Mackenzie River, from Woodville. The Tarumbul, south of Rockhampton and the Orambul, on the coast between Keppel Bay and Gladstone.
West of the Great Dividing Range, and separated by it from the tribes last described, there were many tribes having the four sub-class system on the waters of the Belyando, Barcoo, Thomson, and Flinders Rivers, and of which I take the Wakelbura as an example.[1]
They were formerly called Kerbulbura, from Kerbul, the edible root of a water-lily which grows in the swamps and flat watercourses; the present name of the tribe is derived from Wakel (eels), and the possessive postfix bura. It is somewhat uncertain whether the Wakelbura is to be considered as a tribe, a sub-tribe, or merely a horde of a large tribe. Perhaps the latter may be the true view to take, yet in such a case there ought to be some common name to show the extent of the tribe. My correspondent, however, has been unable to solve this question, although he has been acquainted with the Wakelbura since boyhood. It is now too late, for I have learned during the completion of this work that the tribe is practically extinct, having been "destroyed by the use of opium" acquired from the Chinese employed in the district. If the Wakelbura is a horde of a large tribe, the following would be the hordes composing it:—
(1) Wakelbura, situated on the Belyando River, above its junction with the Suttor River.
(2) The Kumbukabura, from Kumbuka, "the Broad-leaved Ironbark,"[2] occupied the country westward of the Belyando River across the sources of the Thomson River.
(3) The Auanbura, from Auan, "the young emu," on the Upper Belyando River, above the Wakelbura.
(4) The Dorobura, from Doro, "the root of a tree," on the east side of the Belyando River, above its junction with the Suttor River.
(5) The Mutherabura, from Muthera, a grub found in
