HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Dalla, also known as Jinibara, are an
indigenous Australian 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 ...
people of southern
Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
whose tribal lands lay close to Brisbane.


Language

The term Dalla refers to a variety of
staghorn fern ''Platycerium'' is a genus of about 18 fern species in the polypod family, Polypodiaceae. Ferns in this genus are widely known as staghorn or elkhorn ferns due to their uniquely shaped fronds. This genus is Epiphyte, epiphytic and is native to tr ...
, which was said to be applied also the language they spoke. The language itself was closely related to the
Gubbi Gubbi language Gubbi Gubbi, also spelt Kabi Kabi, is a language of Queensland in Australia, formerly spoken by the Kabi Kabi people of South-east Queensland. The main dialect, Gubbi Gubbi, is extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by th ...
.


Country

Dalla lands, estimated by Norman Tindale to encompass around , 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. The territory encompassed Nanango, ran east to
Nambour Nambour is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Nambour had a population of 12,145 people. Geography Nambour is north of the state capital ...
, Palmwoods, Durundur, including the upper
Brisbane River The Brisbane River (Turrbal language, Turrbal: ) is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia. It flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the ...
and the headwaters of the Mary River. 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'').


Social system

The Dalla traditionally comprised five
clans A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...
: * (1) ''Dalla'' (alternatively called the ''Dalambara, Dallanbarah, Ngoera''). These inhabited the headwaters of the Mary and Brisbane rivers * (2) The ''Dungidau'', (a language name) centred in the Kilcoy region * (3) The ''Nalbo'' (also called ''Njalbo, Nalboo'') inhabited the eastern foothills from Eumundi south as far as Beerwah and Caboolture. * (4) The ''Dungibara'' (''Doongibarra, Doongiburra'') were on the Upper Pine River and the D'Aguilar Range. * (5) The ''Garumga'' (also written ''Garumnga, Garumgma'') lay west of the Brisbane River as far as Crows Nest and the Cooyar Range, with a southern limit at Esk.


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. The ripeness of bunya nuts was signaled by the onset of bark loss in stands of
sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
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. 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 Flounders are a group of flatfish species. They are demersal fish, found at the bottom of oceans around the world; some species will also enter estuary, estuaries. Taxonomy The name "flounder" is used for several only distantly related speci ...
,
bream Bream (, ) are species of freshwater fish belonging to a variety of genera including '' Abramis'' (e.g., ''A. brama'', the common bream), '' Ballerus'', '' Blicca'', '' Brama'', '' Chilotilapia'', '' Etelis'', '' Lepomis'', '' Gymnocranius'', ...
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.


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. * ''Ngoera'' * ''Jarbu'' (The exonym for the Dalla (meaning 'inlanders') used by the Undanbi and other coastal tribes) * ''Jinibara'' * ''Djunggidjau''


Notable people

* Dundalli


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Queensland