Brief descriptions are provided here of the language-culture groups that were adjacent to the groups that are the focus of this website. Click the coloured areas to navigate to separate pages describing those groups. Click the gray areas to go to descriptions lower on this page.
This map is derived from:
Aboriginal Languages and Clans: An Historical Atlas of
Western and Central Victoria (Clark, 1990).
Note: The exact position of some of the boundaries are not currently agreed to by all Aboriginal communities, historians and anthropologists. As new archaeological evidence is unearthed and information is discovered in historical records, the agreed boundaries may change.
The Dhauwurd Wurrung are the people of the coasts, woodlands and plains between the Glenelg and Hopkins Rivers. The modern day Gunditjmara are their descendents.
The moieties of the clans were inherited matrilineally and were Krokitch/Grudgidj (White Cockatoo) or Kappatch/Gabadj (Black Cockatoo).
The language of the Dhauwurd Wurrung is the best known of any Victorian language thanks to the extensive vocabulary collected and published by James Dawson. It is probable that it included five dialects and is possibly most closely related to that of the Baundig to the west, but shares less than 50% vocabulary with the languages of the northern or eastern neighbours.
The Dhauwurd Wurrung first encountered the ngamadjidj (white people) as early as 1810 when sealers and whalers came to the Portland area. They encountered the first settlers of Victoria when the Henty family settled at Portland in 1834. Throughout the early 1840s they fought a sustained guerilla war against settlers and their livestock using the rugged volcanic stony rises of the region as a safe haven between skirmishes. During 1844 and 1845 attacks were so frequent in the vicinity of the Eumeralla River that the hostilities were described as the “Eumeralla War”.
The Djab Wurrung are the people of the plains, hills woodlands and grasslands that lie east and south of the Grampian Ranges as far east as the Hopkins River and Fiery Creek. They are notable for their determined resistance to the invasion of their land by settlers between 1838 and 1844 through guerilla warfare. The descent system of their clans was based on the Gamadj (black cockatoo) and Grugidj (white cockatoo) moieties. They were on friendly terms and intermarried with with the Dauwurd Wurrung, Jarwadjali, Djadja Wurrung and Wada Wurrung peoples. However they were considered to be mainmait by the Gulidjan and Djargurd Wurrung. The language is most similar to that of the Djadja Wurrung (80% common vocabulary).
The Djadja Wurrung are the people of the woodlands and forests of the central Victorian Highlands north of Ballarat north and east from the Pyrenees Ranges and west of Kyneton and Bendigo. Their language is most closely related to that of the Djab Wurrung (80%). They were on friendly terms with the Barababaraba to the north, the Daung Wurrung and Woi Wurrung to the east.
The Woi Wurrung were the traditional owners of the lands that include the present day City of Melbourne, and suburbs and rural areas extending from the Werribe River in the west, to Mt Baw Baw in east and to the Great Dividing Ranges in the North. The six clans of the Yarra Valley, much of which is today occupied by Melbourne, are known as the Wurundjeri. They played a prominent role in early settlement history. In particular a clan leader, or Ngurungaeta, known as William Barak, witnessed as a boy the signing of the 'treaty' between Woi Wurrung and Bun Wurrung elders and John Batman, the founder of Melbourne. William Barak was prominent in the early settlement society.
The Bun Wurrung were the people of the coasts and coastal plains between Wilsons Promontory and Port Phillip Bay, including the shores of the Bay as far west as the Werribe river. They included six clans and were part of the Kulin federation of clans. Like the other Kulin, their Moieties were Bungil (Eagle) and Waa (Crow). They were the first Aboriginal people to encounter white settlers in the bay region, clashing with survey parties of the failed Sorrento settlement on the east side of the bay in 1803. The Bun Wurrung played a significant role in the early Melbourne settlement. In particular, the clan elder Derrimut was prominent in the community. Descendents of the Bun Wurrung still live in Melbourne today.