Manbarra
According to Norman Tindale, the Manbarra, a.k.a. the Wulgurukaba ("canoe people") occupied around 2600 square kilometres of country around Townsville, including Magnetic Island, the Palm Islands, extending east to Cape Cleveland. Along with that spoken by the Nyawaygi, their language is classified as part of the Nyawaygic branch of the Pama–Nyungan family.
Manbarra creation stories describe a carpet snake named Gubbal slithering down the coastal range to form the Herbert River and disintegrating after swimming across the sea. Pieces of his back became Palm Island with Magnetic Island as the remains of his head.
After many Manbarra people were recruited to work on beche-de-mer and pearl fishing boats in the late 19th century, the Queensland government forcibly removed the remnants, numbering about fifty, to the mainland in the latev1890s, though a small camp remained on Palm Island when the state's Chief Protector of Aborigines visited the island to check on Japanese pearling crews operating in the area in 1909.
After a cyclone destroyed the Hull River Mission in 1917, the Manbarra were among the people relocated to Great Palm Island who subsequently merged into the island's Bwgcolman people, incorporating members of over forty groups extending across the mainland to Torres Strait.
Links:
Bwgcolman people
Cape Cleveland
Herbert River
Hull River Mission
Magnetic Island
Norman Tindale
Nyawaygi
Palm Island
Palm Island Group
Pama–Nyungan
Townsville
Wulgurukaba
