The Original Inhabitants of Kiandra by Lindsay Smith (2004)
Weapons and Trade
Among the weapons carried by the Aborigines of the Monaro were tomahawks, fashioned of stone, which they obtained near the Snowy River, at Buckley’s Crossing. Basalt, or diorite chips, and complete weapons were still found in the area in 1926 (Mitchell 1926:35). On the upper reaches of the Snowy River, close to the Eucumbene River, another area also provided similar raw material for Aboriginal implements. The original inhabitants knew it as Giandarra and its name meant ‘stone used for making knives’ (Department of Lands 1959). Giandarra later became known as Kiandra under European occupation.
The Ngarigo Nation
Aboriginal people had been visiting these areas of the highlands of south-eastern Australia for over 20,000 years and, as with the rest of Australia, the region was the territory of a particular group or “tribe” with its own language and identity (Flood 1996:3). Aborigines who spoke the Ngarigo language inhabited most of the Snowy Mountains, and the surrounding uplands, for a distance of about 200km to the north and south, and east for about 120km from Mount Kosciusczko, which was on the western boundary of Ngarigo territory.
Long before the arrival of Europeans, these groups intensively exploited the food resources of the upper valleys and alpine zone of the Snowy Mountains during the summer months (Flood 1980:127).
Neighbours
In early summer Aborigines from surrounding and more distant regions joined them. Non-resident Ngarigo speakers came from the Monaro district immediately to the north, Ngunawal speakers from the southern tablelands, and Yuin speakers from the south-east coast of Australia, while other groups arrived from territory to the south of the Snowy Mountains (Flood 1980:73).
Bogong Moth Feast
At such time hundreds and possibly well over a thousand Aborigines, belonging to at least three major language groups, gathered to strengthen social and political links, and to feast upon a unique food source in the southeastern highlands – the small brown Bogong moth (Agrotis infusa). Millions of these moths aestivate during summer on the mountains tops of the Great Dividing Range in the Australian Capital Territory, the Snowy Mountains and the Victorian Alps (Flood 1996:12). Aborigines had gathered in such numbers to harvest the moths for thousands of years.
Importance of the Feast
The importance of this unique food source and therefore the importance of the region to Aboriginal people should not be underestimated. Its significance to social, political and economic alliances between different language groups in south-eastern Australia can be seen in the large number of people in attendance. The event was certainly a significant one if, of the possibly 25,000 Aborigines in NSW in the 1840s and 1850s (Jupp 1988:76), perhaps over 1,000 (or over 4%) of them attended the annual congregation in the Snowy Mountains region.
Although these gatherings continued, and were well attended, into the 1850s and early 1860s, declining numbers and shattered social and economic conditions resulted in the last moth hunt being held in 1865 (Flood 1996:17).