The Dhirari (or Dirari or Tirari) were 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 the state of
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
. They are not to be confused with the
Diyari people, though the Dirari/Dhirari language (now extinct) was a dialect of the
Diyari language.
Name
Some confusion arose when, in 1904, the ethnographer
A. W. Howitt confused this distinct, if small, tribe with their neighbours, the Diyari, suggesting it was a name for a
horde of the latter. The German missionary Otto Siebert testified in 1936 that the Tirari's speech differed from Diyari language.
Country
Norman Tindale estimated their tribal lands as covering roughly . They dwelt around the eastern shore of
Lake Eyre
Lake Eyre ( ), officially known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre, is an endorheic lake in the east-central part of the Far North (South Australia), Far North region of South Australia, some 700 km (435 mi) north of Adelaide. It is the larg ...
, running northwards from
Muloorina to the
Warburton River. Their eastern frontiers were at
Killalapaninna.
History of contact
The Tirari were extinct by the time of Tindale's writing (1974). Their name is memorialized in the
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage, and types. ''Toponym'' is the general term for ...
denoting part of the land they occupied,
Tirari Desert
The Tirari Desert is a desert in the eastern part of the Far North region of South Australia. It stretches 212 km from north to south and 153 km from east to west.
Location and description
The Tirari Desert features salt lakes and ...
.
Notes
Citations
Sources
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Aboriginal peoples of South Australia