The Ngamba 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 ...

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 The Gumbaynggirr people, also rendered Kumbainggar, Gumbangeri and other variant spellings, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. Gumbathagang was a probable clan or sub-group. The traditional lands of th ...

Country

Ngamba territory comprised some from Port Macquarie and the vicinity of Rollands Plains south to the

Manning River Manning River (Birpai language, Biripi: ''Boolumbahtee''), an open and Breakwater (structure), trained mature wind wave, wave dominated estuary#Lagoon-type or bar-built, barrier estuary, is located in the Northern Tablelands and Mid North Coast ...

. The inland extension has not been ascertained.

People

A few remnants of the original tribe were attested as still living in 1929, when

A.R. Radcliffe-Brown Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown, FBA (born Alfred Reginald Brown; 17 January 1881 – 24 October 1955) was an English social anthropologist who helped further develop the theory of structural functionalism. Biography Alfred Reginald Radcli ...

described them as lingering on with descendants of the

Ngaku The Ngaku were an Indigenous Australians, Australian Aboriginal tribe located around the Macleay River of New South Wales. They were a predominantly coastal people. Although Ngako language, their language was not recorded, it was described as a dia ...

and Daingatti. According to the reminiscences of Harry Buchanan, they had been systematically and savagely exterminated by the

Australian native police Australian native police units, consisting of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command (usually) of at least one white officer, existed in various forms in all Australian mainland colonies during the nineteenth and, in some ...

Customs

The Ngamba exploited the mangrove species

Avicennia marina ''Avicennia marina'', commonly known as grey mangrove or white mangrove, is a species of mangrove tree classified in the plant family Acanthaceae (formerly in the Verbenaceae or Avicenniaceae). As with other mangroves, it occurs in the intertid ...

for its bark in order to fashion their military shields.

Alternative names

* Ngambar * Ngeunbah

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * {{authority control Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales