The Ngolibardu, otherwise written ''Ngulipartu'', 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

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 ...

Country

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 ...

assigned the Ngolibardu a territorial domain of roughly . They were on the

Rudall River The Rudall River ( Wanman: ''Karlamilyi'') is an ephemeral river in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The entire length of the river is located within the boundaries of the Karlamilyi National Park, which straddles the Little Sandy Dese ...

, whose waters at ''Kalamilji'' were a final refuge in times of extreme drought. From the Rudall their land ran north as far as the Paterson Range. Their eastern frontier lay at Mount Broadhurst Range and Rooney Creek, while their western boundary was marked by the Throssell Range. These tribal lands were later taken over by the

Kartudjara The Kartudjara are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Country The Kartudjara's traditional lands extended over from ''Madaleri'', north of Kumpupintil Lake around Well 22 down southwest towards ''Pulp ...

, moving up from the south, and the westward movement of the Nyangumarta to their north. On their western flank were the Wanman, and to their east lay the

Nyamal The Nyamal are an Indigenous Australian people of the Pilbara area of north-western Western Australia. Language A version of Nyamal became the basis of a pidgin used among workers on pearling luggers in the late 19th century, and was spoken sev ...

History

Traditions hold that the Ngolibardu's numbers were diminishing even before the period of contact with white colonialists. Apparently, the tribe was struck by a devastating "fever" sometime around the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, which killed off large numbers of their community, to the point of virtual extinction.

Alternative names

* ''Tjilakurukuru'' (regional name for their country)

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of Western Australia Mid West (Western Australia)