Darumbal

The Darumbal (occasionally Dharumbal) are the Indigenous Australians that have traditionally occupied Central Queensland, speaking dialects of the Darumbal language. Darumbal people of the Keppel Islands and surrounding regions are sometimes also known as Woppaburra or Ganumi, and the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Darumbal people in the Shoalwater Bay area are known as Yetimarla.

Traditional Darumbal land is considered to encompass as estimated 4,000 sq. miles around most of coastal Central Queensland, running from Arthur Point] at Shoalwater Bay to Yeppoon, and taking in the mouth of Fitzroy River Keppel Islands. From Keppel Bay they extended inland, , and Keppel Bay; inland to [Boomer Range, and Marlborough, Yaamba, Rockhampton, and Gracemere.

Ethnologue classifies the Darumbal language (sometimes known as Bayali) as "extinct". Technically, Bayali was quite distinct from Darumbal, sharing, according to Dixon's analysis, no more than 21% of its basic word stock with Darumbal.

The Darumbal comprised some 13 hordes, though one of these was described as belonging to the Ningebal tribe. One extinct branch of the group, the Warabal, may have dwelt around the foot of the Boomer Range.

With the arrival of European settlers in the region, some Darumbal were tolerated as fringe communities of the new settlements, but most were systematically removed to make way for pastoral development. According to some estimates, "between 1865 and 1902 the population of the Keppel Islands suffered a substantial reduction of 75 to 80 per cent". In one incident alone on July 1865 alone, native troopers ambushed a Darumbal ceremonial gathering outside Rockhampton, near Samuel Birkbeck's Glenmore Station and shot dead 18 Aborigines, after nearby settlers expressed worries about the presence of natives in their area. After the massacre, they then set fire to the corpses.

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