The Pangerang, also spelt Bangerang and Bangarang, are the

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

who traditionally occupied much of what is now north-eastern

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

stretching along the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...

Echuca Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. The border town of Moama is adjacent on the northern side of the Murray River in New South Wales. Echuca is the administrative cen ...

and into the areas of the southern

Riverina The Riverina () is an agricultural list of regions in Australia, region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, a climate with significant seaso ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. They may not have been an independent tribal reality, as

Norman Tindale Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist. He is best remembered for his work mapping the various tribal groupings of Aboriginal Australians ...

thought, but one of the many

Yorta Yorta The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wale ...

tribes.

Country

Pangerang lands were estimated by

to have covered some , running through the lower

Goulburn River The Goulburn River, a major inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the Alpine, Northern Country/North Central, and Southern Riverina regions of the Australian state of Victor ...

valley and extending westwards to the Murray River. It covered areas east and west of

Shepparton Shepparton () (Yorta Yorta language, Yortayorta: ''Kanny-goopna'') is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River (Victoria), Goulburn River in northern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, approximately north-northeast of Mel ...

, taking in also

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had a population of 29,808 per the 2021 Australian Census. The city is located at the confluence, junction of the Ovens River, ...

Benalla Benalla is a small city in the Hume (region), Hume region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The town sits on the Broken River (Victoria), Broken River, about north east of the state capital Melbourne. As of the , the population wa ...

, and

Kyabram Kyabram () is a town in north central Victoria, Australia. Kyabram is located in the centre of a rich irrigation district in the Goulburn River Valley, north of Melbourne. The name of the town is thought to derive from an Aboriginal word Kia ...

. The southern reaches extend as far as

Toolamba Toolamba is a town in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is in the City of Greater Shepparton Local government in Australia, local government area, north of the state capital, Melbourne. At the , Toola ...

and

Violet Town Violet Town is a town in northeastern Victoria, Australia. The town is in the Shire of Strathbogie local government area, northeast of the state capital, Melbourne on the Hume Highway. At the , Violet Town had a population of 936. The town i ...

History of contact

Some Pangerang were among the estimated 26 indigenous people killed by troopers at Moira Swamp/Lake Barmah on the 15 December 1843.

Social structure

According to Norman Tindale, the Bangerang collective of tribes, or nation, also known as the

, consists of eight hordes, though others have been included in the list. * ''Moiraduban'' * ''Waningotbun'' (at

Kotupna Kotupna is a locality in northern Victoria, Australia in the local government area of the Shire of Moira. History In 1840, the Kotupna Run was an area of 118,000 acres near the Goulburn Weir, which then cut across the Broken Creek, with the so ...

) * ''Maragan'' (perhaps ''Maraban'') * ''Owanguttha'' We know somewhat more about the fish-loving Wongatpan and the opossum-hunting Towroonban, two Pangerang clans, simply because they happen to have been the tribes inhabiting the area where the ethnographer

Edward Micklethwaite Curr Edward Micklethwaite Curr (25 December 1820 – 3 August 1889) was an Australian pastoralist, author, advocate of Australian Aboriginal peoples, and squatter. Biography Curr was born in Hobart, Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land), the ...

took over his pastoral run.

Alternative names

* ''Panggarang, Pangorang, Pangurang, Pine-gorine, Pine-go-rine, Pinegerine, Pinegorong'' * ''Bangerang, Banjgaranj'' * ''Pallaganmiddah'' * ''Jabalajabala'' (from the word ''jabala'' meaning ''no''), a name applied to western Pangerang hordes) * ''Yaballa, Yabula-yabula'' * ''Waningotbun'' * ''Maragan'' * ''Owanguttha'' * ''Yurt'' (

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

used by northerners and the Ngurelban, from ''jurta'', meaning ''no'') * ''Yoorta'' * ''Moiraduban'' * ''Moitheriban'' * ''Bangarang''

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales Aboriginal peoples of Victoria (state) Goulburn River History of Victoria (state)