The Ngaku were an
Australian Aboriginal
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...
tribe located around the
Macleay River
The Macleay River is a river that spans the Northern Tablelands and Mid North Coast districts of New South Wales, Australia.
Course and features
Formed by the confluence of the Gara River, Salisbury Waters and Bakers Creek, the Macleay River r ...
of
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
. They were a predominantly coastal people.
Although
their language was not recorded, it was described as a dialect or accent of
Dhanggati
The Djangadi people, also spelt Dhungatti, Dainggati, Tunggutti or Dunghutti are an Aboriginal Australian people resident in the Macleay Valley of northern New South Wales.
Language
Dhanggati / Dunghutti belongs to the Yuin–Kuric language ...
.
Country
Ngaku territory encompassed some . On the coast it coast extended north from Point Plomer to
Trial Bay. It covered the area from the
Macleay River
The Macleay River is a river that spans the Northern Tablelands and Mid North Coast districts of New South Wales, Australia.
Course and features
Formed by the confluence of the Gara River, Salisbury Waters and Bakers Creek, the Macleay River r ...
south to
Rollands Plains. It ran northwards to
Macksville and stretched inland near the Kemp Pinnacle Mountain. To their south were the
Ngamba
The Ngamba were an Australian Aboriginal people of New South Wales.
Language
The Ngamba language is poorly described because little has been transmitted of its nature. It is generally believed to have been similar to Gumbaynggirr.
Country
Ngamba ...
People and history
Little is known of the Ngaku. Writing in 1929, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown stated that by that time the Ngaku were virtually extinct, descendants surviving only as a remnant together with people from the Ngamba tribe.
Norman Tindale
Norman Barnett Tindale AO (12 October 1900 – 19 November 1993) was an Australian anthropologist, archaeologist, entomologist and ethnologist.
Life
Tindale was born in Perth, Western Australia in 1900. His family moved to Tokyo and lived ther ...
classified the Yarraharpny mentioned in one early account as a
horde of the Ngaku.
One account by Henderson, writing in 1851 of the way clashes with the intrusive cedar-cutting gangs who began to work Ngaku territory, runs as follows:
On one occasion, during the illness of our former worthy commissioner, Mr. Oakes,
Mr. Sullivan, who was Commissioner of Crown Lands (Australia) Commissioner of Crown Lands, within the boundaries, went on an expedition against the Yarraharpny blacks, a tribe notorious for their savage dispositions, and inhabiting the country between the mouths of the MacLeay and the Nambuccoo. They had, at that time made an attack upon the sawyers occupied on the latter river, which had ended in the murder of one of these adventurous men, and this was not the first time that their aggressions had so ended. The commissioner, taking the police with him, came upon their camp, and dispersed them with some slaughter.
One crying baby was discovered hidden in a hole as the dispersed area of
gunyahs was scoured. Its fate was not known. This was one of several massacres of the macLeay River tribes, at Wabra Station, Towel Creek, Henderson's Creek and Sheep Station Bluff, registered during the early colonial period recorded not only by Henderson but a local pioneer Mary McMaugh.
Alternative name
* ''Niungacko'' (This refers to the language of the group that once lived in and around Trial Bay).
Notes
Citations
Sources
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Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales