The Kambure, more commonly known now as ''Gamberre'', were an

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

people of the

Kimberley region The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy Desert, Great Sandy and Tanami Desert, Tanami deserts in t ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Language

The Kambure spoke a dialect of

Wunambal The Wunambal (Unambal), also known as Wunambal Gaambera, Uunguu (referring to their lands), and other names, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the northern Kimberley region of Western Australia. People The Wunambal were, according to Norma ...

Country

Norman Tindal estimated Kambure lands to extend over some around the

Admiralty Gulf Admiralty Gulf is a gulf in the Kimberley region of Western Australia that opens into the Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth# ...

, excluding the areas around the Osborne Islands. Their eastern boundary lay about Monger Creek in Napier Broome Bay. Their southern extension ran along the south rim of the

King Edward River The King Edward River is a river in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Western Australia. The headwaters of the river rise below Poonjurra Hill and flows in a northerly direction almost parallel with the Kalumburu, Western ...

History of contact

An area of Kambure territory had a sacred value for them in their dreaming yet was thought to require patrolling by the Australian Army. The compromise worked out was to enroll several Kambure boys as army scouts, who, knowing the lie of the land, could assist the special patrols in carrying out their coastal surveillance.

People

The Kambure were a coastal people, who subsisted on marine products. One Kambure

horde Horde may refer to: History * Orda (organization), a historic sociopolitical and military structure in steppe nomad cultures such as the Turks and Mongols ** Golden Horde, a Turkic-Mongol state established in the 1240s ** Wings of the Golden Hor ...

lived on Sir Graham Moore Island.

Alternative names

* ''Kambera'' * ''Kamberange'' * ''Kanbre, Gambre'' * ''Barurungari'' ('upland/plateau people') * ''Kambumiri'' * ''Purungari'' (a

Worrorra The Worrorra, also written Worora, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Kimberley area of north-western Australia. The term is sometimes used to describe speakers of the (Western) Worrorra language, and sometimes groups whose traditiona ...

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 ...

meaning 'coast people')

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia Kimberley (Western Australia)