HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Undanbi are an
Aboriginal Australian 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 southern
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...
. Alternative or clan names include Inabara,
Djindubari The Djindubari, also written Jindoobarrie or Joondubarri, are or were an Aboriginal Australian people of southern Queensland, whose traditional lands were located on Bribie Island. They are thought to be a horde or clan of the Undanbi. Language ...
and Ningy Ningy (also spelt Ningyningy and other variants).


Name

The
autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...
Undanbi is formed from their word for 'man' (''dan'').


Language

The Undanbi spoke a dialect mutually intelligible with that of the Jagera and
Turrbal The Turrbal are an Aboriginal Australian people from the region of present-day Brisbane, Queensland. The name primarily referred to the dialect they spoke, the tribe itself being alternatively called ''Mianjin/Meanjin''. Mianjin was the Turrbal ...
peoples, and it was apparently the dialect mastered by Tom Petrie.


Country

The Undanbi occupied an estimated around the coastal strip along
Coolum Beach Coolum Beach is a beachside town and coastal suburb in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the suburb of Coolum Beach had a population of 8,497 people. Geography Coolum Beach has the following mountains (from north to ...
and
Moreton Bay Moreton Bay is a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia from central Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources. The waters of Moreton Bay are a popular destination for recreational anglers and are ...
, reaching down from
Noosa Heads Noosa Heads is a coastal town and suburb in the Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. In the , the suburb of Noosa Heads had a population of 4,484 people. It is a popular holiday destination. Geography The suburb is bounded to the west by We ...
as far south as the estuary of the
Brisbane River The Brisbane River is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia, and flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the river, named it after the Go ...
. It extended inland, around , to the area of Pine River, and the
Glasshouse Mountains The Glass House Mountains are a cluster of thirteen hills that rise abruptly from the coastal plain on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. The highest hill is Mount Beerwah at 556 metres above sea level, but the most identifiable of a ...
. They also had a foothold on
Bribie Island Bribie Island is the smallest and most northerly of three major sand islands forming the coastline sheltering the northern part of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. The others are Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island. Bribie Island is ...
. The western neighbours of the coastal Undanbi were the Dalla.


Social organisation

The Undanbi were divided into several groups or clans: * The Inabara (the furthest north, near
Noosa Heads Noosa Heads is a coastal town and suburb in the Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. In the , the suburb of Noosa Heads had a population of 4,484 people. It is a popular holiday destination. Geography The suburb is bounded to the west by We ...
) * The
Djindubari The Djindubari, also written Jindoobarrie or Joondubarri, are or were an Aboriginal Australian people of southern Queensland, whose traditional lands were located on Bribie Island. They are thought to be a horde or clan of the Undanbi. Language ...
on
Bribie Island Bribie Island is the smallest and most northerly of three major sand islands forming the coastline sheltering the northern part of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. The others are Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island. Bribie Island is ...
* The Ningyningy (southernmost clan, around
Toorbul Toorbul is a coastal town and a locality in the Moreton Bay Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , Toorbul had a population of 930 people. Geography Toorbul is north of Brisbane. Toorbul is bounded on the east by Pumicestone Channel which s ...
and Redcliffe ) Physically, the Undanbi were known for their impressive builds, which marked them off from members of tribes like the Dalla, who were generally slighter. The Ningyningy (also spelt Ningy Ningy), the most southerly Undanbi clan, are sometimes given as located also on
Bribie Island Bribie Island is the smallest and most northerly of three major sand islands forming the coastline sheltering the northern part of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. The others are Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island. Bribie Island is ...
. The explorer
Ludwig Leichhardt Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt (), known as Ludwig Leichhardt, (23 October 1813 – c. 1848) was a German explorer and naturalist, most famous for his exploration of northern and central Australia.Ken Eastwood,'Cold case: Leichhardt's dis ...
, for one, in referring to the Bribie Island aborigines, wrote of them as 'Nynga-Nynga blacks.' Their dialect was called ''Oondoo'', and their
ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...
meant 'oysters' in the Maroochy dialect. They were distinguished from the Djindubari, who used charcoal and bees' wax to blacken themselves, by painting themselves with red ochre clan markings. By the mid 1840s, it is thought that many of the encampments in the Brisbane area arose from the Undanbi remnants of the Ningyningy and Djindubari who mustered there for blanket handouts and became notorious for their pitched battles, with the Turrbal clansmen under ''Daki Yakka,'' (known to the whites as the Duke of York). By the 1850s these northern refugees were thought to be trying to exterminate the Brisbane blacks, and bought the brunt of accusations that the black presence in the area was causing endless trouble. In colonial tradition they were reputed to be highly aggressive, though they had formerly kept the three castaways
Thomas Pamphlett Thomas Pamphlett (1788?–1838), sometimes Pamphlet, also known as James Groom, was a convict in colonial Australia. He is best known for his time as a castaway in the Moreton Bay area, halfway up the eastern coast of Australia, in 1823. He was mar ...
, John Finnegan and
Richard Parsons Richard Parsons may refer to: * Richard Parsons (diplomat) (1928–2016), British ambassador to Hungary, Spain and Sweden * Richard Parsons (businessman) (born 1948), former chairman of Citigroup and the former Chairman and CEO of Time Warner * Ri ...
from dying of starvation after they came across them at Clontarf Point, and by treating them hospitably for three months until
John Oxley John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828) was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps best known for his two exp ...
located them. Their memory is evoked in the present-day place name for the town of Nimbi


History of contact

The Brisbane group of the Undanbi was said to have become extinct within a few decades of white settlement.
Archibald Meston Archibald Meston (26 March 1851 – 11 March 1924) was an Australian politician, civil servant, journalist, naturalist and explorer. Personal life Archibald Meston was born at Towie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of Alexander Meston. Mest ...
stated they had died off by 1860. Other testimony suggests a number were still alive, in 1883, at
Mooloolaba Mooloolaba is a coastal suburb of Maroochydore in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. It is located north of the state capital, Brisbane, and is part of the Maroochydore urban centre. In the , Mooloolaba had a population of 7,73 ...
.


Words

* ''tchaceroo''(
Strepera graculina The pied currawong (''Strepera graculina'') is a black passerine bird native to eastern Australia and Lord Howe Island. One of three currawong species in the genus ''Strepera'', it is closely related to the butcherbirds and Australian magpie of ...
). Meston identified this as the pied crow shrike, now called the pied currawong, and suggested that this word from the Brisbane ''Churrabool'' dialect lies behind the Australian word jackeroo, dating its adoption from the Undambi (Churrabool refers according to Tindale, to them) via the German Lutheran
Zion Hill Mission The Zion Hill Mission was a Christian mission founded in the area now known as Nundah, Queensland by German Lutheran missionaries. The mission is notable as being the first free European settlement in what is now the state of Queensland. Despite ...
established at
Nundah Nundah (previously called German Station) is an inner suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It contains the neighbourhood of Toombul. In the , Nundah had a population of 12,141 people. Prior to European settlement, Nundah was i ...
in 1848.


Alternative names

* ''Bo-oobera'' * ''Churrabool'' * ''Dippil'' (a generic name for a language applied to Undanbi and also, at time, to the Gabi-Gabi speaking Gubbi Gubbi tribes]. * ''
Djindubari The Djindubari, also written Jindoobarrie or Joondubarri, are or were an Aboriginal Australian people of southern Queensland, whose traditional lands were located on Bribie Island. They are thought to be a horde or clan of the Undanbi. Language ...
'' (the horde on Bribie Island) * ''Djuadubari, Jooaduburrie'' * ''Mooloola''(river name) * ''Ninge Ninge'' * ''Nynga-Nynga'' * ''Oondumbi'' * ''Turrubul, Turrbul'' (language name) * ''Undumbi'' Source:


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * {{Authority control Aboriginal peoples of Queensland Moreton Bay South East Queensland