Dyirbal people

The Dyirbal, also called Jirrbal, are an Indigenous Australian people living in Queensland, both one tribe (the Dyirbalŋan or 'Tully River blacks') and a group of related contiguous peoples included under that label as the Dyirbal tribes. They lived on the upper Murray river of the Atherton Tableland. Their name is used as a generic term to refer specifically to one of 8 groups, the others being Yidinji, Ngadyan, Mamu, Girramay, Wargamay, Waruŋu and Mbabaɽam.

Dyirbal belongs to the Dyirbalic branch of the Pama–Nyungan language family. It is one of several dialects, for Giramay, Mamu, Dyiru, Gulŋay, and Ngajan. It is an ergative language allowing words in the sentence in any order. It has four genders, classifying things as 'masculine' (bayi), 'feminine'(balan), 'edible'(non-flesh foods) (balam) or 'neuter' (bala). In addition to this, a dozen different markers could be added to any noun, indicating the precise location, distance or direction of what is being referred to. It also used to have a special mother-in-law language, called Dyalŋuy(Jalnguy), switching to it from everyday language (guwal) whenever one's mother-in-law was present, or, in the case of a woman, one's father-in-law.

They lived in the tropical rainforest much of which, apart from the coastal areas, was then cleared in order to facilitate banana plantations.Norman Tindale calculated that their tribal territory encompassed some 1,100 sq. milesd, taking in the areas of Herberton southwards as far the headwaters of the Herbert River north of Cashmere. Their eastern boundary lay around Tully Falls. Ravenshoe, Millaa Millaa, and Woodleigh were also developed on Dyirbal land.

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