The Gudabanud are the people of the Otway Ranges — a thickly forested mountain Range that faces Tasmania across the Tasman Sea. There were at least five clans.
Katubanuut, Gurngubanud, Pallidurgbarrans, Cape Otway tribe, Otway tribe,
Mirrynong tribe.
Pronunciation note: The ‘G’ in Gudabanud is pronounced somewhat
like a ‘K’, the final ‘d’ sounds somewhat like a ‘t’,
and the final ‘u’ is pronounced ‘oo’.
Gudabanud means “King Parrot language”. Nothing is known of the vocabulary, the grammar or its relationship to other languages.
The numbers on this map indicate the approximate locations of clan estates. The entire landscape was a mosaic of such estates. Through intermarriage and other alliances people were able to access land and resources far beyond their own lands. Access to land and resources was negotiated through discussion, marriage, ceremony and adherence to law.
It is possible that there were more clans than listed here.
This map is derived from Clark (1990)
No. |
Clan name |
Approximate
location |
It is likely that the Gudabanud language and culture were significantly different from those of the Wada Wurrung to their east and the Girai Wurrung to the west.
Their relationship with the Gulidjan of the plains north of the Otway ranges is not known.
There is no published information about the beliefs and social organisation of the Gudabanud.
Little was recorded by settlers of the way of life of the Gudabanud.
Their territory included the woodlands and forests, streams and rivers of the Otway ranges and the Otway coast to the south, including the estuaries and associated wetlands of waterways such as the Gellibrand, Aire and Barham Rivers.
The streams and rivers would have provided fish, freshwater crayfish and freshwater clams. Woodland and open forests were a source of game such as wallabies, bandicoot and possum, of many plants species with edible fruits, tubers or bulbs, and of insects such as witchetty grubs. In the wetter forests, a sago like starch was available from the hearts of tree ferns. The estuaries were abundant sources of fish, water-fowl and their eggs. And the presence of numerous shell middens along the coast demonstrate that shellfish were extensively exploited.
The earliest record of the Gudabanud is in the 1842 journal of George Augustus Robinson (the ‘Chief Protector’ of the Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate). A few encounters with explorers are recorded from the early 1840s, and several of these accounts describe violent clashes where a number of Gudabanud were killed and probably one or more whites. There are no historical records of the Gudabanud being present in the Otways after 1846 (although the absence of written records is not proof of their extinction and there are Aboriginal people in the area today who trace their ancestry to the Gudabanud).
Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An historical atlas of western and central Victoria