Kurtjar

TheKunggara,also known asKuritjara,are anindigenous Australianpeople of the southernCape York PeninsulainQueensland.

Language

The Kunggara spokeGurdjar,which had two dialects,GunggaraandRip.Gavan Breendid a salvage study of the language, drawing on information obtained during an interview with one of the last speakers, Elsie McKillop, conducted at Bloodwood.

Country

InNorman Tindale's estimation, the Kunggara's tribal territory covered some 1,900 square miles (4,900 km²), centered on the Staaten Riverand running south to the Smithburne River andDelta Downs.The limits of their inland extension lay around Stirling and Lotus Vale.

Neighbouring tribes were theMaikulanandMaijabi.

Alternative names

• Gilbert River tribe
• Gunggara
• Koonkurri
• Kuri'tjari
• Kutjar
• Ungorri

Source:Tindale 1974,p. 178

Sources

• "AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia".AIATSIS.14 May 2024.
• Mathews, R. H.(1899)."Division of tribes in the Northern Territory".Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales.33:111–114.
• Palmer, Edward(1884)."Notes on Some Australian Tribes".The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.13:276–347.doi:10.2307/2841896.JSTOR2841896.
• Palmer, Edward(1886)."The Cloncurry River"(PDF).InCurr, Edward Micklethwaite(ed.).The Australian race: its origin, languages, customs, place of landing in Australia and the routes by which it spread itself over the continent.Vol. 2. Melbourne: J. Ferres. pp. 330–335.
• Sharp, R. Lauriston(March 1939a). "Tribes and Totemism in North-East Australia".Oceania.9(3): 254–275.doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1939.tb00232.x.JSTOR40327744.
• Sharp, R. Lauriston(June 1939b). "Tribes and Totemism in North-East Australia (Continued)".Oceania.9(4): 439–461.doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1939.tb00248.x.JSTOR40327762.
• Tindale, Norman Barnett(1974)."Kunggara (QLD)".Aboriginal Tribes of Australia: Their Terrain, Environmental Controls, Distribution, Limits, and Proper Names.Australian National University.ISBN978-0-708-10741-6.