an Aboriginal Australian people of southern Queensland. Alternative or clan names include Inabara, Djindubari and Ningy Ningy.

    The Goeng or Gureng were an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Queensland. They lived in the area of the area of present-day Gladstone.

    The Baruŋgam are an Aboriginal Australian people of Southeast Queensland.

    The Jarowair are an indigenous Australian people of the Darling Downs area of Queensland.

    The Wanamara (Wunumara) were an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland.

    The Andakerebina were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory.

    The Kaiabara are an indigenous Australian people of the state of Queensland.

    This page is based on this Wikipedia article
    Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
    Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.