Gangulu

Not to be confused with the Ganulu, another people of Queensland also known as Kanolu.

Traditional lands of Australian Aboriginal tribes around Gladstone

The Gangulu people, also written Kangulu, Kaangooloo, Ghungalu and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Woorabinda, Duaringa and Mount Morgan area in Queensland, Australia.

Name

At least one variant name for the Kangulu, Kaangooloo, was formed from the word for "no", ka:ngu. ^[1]

Language

The Gangulu language belongs to the Maric languages of the Pama-Nyungan language family. ^{[2] [3]} The language was silenced during the 19th and 20th centuries through the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act. ^[4] The Gangulu community are now working to reawaken their language. ^[5]

Country

Gangulu traditional lands occupy an estimated 16,000 square kilometres (6,000 sq mi) about the Dawson River as far south as Banana and Theodore. To the west, they extend to the Comet River, including Blackdown Tablelands ^[6] and the vicinity of Woorabinda, Duaringa and Coomooboolaroo, ^[7] and north to the Mackenzie River. Their eastern frontier lay towards Biloela, Mount Morgan, Gogango Range, and the upper Don River. Thangool and the headwaters of Grevillea Creek marked its southeastern limits. ^[1]

People

A correspondent of E. M. Curr, Peter McIntosh, a resident of the area, stated that the Gangulu were a confederation of several groups, the main ones being the Karranbal, the Maudalgo, and the Mulkali. ^[8] No further data were recorded to enable ethnographer Norman Tindale to clarify the precise nature of the last two groups, ^[1] but the AUSTLANG database by AIATSIS reports that the Karranbal is the Garaynbal (Garingbal) language ^[9] and Maudalgo is a variant name of the Wadjigu language and people, a separate group from the Biri, who spoke a Bidjara dialect. ^[10] Mulkali is not further described.

Along with many other Queensland tribes whose traditional lands had been annexed by colonial pastoralists, many Gangulu people were forcibly removed to the Woorabinda and Cherbourg government reserves. ^{[11] [4]}

Alternative names

• Ghungalu ^[12]
• Kaangooloo
• Cangoolootha (tha meant "speech")
• Khangalu, Kangalo, Kongulu, Kongalu
• Kangool-lo, Konguli, Gangulu ^[1]

• Cangoolootha, Gangu, Kangool lo, Kongulu, Khang, Ghangulu, Ka ngool lo ^[2]

Notes

Citations

1. Tindale 1974, p. 174.
2. E40 Gangulu at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
3. Dixon, R.M.W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Cambridge Language Surveys. ISBN   0 521 47378 0.
4. Frankland, Kathy. "A Brief History of Government Administration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in Queensland" (PDF). Community and Personal Histories, Queensland Department of Communities. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
5. Marie, Elisabeth (31 May 2024). "Awakening a sleeping language". Australian Geographic. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
6. Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation. "Blackdown Tableland National Park". Queensland Government Parks and forests. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
7. Holmer, Nils M. (1983). Linguistic Survey of South-Eastern Queensland. Pacific Linguistics. Canberra: The Australian National University. p. 267.
8. McIntosh 1887, p. 58.
9. E38 Garaynbal at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
10. E39 Wadjigu at the Australian Indigenous Languages Database, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies
11. Kelly 1935, p. 462.
12. "The Ghungalu people". Blackwater North State School. 14 August 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2022.

Sources

• Dixon, Robert M. W. (2002). Australian Languages: Their Nature and Development. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-47378-1.
• Howitt, Alfred William (1904). The native tribes of south-east Australia (PDF). Macmillan.
• Kelly, C. Tennant (June 1935). "Tribes on Cherburg Settlement, Queensland". Oceania . 5 (4): 461–473. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1935.tb00165.x. JSTOR   40327813.
• Mathews, R. H. (1900). "The Toara Ceremony of the Dippil Tribes of Queensland". American Anthropologist . 2 (1): 139–144. doi: 10.1525/aa.1900.2.1.02a00090 . JSTOR   658865.
• McIntosh, Peter (1887). "Eastern slopes of Expedition Range, Lower Dawson, Upper Fitzoy, MacKenzie and Isaacs rivers, and many of their tributaries." (PDF). In Curr, Edward Micklethwaite (ed.). The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent. Vol. 3. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 58–62.
• Tindale, Norman Barnett (1974). "Kangulu (QLD)". Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names. Australian National University. ISBN   978-0-708-10741-6. Archived from the original on 2 October 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2017.