and Dora Dora, some thirty or forty miles above it. The tribe named Thar-a-mirttong lived on the banks of the River Kiewa.
In a report dated the 30th October 1862, the same gentleman states that "the forty blacks to whom rations, &c., are distributed at Taugamballanga are the sole remnants of three or four once powerful tribes, each of which, even within the memory of old settlers, numbered from 200 to 300 souls. These tribes inhabited the tract of country now very nearly described on the electoral map as comprising the Murray District of the Eastern Province, and containing an area of about 2,000 square miles. Now a great portion of this country is still as free for the blacks to roam over as it was twenty years ago, being occupied only by pastoral stations, generally distant from each other fifteen or twenty miles. It is a mountainous and well-wooded district, the climate of which is decidedly more healthy and salubrious than that of the arid plains in the western portion of the colony. There are several fine rivers intersecting it, well stocked with fish; and game (such as usually affords food for the blacks) is probably still as abundant as heretofore, particularly towards that little known but singularly picturesque and beautiful part of the colony bounded by the Upper Murray or Hume River."
Echuca is the name given by Mr. Strutt as that of the tribe occupying the country near the junction of the Goulburn and Campaspe with the Murray. Mr. Henry L. Lewis, of Moira, states that the tribe in his immediate neighbourhood is named Panggarang; and that on the banks of the Murray and the Goulburn, Owanguttha. He says, also, that there is a small tribe on the Murray, at and below Moama, named Woollathara.
Below the Woollathara country, the boundaries of the lands of the tribes on the southern banks of the River Murray are well marked. The late Dr. Gummow, in reply to enquiries, was kind enough to send me a map, prepared mainly by Mr. Peter Beveridge, but partly by Dr. Gummow, showing the areas occupied by the Murray tribes from near Echuca to the junction of the River Darling with the Murray. They are as follows:—
| 1. Barraba-barraba. | 5. Waiky-waiky. |
| 2. Wamba-wamba. | 6. Litchy-litchy. |
| 3. Boora-boora. | 7. Yairy-yairy. |
| 4. Watty-watty. | 8. Darty-darty. |
Each name is the negative of the language spoken by the respective tribes.
Mr. Beveridge has written the following note on the map:—"It will be seen that the territory of the two tribes nearest Echuca does not extend far back from the Murray River. The reason for this contraction south-westerly was because of the dire feuds that always existed between the Murray tribes and those inhabiting the Rivers Campaspe and Loddon. Below Swan Hill the Murray tribes, as a rule, used to meet and mingle with those inhabiting the Avoca, Avon, and Wimmera Rivers during the winter months in each year. The desert scrubs between the two lower tribes and the Tattiara country tribes are so extensive that they were precluded from ever meeting."
