The Gangulu people, also written Kangulu, Kaangooloo, Ghungalu and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Mount Morgan area in Queensland, Australia.
The Gangulu people, also written Kangulu, Kaangooloo, Ghungalu and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people from the Mount Morgan area in Queensland, Australia.
At least one variant name for the Kangulu, Kaangooloo, was formed from the word for "no", ka:ngu.[1]
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Main article: Biri language |
The Gangulu language is considered to be a dialect of Biri, belonging to the Greater Maric languages.[2][3]
Gangulu traditional lands occupied an estimated 16,000 square kilometres (6,000 sq mi) about the Dawson River as far south as Banana and Theodore. To the northwest, they extended as far as the Mackenzie River and the vicinity of Duaringa and Coomooboolaroo. Their eastern frontier lay towards Biloela, Mount Morgan, Gogango Range, and the upper Don River. Thangool and the headwaters of Grevillea Creek marked its southeastern limits.[1]
A correspondent of E. M. Curr, Peter McIntosh, a resident of the area, stated that the Gangulu were a confederation of several groups, the main ones being the Karranbal, the Maudalgo, and the Mulkali.[4] No further data were recorded to enable ethnographer Norman Tindale to clarify the precise nature of the last two groups,[1] but the AUSTLANG database by AIATSIS reports that the Karranbal is the Garaynbal (Garingbal) dialect of Biri[5] and Maudalgo is a variant name of the Wadjigu language and people, a separate group from the Biri, who spoke a Bidjara dialect.[6] Mulkali is not further described.
Along with many other remnants of Queensland tribes who had lost their traditional lands to colonial pastoralists, members of the Kangulu moved to the Cherbourg settlement.[7]