The Pangerang, also spelt Bangerang and Bangarang, are the

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

who traditionally occupied much of what is now north-eastern

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

stretching along the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray) (Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta: ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is Australia's longest river at extent. Its tributaries include five of the next six longest ...

Echuca Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria, Australia. The border town of Moama is adjacent on the northern side of the Murray River in New South Wales. Echuca is the administrative centre and larges ...

and into the areas of the southern

Riverina The Riverina is an agricultural region of south-western New South Wales, Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation ...

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 may not have been an independent tribal reality, as

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 ...

thought, but one of the many

Yorta Yorta The Yorta Yorta, also known as Jotijota, are an Aboriginal Australian people who have traditionally inhabited the area surrounding the junction of the Goulburn and Murray Rivers in present-day north-eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales ...

tribes. For the purposes of this article, they are treated separately, according to those sources that maintain the distinction.

Country

Pangerang lands covered some , running through the lower

Goulburn River The Goulburn River, a major inland perennial river of the Goulburn Broken catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the alpine, Northern Country/North Central, and Southern Riverina regions of the Australian state of Victor ...

valley and extending westwards to the Murray River. It covered areas east and west of

Shepparton Shepparton () ( Yortayorta: ''Kanny-goopna'') is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately north-northeast of Melbourne. As of the 2021 census, the estimated population of Shepparto ...

, taking in also

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had an estimated urban population of 19,318 at June 2018. Wangaratta has recorded a population growth rate of almost 1% annually ...

Benalla Benalla is a small city located on the Broken River gateway to the High Country north-eastern region of Victoria, Australia, about north east of the state capital Melbourne. At the the population was 10,822. It is the administrative cent ...

, and

Kyabram Kyabram is a town in north central Victoria, Australia. Kyabram is located in the centre of a rich irrigation district in the Goulburn River Valley, north of Melbourne. It is the second-largest town in the Shire of Campaspe, situated between ...

. The southern reaches extend as far as

Toolamba Toolamba is a town in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria, Australia. It is in the City of Greater Shepparton local government area, north of the state capital, Melbourne. At the , Toolamba and the surrounding area had a population of 873 ...

and

Violet Town Violet Town is a town in northeastern Victoria, Australia. The town is in the Shire of Strathbogie local government area, northeast of the state capital, Melbourne on the Hume Highway. At the , Violet Town and district (Honeysuckle Ward) had ...

Social structure

The Bangerang collective of tribes, or nation, also known as the

, consists of 8 hordes, according to Norman Tindale, though others have been included in the list. * ''Moiraduban'' * ''Waningotbun.'' (at

Kotupna Kotupna is a locality in northern Victoria, Australia in the local government area of the Shire of Moira Moira Shire Council is a Local Government Area in the Northern Victoria Region of Victoria, Australia. Located in the north-east part o ...

) * ''Maragan.'' (perhaps ''Maraban.'') * ''Owanguttha.'' We know somewhat more about the fish-loving Wongatpan and the opossum-hunting Towroonban, two Pangerang clans, simply because they happen to have been the tribes inhabiting the area where the ethnographer

Edward Micklethwaite Curr Edward Micklethwaite Curr (25 December 1820 – 3 August 1889) was an Australian pastoralist, author, advocate of Australian Aboriginal peoples, and squatter. Biography Curr was born in Hobart, Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land), the e ...

took over his pastoral run.

Alternative names

* ''Panggarang, Pangorang, Pangurang, Pine-gorine, Pine-go-rine, Pinegerine, Pinegorong'' * ''Bangerang, Banjgaranj'' * ''Pallaganmiddah'' * ''Jabalajabala.'' (from the word ''jabala'' meaning ''no''), a name applied to western Pangerang hordes) * ''Yaballa, Yabula-yabula'' * ''Waningotbun'' * ''Maragan'' * ''Owanguttha'' * ''Yurt.'' (

exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group ...

used by northerners and the Ngurelban, from ''jurta'', meaning ''no'') * ''Yoorta'' * ''Moiraduban'' * ''Moitheriban'' * ''Bangarang''

History

Some Pangerang were killed in colonial frontier wars, such as at the massacre at Moira Swamp/Lake Barmah.

Notes

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * Note: mentioned as derived from Fraser; cannot find that spelling in Fraser (1892), bu
Sutton (2004), p.95
mentions that spelling as from R.H. Mathews. Needs further investigation. * {{Authority control Aboriginal peoples of New South Wales Aboriginal peoples of Victoria (Australia) Goulburn River History of Victoria (Australia) Murray River